LECTURERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE INFLUENCE OF DRUG ABUSE ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE A CASE STUDY OF BINGHAM UNIVERSITY, KARU NASSARAWA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Drug can simply be said to be a substance that affects the function of living cells, used in medicine and related disciplines to diagnose, cure, prevent the occurrence of diseases and disorders, and prolong the life. Moronkola (1993) believed that use, misuse and abuse of drugs are three concepts in drug issues that need proper classification. Use is a term reserved for any purpose to which drug is taken to the body by man. Cecilia (2010) asserted that medically, drug abuse is the use of drug to an extent that it produces definite impairment of social, psychological or physiological functioning of the user. It is the use of illegal drugs, or the misuse of prescription or over-the-counter drugs especially without the consent of a medical personnel. It refers to the use of a drug for purposes for which it is not intended or using a drug in excess. Such drugs of abuse include tobacco, barbiturates, amphetamines and narcotics amongst others. Drug abuse entails a strong cultural and subjective bias, depends on whether a society at a particular point in time views the use of a particular drug as acceptable or not.

Therefore, what is regarded as normal use as against pathological abuse is at variance greatly from drug, quantity, situation to situation, culture to culture or even among subcultures of the same society. Education is regarded as an instrument for economic, social, political and educational growth and development. There has equally been a growing commitment to education by successive government, individual communities and missionary bodies (Bettinger and Slonim 2007). This commitment on the part of government and other relevant stakeholders have extended to ensure that students are properly groomed and tutored on how best to eectively manage themselves and improve academic performance in an ever-changing world. These changes have tempted some students to believe that, for them to be able to maintain academic expectations they need to involve in the use of hard drugs (Brook et al. 2009).

Drug abuse, is generally viewed as the use of a substance that modifies mood or behaviour in a manner characterized by a maladaptive pattern of use. Musto (2008) asserts that drug abuse is the use of drugs that can cause disorder characterized by the use of a mood or behaviour-altering substance in a maladaptive pattern resulting in significant impairment or distress, such as failure to fulfill social or occupational obligations or recurrent use in situations in which it is physically dangerous to do so or which end in legal problems. What this connotes is that it influences behaviour. The use of drugs by students in Nigerian universities has become an embarrassing phenomenon to parents/guardians, schools, government authorities, and the society at large.

The students today are the leaders of tomorrow and they deserve good education in the right direction so as to massively contribute to national development. The constant abuse of drugs among young people and most especially students can cause psycho-social problems in society and most critically it can negatively affect students performances both academically and behaviourally which can precipitate to insecurity problems if not duely tackled. One may hope that this obnoxious practice and its associated consequences would not lead to the breeding of deranged generation of youths and also negatively affect the educational sector. This fear is not out of place as a result of what happens to be the frequent and rampant drug crises and related problems in many Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions. It is in this connection that this study examines the perception of lecturers on the influence of drugs on the academic performance of students in Nigerian universities.

STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL PROBLEM

The poor academic performance coupled with the increase of drug or substance abuse among youths particularly Nigerian undergraduates has been a regrettable experience as drug/substance abuse has gradually eaten deep into the Nigerian youth. Poor academic performances in our Nigerian higher institutions has equally left little to be desired as a lot has been done to improve this ugly trend but has yielded little or no result. this has sparked further studies thus leading us to the study which is to sample the perception of lecturers on the influence of drug abuse on students academic performance/achievement.