Mbonu, Joke Silva, Others Advocate Reading Culture To Curb Drug Abuse

Stakeholders in the nation’s education sector have advocated reading culture as a solution to reduce prevalence of drug abuse among teenagers and adults in the country.

The stakeholders, who attended the unveiling of a novel entitled “Pearl” by 16-year-old Munachi Mbonu, at the weekend in Lagos, said they were unhappy with the high rate of drug abuse among youths.

Legendary actress, Joke Silva, who is the grandparent of the  author, stressed that reading culture, especially, among children, has  diminished, as they  are carried away by influences from social media and the society, hence, serving as brewing ground for social vices, inclusive of drug abuse and addiction.

Silva urged parents to recall the old days of tales by the moonlight, by reading stories to their wards regularly, stating that, these stories, aside from adhering them to reading and writing, has a way of impacting their lifestyles and behaviour.

Calling on parents to reduce screen time of their wards, and breed reading culture in them, she added that, children who choose interest in reading and writing at an early stage, have low tendency of being a drug addict.

The director, Administration and Finance, NIMASA, Chudi Offodile, also spoke at the event lamented the kind of drug abuse going on among teenagers, whereby, they abuse three to five drugs, thereby, making recovery from drug treatment cumbersome.

“These days, you see these children abusing three to five drugs at once, they see it as a lifestyle, they want to be high on drugs whereas the consequences are graver to them, their families and the society.’’

On her part, the commander of narcolitis, NDLEA commander in Ogun State , Mrs. Ibiba Jane Odili, said the agency is awashed with several reports of young ones abusing drugs and despite several advocacy to discourage them from going into drug abuse, the number of addicts is growing on a daily basis.