The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, says its engagement with music star, Afeez Adeshina Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, is to encourage him to use his skills and platforms to put out content that will discourage millions of his followers and Nigerian youths from substance abuse.
The artiste had, on Thursday, August 17, 2023, led members of his team on a visit to the national headquarters of the agency in Abuja to express his preparedness to join the fight against drug abuse in the country.This clarification, according to the NDLEA, became necessary following continued misrepresentation of the purpose of the visit especially on online platforms where some reports suggest that the British-Nigerian singer was appointed as an NDLEA Ambassador.
“This is misleading and absolute falsehood as the pictures of the visit and the short video containing Naira Marley’s advocacy message to his followers were properly captioned and shared by the Agency without any suggestion of such appointment,” the agency said in a statement.
“The decision by the agency to encourage Naira Marley with over seven million followers, half the population of those who abuse drugs in Nigeria, use his platform share anti-substance abuse messages as against using same to promote and glamourize drug abuse with the dire consequence of misleading millions of Nigerian youths into their peril, is to create a balance between our drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts”.
