By Katdapba Y Gobum
Goskolo is a local alcoholic spirit (gin) that has high propensity to intoxicate and injure the person that consumes it, health wise.
Have you ever met a goskolo craven person? You sure must have! If you are in the state I live, there are hundreds of outlets where they are sold.
It is not unusual, anytime you meet him or her, such a one is in a state of stupor.
You will never meet him without a sachet of water or bottle of soft drink that may have been in his hand for hours.
What do you expect, having had numerous binges; from the previous night or at the period of meeting; understandably, he cannot be coordinated.
At any given time, he remains fixed in his world. Regrettably that has led many of them to their early death.
The death of a member of the fraternity humbles them momentarily. Their sobriety can be anything but intoxicating.
But before long, they are back to licking their vomit; when it is obvious, he or she (deceased) must have been interred.
They hardly eat, and if they ever do; local gwote of ₦50 may suffice, that is if he is able to eat. What a child of three may eat in a day will be a herculean task for the senior man to consume in a whole week.
Food is like poison to anyone of them. They would rather drink the whole day than eat a morsel of moi moi served for any of them.
It takes entreaties and pleas to placate him to ‘eat a little to hold body’.
He does not greet you as any normal person would. There is a sense of humility in his tongue always, as if to say, ‘I know you are aware of what I am doing, but you can still add to what I have taken already’.
In a guttural voice and always gesticulating, he calls you ‘senior man’, just so to tell you he is in need of some money or drink from you to further increase his state of stupor.
Their rendezvous are scattered in the community you and I live. The sale and promotion of the illicit substances are the handwork of known persons in the same community we live in.
Produced in questionable and unhealthy conditions, that are hardly reported; rather, the producers are celebrated as they head to the banks. And the consumers’ future is reduced to tatters.
More youthful persons and even the old have graduated differently into taking all manners of prohibited substances.
That House bill for a law to prohibit the production, sale and consumption of Illicit drinks and banned substances and the establishment of cognitive Behaviour Therapeutic Centres in Plateau State and other matters related, 2024 is coming at the time the state is in dire need of it.
We all know the increasing rate of drug abuse, particularly increase in crime rate and corresponding high statistics of school drop outs, low level of productivity and high mortality rate of those who consume these products.
Real action by government to ban and regulate their production and distribution cannot be taken for granted.
We can’t allow merchants of death to waste young persons whose children or relatives don’t consume what they produce. Their offence should not be treated with levity, so long as make profit from what they make.
The illicit gins are manufactured in different shapes and are given names that sound poisonous. Some of them even by virtue of the sound of the names are as cheap as they come: They go as low as ₦30 only.
How cheap can life be? The patrons consume it as if they are taking Sapele Water. The NDLEA has a big responsibility to arrest the trend, if you and I deserve a sane society.
We have all the time in the world to save family members, friends and neighbours who are into these poisonous substances. They deserve to have a future with their inherent potentials.
Streetbell Online 