In an effort to curb drug addiction among youths in the community, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Mejenstin Youth Empowerment Initiative (MYEI) has held its annual youth conference.
The conference was held on Thursday at YMCA vocational centre, 24 Road, Festac Town.
Honourable Chibuzo Patrick Osigwe, the founder of MYEI, reiterated the necessity to inculcate in children the importance of drug abstinence.
She described the initiative as a calling stating her dream is to touch as many lives as possible.
Honourable Osigwe believes parents have a role to play in educating children on drug abuse and addiction. Although, she believes parents cannot do the job alone as she called on passionate individuals to take up the mantle of educating children in society.
She urged parents to pay attention to children when they are young and imbibe good moral values before a child becomes exposed to societal values.
Mrs. Amechi Stella, an official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said “drug addiction is a global problem.”
” The whole world is facing the same problem we are facing in Nigeria and what we can do as a people is for us to continue to educate the populace, especially the youths.
“Experimentation on drugs is a problem today. it is for us the adults, the parents, and the leaders to come out and fight against drugs. Like we fought against Ebola and Covid. If all of us can join hands together and fight the drug problem we will be able to eradicate drugs from our society.”
She commended Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for working hand in hand with the NDLEA as she implored Nigerians to emulate NGOs in helping the youths to stay away from drugs.
She also praised the ministry of education for imbibing drug education in the school curriculum.
Afegbai Albert Igbafe, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), who is the Area Commander of Area E police command, Festac was present at the event to interact with the students and inspire them to stay away from drugs.
ACP Igbafe believes parents must take moral values seriously and endeavour to imbibe these values in children.
He urged members of the community to go back to the basics of raising children as he recounted his ordeal saying.
“I’m the Area Commander of Festac, go to the hotels in Festac. 80% of the occupants in the hotels in Festac are between the ages of 18 and 22 doing Yahoo (fraud) and
drugs. Society is encouraging them and that is why it is rampant so we need to teach our children what is right and go back to our holy books.”
Notably, students from schools within Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area attended the conference. They were entertained by music, dance, and comedy.
Speakers at the event are as follows: Mrs Ngozi Okonkwo, founder of Keeping Marriage Alive Initiative; Dinma Nwobi, lead coach for Happify Humanity Project; Honorable Mbaso Robert Salome, an educator; Immaculate Mbaso, Legal practitioner.
