The group members are all accomplished men and women who are fired by their patriotic instincts to help their community in the face of rising spate of all manners of anti-social behaviors manifesting in the country, especially the festering vices of internet fraud, armed robbery, rape, political thuggery, and abuse of drugs.

To this end, members of the group assembled in Ogbomoso last weekend, drawing along their influential friends, to inaugurate the Behavioural Anonymous Centre at Oke-Anu, Ogbomoso. It is a modest facility that will serve as a rehabilitation center for people who abuse drugs, especially the young people in Ogbomoso and its environs.

The promoters have chosen to tag it a correctional center, but they said they want it to mold behaviors in an anonymous manner. The strategy, according to them, is to downplay the stigma often associated with those who abuse drugs and are isolated for revival and re-integration to society. Although a permanent center with comprehensive facilities is being planned for the near future, officials have vowed to make the yellow and brown bungalow habitable and functional.

The center shall have, among other facilities, counseling room, intelligence room, waiting area, group discussion room, residential area, and toilet facilities. It will be adequately furnished and made habitable, Otunba Adebayo Babatunde, past president of the group, said.

Babatunde said members were concerned on the threat of uncontrolled drug abuse to communal peace even as they are mindful of its danger to national security.The situation is worrisome, especially when you consider the attendant potential insecurity of lives, properties and most especially the future of the community when a majority of the youths are drug dependent, he said.

He explained that while the group was considering measures to combat the drug prevalence, it also observed that high rate of youth unemployment and lack of skills have further deepened the insecurity crisis and heightened crime rate within the society.

As a remedial measure, we have been involved in the implementation of socio-economic development programs for our community and the state at large through the empowerment of indigent people. We have also built our position around the fight against drug and substance abuse in the community, spreading the message that the high rate of consumption and abuse of various drugs and substances, which are inimical to the health of the consumers, is a visa to madness and collapse of the future development of our youth population most of who have become addicted and now constitute societal menace, he added.

Chief Ademola Dare-Williams, president of the group, however, situated the challenge differently. He fingered those who are gainfully employed in reputable jobs, pupils in primary schools, students of secondary and tertiary institutions and women as drug abusers.

He said the group was determined to curb drug abuse and take concrete steps to enlighten the populace and provide succor to the victims. We need to extirpate this social evil, which has destroyed homes, many lives and visited untold hardships on the people in this area and beyond, he said.

The group regarded the project as its corporate responsibility and social intervention program, he disclosed, promising that there will be continuous efforts on enlightenment, caring, counseling and treatment of rehabilitated patients. The rehabilitation center, which has drawn expertise from contiguous health institutions, is collaborating with the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other government agencies.

The Chief of Staff at NDLEA, Dr. Femi Oloruntoba, who represented the agency's director-general to seal a collaborative agreement in deepening awareness on drug abuse, described the step taken by the group as timely and worthy of emulation. Any initiative that promotes communal efforts in addressing the challenges of drug abuse is commendable, he said.

The establishment of this center underscores the fact that addressing the problem of drug abuse and illicit trafficking is a multilateral responsibility that involves all the strata of society. I recommend that this noble initiative of Ogbomoso First Group should be emulated by other socio-cultural groups and non-governmental organizations, the director-general, Muhammad Abdallah, said.

The Onpetu of Ijeru, Oba Oyediran Alabama, and Dr. Oloruntoba were joined by Chief Lanre Ipiminsho, the secretary of PACEDA, and other dignitaries to lay the foundation stone at the permanent site of the behavioral center.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has also promised technical support even as sundry non-governmental organizations have expressed willingness to support the project.

Source: The Nation