Mrs. Obot Uduak Bassey is a seasoned Law Enforcement Officer who rose to Management level (State Commander) through the dinge of hardwork, dedication to duty and exemplary performances which had gained her accolades within and outside the shores of Nigeria.
She is a Certified Master Trainer, a Training Development Professional, a Skilled Negotiator and a Policy Formulator par Excellence.
Obot Bassey started her Law Enforcement service to the Nigerian Nation as a Narcotics Officer with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and soared through her career to her current position as State Commander, NDLEA, Akwa Ibom State.
Sometime in 2013, she was transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on secondment to fill the vacancy that existed after the creation of the Training and Manpower Development Department in 2012. Her arrival complemented the Taskforce that was set up to develop a Training Manual for NAPTIP. She rose to the position of Director, Training and Manpower Development in NAPTIP.
She has attended Law Enforcement, Security and Intelligence Trainings within and outside Nigeria; she participated in the 4th Interpol Annual International Conference on Human Trafficking, held in Lugano, Switzerland where she represented NAPTIP and Nigeria creditably in the international forum.
More so, she has presented papers to International audiences on the issues and consequences of drug trafficking, human trafficking and other related crimes. She was the leader of delegation to the Joint Nigeria-Cameroon Cross Border Sensitization Training to Mitigate Trafficking in persons, especially the Purchase and Sale of New Born Babies, which was held in Bamenda, Cameroon. She is trained by the ECOWAS Commission and now one of the ECOWAS National Focal Points on Human Trafficking and Irregular Migration.
As State Commander, NDLEA, Akwa Ibom State, she has led her team through several tactical mediums in curbing the menace of drug abuse thereby reducing the supply and demand of illicit substances.
The State Command won a National Award for the immense contribution in Drug Demand Reduction in the year 2021 under her administration.
Mrs. Obot U. Bassey is currently the State Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Akwa Ibom State.
Abstract
A Community Prevention Intervention to Reduce Drug Addiction
Drug addiction by youths in Nigeria including harmful use of products, prescription drugs and over the counter drugs, constitutes a growing health challenge for Nigerians. Consequently, a single targeted approach to preventing drug addiction in a community is unlikely to be sufficient to minimize the youth population level.
Against this backdrop, the focus of this paper is on an innovative, comprehensive, community based prevention intervention. This paper builds upon three evidence based prevention interventions from the substance abuse field: Community mobilization, environmental strategies and school based prevention education intervention.
Drug addiction is more common is some families and likely involves genetic predisposition, mental health disorder, peer pressure, lack of family involvement, early use, taking a highly addicting drug.
This paper seeks to present an integrated community based prevention intervention for preventing the use of harmful legal products among youths based upon existing evidence based prevention programmes and strategies that have the potential to prevent youth addiction.
This will be addressed by a combination of prevention interventions contributing to the use of harmful products and associated negative consequences, social pressures from peers, parents and community which increase or decrease use of addiction products. It will also address cultural identities ,beliefs, attitudes and actions.