Growing up, Catholic priest Jack Yali watched his parents consume plenty of alcohol. This experience later formed part of his interest in drinking, which he eventually started consuming at age 15. He soon became an alcoholic.

“I had the disease of alcoholism, but I did not know,” he told Religion Unplugged. “That is one problem of this disease; you won’t know you have a problem but other people will know.”

The problem, however, manifested itdelf even more shortly after his ordination on Dec. 10, 1977. Besides falling off a motorcycle he was riding on the highway one afternoon, Yali said he sometimes failed to perform his priestly duties.

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“My ministry suffered. I will not wake up to say Mass for people,” he recalled. “I will take somebody’s car and disappear [and] they will not see me. People will leave the bar but I will still be there, and I was doing this as a priest.”

Concerned about Yali’s behavior, fellow priests and parishioners filed several complaints to the then-Archbishop of Jos Gabriel Ganaka. Despite efforts to salvage the situation, the problem persisted. In one video, Ganaka, who died in 1999, said he got “mad and was going to send him back to his parents because he is of no use to the church” until an elderly priest suggested he send Yali to the Servants of the Paraclete for proper care.

Ganaka took the advice of the elderly priest and sent Yali to England for treatment in January 1980.

Following six months of treatment, Yali returned to Nigeria “totally transformed, totally changed,” Ganaka said at the time. However, Yali soon noticed that the lack of treatment centers in Nigeria was a major challenge in fighting the increasing rate of alcohol and drug abuse throughout the country.

Martin Agwogie, executive director of the Global Initiative on Substance Abuse, said a combination of “limited treatment facilities, limited manpower or expertise to manage people with substance use disorder, and expensive [nature of] treatment” in Nigeria has made access to treatment for alcohol abuse difficult.

Alcohol abuse is a public health concern worldwide. Besides being associated with health and social problems, it is responsible for 320 deaths every hour globally and 29% of deaths in Nigeria.

The number of deaths “is something we should be worried about. More worrisome is that there is a high concentration of ethanol in what people drink,” Agwogie said.

In 1987, Yali saw these interconnected issues as a major gap, which then led him to establish Our Lady of Victory Treatment Centre in Jos. The Centre provides residential treatment for patients suffering from alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and mental disorders.

To accommodate more patients, Yali launched another center in Jos known as Guest House Kwata-Center for Addiction Treatment, Mental Health, Trauma and Co-occurring Disorder just seven years ago, and recently another center in Abuja, the country’s capital.

“We want to help and meet people where they are, scratch them where they itch, listen to them, tell them there is hope for them, and tell them God will heal them since God has done it for me,” Yali said of his inspiration. “That is why when you see people, some are alcoholics but they don’t talk about it because they are ashamed but I am not ashamed and afraid to talk about it because it gives people hope.”

Although Yali now works in the field of addiction in Minnesota, he is excited about the progress so far at the treatment centers back home. Today, over 1,000 patients have benefited from Our Lady of Victory Treatment Center and another 200 have received treatment from Guest House Kwata.

“Our goal is for our patients to be okay,” said Christy Lekwot, the vice president of operations of Guest House Kwata. “And so far, our work has been effective.”

Rigorous, but nice

Once a patient comes in, counselors at the centers carry out an assessment to determine the severity of the damage caused by substance abuse and whether the patient is suffering from a mental health disorder or not. Either way, the administrative unit of the centers takes vital information from the patient and then prepares them for treatment, which often involves counseling, orientation, lectures and therapy.

Treatment typically lasts three months and could be extended to six months to a year depending on the severity of the addiction. During the treatment period, patients rarely see their family and they don’t have access to their phones.

The treatment centers have adopted the Minnesota Model of Addiction Treatment, which involves adherence to the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous with a focus on abstinence. The program follows a set of guidelines specifically “designed as steps toward recovery.” And so, patients at Yali’s treatment centers recite this set of guidelines each morning, which is aimed at helping them take responsibility for their actions and then seek help.

In addition to daily lectures, patients also have group therapy sessions aimed at helping them speak freely with each other since all suffer from related problems. Every Sunday, patients read the story of the prodigal son from Luke’s chapter 15. The aim is to help patients see themselves as the “prodigal son” who realized his mistakes and then returned home.

“The treatment process here [treatment center] is rigorous but nice. The process makes me want to change [and] I need the change for myself and my society,” said 34-year-old Jude, who was admitted into Guest House Kwata this past February.

Jude, whose name has been changed for his safety, added: “We just have to admit that we are sick people. The first path to change is to accept that you are weak. There are lots of shameful things addicts have done. But we are always advised not to dwell on the past.”

Jude’s abuse of drugs started some months after he gained admission to study law at the University of Jos in 2015. As a student, he was influenced by fellow students abusing drugs. Jude joined on. He abused hard drugs like codeine and crack cocaine.

“I saw people using [drugs] and I felt they were doing good,” he told Religion Unplugged. “The goal of taking the substance is just euphoria. When you frequently use it, your body gets used to it and cannot do without it. So, you start depending on it and your body builds tolerance to it and you become an addict.”

Jude added, “Once you are an addict, most of the things you ought to have achieved in your youth will always pass you by and you end up one day as a lonely person and unproductive to the society.”

‘Gradually crippling into the sanctuary’

Yali described alcohol consumption as a major disease that has found its way into the church — arguing that some priests have cultivated the habit of drinking excessively. He blamed the church for not doing enough to address this problem.

“Alcoholism is gradually crippling into the sanctuary. Some priests are drinking,” he said. “It’s a serious area the church has not paid attention to. Talking on the pulpit is not enough. We don’t clinically enrich the people. Are we doing counseling? Are we reaching them? We are not and addiction is reaching the fabric of their existence.”

Yali said he believes that this issue will make it difficult to effectively reach the people with the message of the gospel.

“You can’t effectively evangelize when there is alcoholism and drug addiction underneath. You have to remove the cankerworm underneath to effectively evangelize,” Yali said.

As part of his efforts to enlighten the church on the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse, Yali organized training in addiction and counseling for priests and sisters last year. He has also authored two books, “Perils of Alcoholism: A Personal Experience” and “Alcohol and Drug Addiction: A Gradual Killer.”

Because of his commitment to the treatment of addiction, Yali said he received a papal medal from Pope John Paul II in 1992.

As the sole funder, Yali admits that running the treatment centers comes with many challenges. Since patients don’t pay for treatment or accommodations throughout their stay, feeding them can sometimes a problem. These days, Yali said feeding his patients is no longer a major problem as he sets up farms where food from the farms is used to feed patients.

Meanwhile, Jude said the free services provided at the treatment center has inspired him.

“The treatment so far has helped me a lot,” he said. “For a long period, I have stayed clean. After [treatment] I will go to law school so I can practice law.”

Ekpali Saint is a freelance journalist based in Nigeria and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged.