Rising drug consumption in schools: Governor Awa Fonka accuses school authorities of complicity!.

The senior civil administrator has frowned at what he says is the complicity of school officials in the West Region in easing access to drugs to learners.

Speaking in Bafang, the seat of of the Upper Nkam Division, on Friday February 2, while installing the new Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for the Division, Diyen Jam Lawrence, he called for a fresh war to end the social menace.

He regretted that school authorities have been acting in complicity with students consuming cannabis and other hard drugs in schools.

Governor Awa said despite enormous efforts to stop the cultivation, trafficking and commercialisation of cannabis and other hard drugs in the administrative unit, the phenomenon is still persisting.

According to the administrator, "...these drugs are being consumed in schools and the authorities of the said establishments are aware...".

He thus instructed the new SDO of Upper Nkam to launch a merciless war against cultivation, circulation and sale of drugs.

The Governor stated that actors and accomplices in this sector, sell their product(s), which are “consumed in schools in collaboration with heads of the establishments”.

He told the SDO to “intensify the fight against the cultivation, trafficking, commercialisation and consumption of cannabis and all other types of hard drugs”.

“Identify all areas of production, axes through which the drugs are being transported out of the Division and their destinations,” he instructed.

Observers say the growing consumption of hard drugs among youth, especially those of school going age, is disturbing, to say the least. They argue that such a practice doesn’t only affect their studies but their health as well. 

Drug consumption is also said to be having a negative toll on learners’ performance. Rising cases of violence across campuses nationwide in recent times have been linked to drug consumption.

West Region fertile ground for cannabis cultivation

It should be noted that majority of localities in the West Region have for long been fertile grounds for the cultivation of cannabis.

Security officers have repeatedly destroyed large farms of cannabis in the Upper Nkam, Menoua, Bamboutous and Upper Plateau Divisions of the Region.

One of the biggest cannabis farms in the West Region, measuring 15,000m2, is reported to have been discovered by security forces in Balachi, Bamboutos Division, in August 2020.

Gendarmes from the West Legion Gendarmerie then, are said to have stormed the farm, weeding the cannabis and setting it ablaze.

Then, they also confiscated 10 bags of the product that were ready for the market. The owner of the farm, a man in his 70s, was arrested.

Meanwhile, some dealers in the drug have been arrested on several occasions. They have been picked up while transporting the drug for distribution in other parts of the country.

In November 2023, gendarmes arrested a 70-year-old man in Baham, Upper Plateau Division, in possession of 12 bags of cannabis. Organised crimes in cities across the country, some observers hold, is as a result of high drug consumption among the youth.

Region located along drug hotspot

The West Region also shares border with the North West Region, another administrative unit noted for hosting cannabis plantations. This is especially the case in Donga Mantun and Bui Divisions. 

Huge consignments of Indian Hemp have been seized in major towns such as Yaounde, Douala and Yaounde traced to the administrative units.

Secondary education, MINAT bosses waging war

In the last few years, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, and his counterpart of Secondary Education, Prof Nalova Lyonga, have been on an offensive to end drug-related and other forms of violence in schools.

In June 2019, Minister Atanga Nji raised concerns about the rising phenomenon of drugs abuse in schools. He had called for a relentless war against the social issue.

Then, Atanga Nji said: “We have realised that there are a lot of drugs in the city of Douala, including tramadol, tramol and cocaine and so on, which is very disturbing. Drug abuse is growing in the city. In Primary Schools, colleges and even universities, we have realised that there are a lot of drugs circulating among students".

He had also talked of measures to track the source of such drugs, indicating that “we have had an evaluation to see where the drugs are coming from. The Governor and the forces of law and order have to remain very vigilant. We have put in place a synergy to track down all those who are circulating drugs within the Region, especially on school premises".

Nalova Lyonga evokes law to punish defaulters

Meanwhile, on January 9 this year, the Minister of Secondary Education, came back to the issue of violence and drug abuse on campuses, reiterating the need for sensitisation and use of the laws in force.

On that day, she visited the campus of Government Technical Bilingual High School, GTBHS, Nsam in Yaounde, where an incident had happened. The minister then reminded stakeholders of the law of April 4, 1998, on the organisation of education in Cameroon. 

Article 35 of the said law proscribes the “physical abuse or any form of violence, discrimination, sale, distribution or consumption of alcohol, tobacco or narcotics”.

Meanwhile, in December 2022, government organised an international symposium in Yaounde, aimed at finding solutions to eliminate or at least reduce violence in schools.

Among the 20 recommendations arrived at during that meeting were; conducting unannounced searches, securing school premises with fences extending video surveillance to all schools and controlling the student population of schools, stepping up collaboration among competent state services alongside other measures.