A twitter user, @kaynaija, shared the painful story of his friend, Adeola, a young vibrant 23-year-old University student, who had become detached because of her painful past. She shared that her boyfriend of over a year had died of an overdose – from a cough syrup.
She had kissed him goodbye on the morning of his death. In fact, he had smiled back at her before she left the young man’s house that fateful morning. “His smile was everything!“, she said.
She had left him (her boyfriend), “with one of the popular cough syrups in front of him, there was an empty bottle of vodka under the table and a cup of coloured liquid in his hand.” She has teased him about the drink as he smiled and shooed her off. She said that after the teasing she laughed out of the door. “That was the worst decision of my life – to laugh and walk away!”
Her boyfriend was a talented artist whom she insisted was not addicted to the ‘drink’. He only drank it recreationally.
She passed out after finding out about his death. Regret darkened her words as she explained that, “I should have taken that cup from him that morning. I would do anything to go back. Do you want to know what is worse than the searing pain that chokes you? Regret. Regret is horrible when you can do absolutely nothing about it.”
Now, she is prepared to help people before they get to the point of no return. “So when I see people gather to do something about codeine or any other substance, I give them a silent nod, an acknowledgment that someone won’t go the same way Nkem left.”
She had stumbled on a tweet on the Anti Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP) by MTN and had to tell her story. They are trying to stop young Nigerians from experiencing the pain of substance abuse. “Hopefully it helps others to share and speak out before something happens to people they love.”, she finished.