Nigerian Alcohol Prevention Youth Initiative

A two-day Alcohol Prevention Workshop held in Abuja, Nigeria, in June 2011, was the outcome of three years of work in the creation of the Nigerian Alcohol Prevention Youth Initiative.

Delegates at the Workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, June 2011

In 2008, David Jernigan and Derek Rutherford met with a small group of young people who had attended the annual CRISA Conference and urged them to form themselves into a Nigerian Youth Network along the lines of the European Alcohol Policy Youth Network.

In August 2010, again in conjunction with the CRISA Conference, a first youth workshop was held and a Committee to lead the initiative was appointed. Mr Onyeanula Wilson Ifeanyi was appointed as Coordinator and Dr Franklin Chukwuma Umenze as Chairman. Onyeanula had brought the young people to the CRISA Workshop in 2008 and succeeded in establishing the Nigerian Alcohol Prevention Youth Initiative, under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, as an NGO in 2009.

NAPYI Executive Team 2010

Derek Rutherford had met Franklin at the General Assembly of the International Federation of Medical Students in Bangkok in 2009. Franklin was successful in obtaining the support of the Nigerian International Medical Students Association and its African counterpart to support the work of the initiative .

The primary objective of NAPYI is to empower young people to become advocates in reducing harm due to alcohol, through dialogue across the culturally diverse Nigerian populations. Continued support from the Institute of Alcohol Studies has resulted in three workshops being held.

25 young people drawn from all the medical schools in Nigeria and other youth activists attended the recent two-day workshop. The WHO Africa Regional Alcohol Strategy was reviewed. The strategy had been influenced by the Millennium Goals, Health Inequalities and the Social Determinants of Health. It emphasised that “no other produce so widely available for consumer use accounts for so much premature death and disability as alcohol”. The strategy stressed the need to develop and implement alcohol control policies based on clear public health goals; community and young people’s involvement in problem identification, planning and policy implemention; regulating the content and scale of alcohol marketing and the promotion of alcoholic beverages, in particular sponsorships, product placement, as well as internet and promotional merchandising strategies; enact and enforce a minimum age at which alcohol drinking and purchasing is permitted and to restrict times and places of sale. According to the WHO, per capita alcohol consumption at 15+ in Nigeria for the period 2003-2005 was 9.8 litres, unrecorded 2.5 litres, totalling 12.3 litres. This contrasts with the average for the African region at 6.2 litres. Since it is estimated that the number of abstainers is 49.4% males and females 73.7%, many who drink, drink heavily.

Alcohol problems are quite widespread among street children and youths in Nigeria. In a study in Ibadan, of the 169 youths who had been on the streets for more than one year, 69% had a history of alcohol abuse, 49% admitted to being sex workers and 11% had been raped. These young people were at high risk of contacting sexually transmitted diseases. In this very large and diverse country there are regional differences in risks related to alcohol consumption. In the coastal regions, 13% of 15-19 year olds drink alcohol, compared to 75% in the urban areas.

The young people attending the workshop noted that non communicable diseases were to be discussed at a high level meeting of the UN General Assembly later in the year. WHO predicted that NCD deaths would increase by 17% over the next 10 years and the greatest increase would be in the African region – 27%.

Nigeria is at present experiencing aggressive targeting by the alcohol industry, particularly from SAB Miller, Heinekin, Nigerian Breweries and Diageo. With an economy that is growing and a lack of effective governmental policy the youth initiative faces immense obstacles in addition to their lack of sustained funding.

Plans were made to develop a research framework to underpin the activities of NAPYI.