By Kemo Cham
First Lady Fatima Bio has accused unnamed powerful people within her husband’s administration of undermining his efforts to develop the country.
Mrs Bio said some of these people who are in high places within government and the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) are fuelling the drug epidemic currently ravaging the country.
“There is a cartel, and this cartel goes right up,” Mrs Bio said.
“Some of them are in government,” she added.
The First Lady was speaking as guest of honor at a ceremony marking the discharge of 40 rehabilitated former drug users on Saturday, April 13.
President Julius Maada Bio earlier this month declared a state of national emergency on drugs and substance abuse, after a rise in drug addiction, particularly among young people.
At the center of this drug epidemic is Kush, a substance made from cannabis, mixed with various ingredients that include human bones and dangerous chemicals.
The president has set up a national taskforce to steer the government’s response. The drug rehabilitation programme falls under one of five strategies on which the national response is based.
The 40 discharged former drug addicts underwent about a month long process of counselling and treatment in the first ever drug rehabilitation center located at Hastings, in the far east of Freetown.
Officials say this batch of rehabilitated were part of what was meant to be a pilot programme to rehabilitate, recover and reintegrate drug users.
They are also expected to be at the forefront of the government’s response to the epidemic going forward, serving as ambassadors in efforts to discourage other youths from taking to drug consumption.
Mrs Bio in her statement at the graduation ceremony held in the auditorium of the Freetown City Council said she was worried about the potential for the rehabilitated former drug users going back to taking Kush. For this not to occur, she noted, words must be translated to action at all levels of the national response.
The police in particular must do more than what they are currently doing, she said.
According to Mrs Bio, much more attention should be given to those fuelling the drug epidemic, rather than just those at the lower level of the chain who are currently being arrested.
“The police must do their work. They know those who are selling the Kush,” she said, stressing that the same way the drug users are being publicly shamed, those causing their plight should be publicly exposed.
The drug rehabilitation center, located in Hasting, is managed by the Ministry of Social Welfare, in collaboration with relevant line ministries, including Health and Internal Affairs.
Officials representing all these line ministries, departments and agencies took turn to speak about efforts in the ongoing fight against the drug epidemic and what needs to be done going forward.
Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Kenyeh Ballay, who chaired the ceremony, said as coordinator of the government’s development agenda, her ministry was concerned that the youths who are key to the attainment of these development goals were falling to the drug epidemic.
Melrose Karminty, Minister of Social Welfare, appealed for support from the international community, saying that their support to the government’s human capital development agenda wouldn’t be effective without winning the fight against drug.
According to Internal Affairs Minister, Rtd Major General David Taluva, at least 500 former drug users are available for enrolment into the rehabilitation center, pointing to the dire nature of the situation.
