| Abstract: |
Among the numerous challenges that bedevil development worldwide, drug abuse stands as a significant concern with devastating consequences on individual and national lives. The rise of drug abuse, especially among the youth, has prompted a call for innovative and far-reaching strategies to combat this pressing issue. Surprisingly, existing literature shows that the traditional awareness campaigns often struggle to engage the target audience effectively. Facebook and Twitter are new media channels driven by information and communication technology (ICT) with a vast reach and ability to launch impactful campaigns against drug abuse. In Nigeria and indeed Africa unfortunately, the prevalence of drug abuse among students is a pressing concern, and its impact on academic performance, health and overall national development is well-established. This study, therefore investigated Facebook and Twitter campaigns against drug abuse as one of the promises of ICT, seeking to find out the extent to which these two social media platforms have helped to change students' attitudes against drug abuse. The survey method is used to get analysable response from the students of AE-FUNAI. Findings revealed that, the extent to which Facebook and Twitter feature anti-drug abuse related messages in their contents is very low, as a majority of the students who are active users of the two platforms did not come across anti-drug abuse content within a one week period. It was found that the students currently use alcohol, marijuana and other hard drugs. The study concluded that the potentials of Facebook and Twitter are yet to be optimized to promote anti-drug abuse messages in AE-FUNAI, and recommended that the university should strengthen its social media outreach and engagement efforts, particularly on Facebook and Twitter, to promote anti-drug abuse messages and address misconceptions about substance abuse.
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