The Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has tasked the country’s athletes to excel and be tournament winners drugs clean.
The NDLEA Commander in Anambra, Mr Ogbonna Onyishi, said this when receiving executives of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Anambra Chapter, in his office on Thursday in Awka.
He described drugs as any banned performance enhancing substance capable of derailing a persons ambition.
Onyisi said that athletes should subject themselves to constant training and discipline in order to excel in their chosen sports.
He advised budding athletes particularly to shun all performance enhancing substances, which could derail their ambitions of becoming world champions.
The commander said that the agency had adopted a two-prong approach of supply reduction and demand reduction to fight the drug war in Nigeria.
He said that the NDLEA was working assiduously to bring every Nigerian to join in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse.
“It is not drugs that make you what you are, it is the training, professionalism that makes you a star.
“We will be willing to partner SWAN in sensitising the youth on the need for them to compete clean.
“Youth love and engage in sports, so we need to partner in our campaign against drugs.
“Training and developing your skills is what makes you a star and not drugs. Doping is a crime, it can ruin one’s career,” he said.
In a short remark, Chimezie Anaso, Chairman of SWAN, Anambra Chapter expressed the readiness of the association to work with NDLEA in the campaign against drugs in sports.
Anaso called on NDLEA to promote sports as a veritable preventive and rehabilitation tool that youths could engage in.
“Drugs are largely abused by youths and sports is for the youth.
“While the NDLEA prevents drug abuse, SWAN promotes sports, so there is a symbiotic relationship that we can explore to achieve a drug free and healthy society,” he said. (NAN)
