No fewer than 86,400 public secondary school students and 1,440 teachers across 12 States of the federation, including Kwara State, have been targeted for sponsorship education against drugs and substance abuse by the MTN Foundation, Nigeria.
A senior manager at MTN, Chinyere Ikechi, disclosed this on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ workshop in Ilorin, Kwara State on the implementation of the ‘Unplugged Teachers Training ‘ in drug prevention in the state.
She said the poor and uncertain condition of Nigerian youths compelled MTN Foundation into action.
Appraising the need to invest in prevention rather than cure, the MTN representative delved into several efforts by the multinational company to rescue the youths from abbys, hinting that it has discouraged the youths from reliance on banned substances through quiz and competitions in primary and secondary schools.
“We encourage them to participate in our quiz competition; facilitate a stakeholders’ workshop and a 3-day training for 60 secondary school teachers in Kwara and Kaduna; sensitise our communities through outreaches in collaboration with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC,)” she said.
Speaking further at the jointly sponsored event with Kwara State government, MTN, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA,) Chinyere said, the post-training activities that would be carried out by the trained teachers through engagement and monitoring towards enabling sustained impact is achieved with the students ‘who we all expect to be advocates/ambassadors of this initiative,’ is what the MTN aims to achieve.
She said, the theme: ‘Unplugged Teachers Training on Drug Prevention’ in Kwara and Kaduna States would, through trainings, certainly ‘pave way for a digital framework to be developed because the need to scale impact on this subject matter is pertinent.’
The representative of the UNODC, Maria Ilugbuhi bemoaned the heavy involvement of Nigerian youths in drugs and other banned substances, recalling that, one of seven of them indulge in drug abuse with the largest population in the southwest.
She cautioned that unless immediate emergency steps are taken by 2030, the number would increase by 40 per cent.
According to her: one in every seven Nigerian is a drug user, adding that: one in every four drug user is a female. She, however, confirmed that, recent survey stressed that “South West Nigeria has the highest number of drug users in the country.
“In a more recent survey of 84,000 youths conducted by UNICEF/UNODC, 50 percent of them said they personally knew someone who uses drugs. So the rate of drug use in the country is high and by 2030, it is estimated to increase by 40 per cent in Africa.
“These figures underscore the need for comprehensive strategies in addressing drug use, including prevention, treatment, and support services,” she noted. Ilugbuhi identified socioeconomic, cultural, and health-related elements as factors contributing to the menace. If we are going to avert this estimated increase, we must invest heavily in drug prevention, she said.
In his remarks, the Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq commended MTN for its interest in a drug- free society, acknowledging the critical role the teachers play in moulding the students who are leaders of tomorrow.
The governor, who was represented by the senior adviser/ counselor, Alh Saadu Salahu, traced the security challenges confronting the country to drug addiction. He charged teachers to support the state government in making its various interventions in combating drug abuse successful.
The governor also praised the operatives of the state community policing in fighting crime and criminality in the state.
Earlier, the special assistant to the governor on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control, Aileru Olamilekan described the workshop as significant “because it centres on the Unplugged Teachers Training Programme—a globally recognised school-based prevention initiative.
“By equipping our teachers with knowledge, skills, and strategies to educate students about the dangers of drug use, we are investing in prevention rather than cure, in education rather than rehabilitation,” he noted.
In their goodwill messages, the commissioner for Education, Dr Lawal Olohungbebe and the special adviser on Special Duties, Alh. AbdulRazaq Jiddah, listed the state government’s numerous interventions to curb the drug abuse menace in the state.
They recalled how the recently recruited teachers in the state were made to undergo mandatory drug tests and the withdrawal of letters of appointment from those found wanting. The representative of the state command of the NDLEA, Jamilu Usman, restated the agency’s commitment to making Kwara a drug-free state.
He enumerated the agency’s successes in the fight against drug abuse, including the recent seizure of drugs worth billions of naira in the state. Usman thanked the state government and MTN Foundation for organising what he called the all-important event.
Top government functionaries witnessed the event, including the special adviser on Media, Alh Bashir Adigun, and the senior special assistant on Religion ( Islam), Alh Ibrahim Danmaigoro.
