Published: August 13, 2024
MONROVIA — Civil rights activist and Executive Director of the New Life Recovery Center, Jefferson Knight, has criticized the Liberian government for allegedly pretending to help “at-risk youths” while providing little or no support for rehabilitating and reintegrating drug addicts across the country.
Mr. Knight referred to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report from about three years ago, which predicted that the number of young people on drugs could rise to over 500,000 by 2025/2026, especially if both the national government and its international partners continue to do nothing substantive to curb drug abuse.
He revealed that the current number of young people hooked on drugs is estimated at over 300,000 across Liberia. “And this has not claimed the attention of the government yet, as evidenced by their actions of turning a deaf ear to the alarming security and economic threats associated with this.”
“The government is doing nothing for us, and the frustration is they [the government] will come and ask lots of different questions, return and report, and within no time, a new group will be established. Then the very government, without doing anything for the previous groups they met, will announce their support for the new group,” he stated.
According to him, on countless occasions, his institution has written to the government seeking financial support to help those disadvantaged youths, but to no avail. “If the church and the parents had not been standing with us, by this time, this place would have been closed.”
The civil society actor stressed that the Liberian government has failed to provide the social services and programs necessary for its citizens, particularly “at-risk” youths whose activities, according to him, threaten national security.
He further called on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and his Unity Party government to redesign their plans for those youths affected, aiming to reach out to service providers in the country. He added that several institutions have made themselves available to rebuild the minds of those young people and make them useful in society.
“We’re not only urging this government to help but also to engage our colleagues who are in the trenches, sacrificing their time to make sure that our young people are rescued from illicit drugs and become great leaders tomorrow,” Mr. Knight noted.
He called on the government to take all drug cases seriously and stop showing leniency, predicting that if such advice is not taken by the relevant authorities, in the next five years, no individual will be able to walk the streets freely: “Because our own children and grandchildren will be hunting and terrorizing us for money.”
Mr. Knight made these remarks at the graduation ceremony of the New Life Recovery Center in Sunnygar Town, on the Marshall Road in Lower Margibi County, during the weekend.
In his remarks, the Bishop of the United Methodist Church, Reverend Samuel Quire, expressed fears that drug lords will eventually take power in the future based on their numerical strength in the country.
At the end of the program, five youths were awarded certificates after completing the center’s requirements, testing negative for drugs, and reuniting with their families.
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