Nigeria’s telecommunication giant, MTN has intensified its campaign against substance abuse, saying that governments at all levels, parents, educational institutions, and other stakeholders must join hands to combat the menace.
The Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya made the call at Enugu during a stakeholders conference organised by the Foundation in collaboration with its partners, NDLEA and UNODC.
She said that the anti-substance abuse programme was specially initiated to save Nigerian youths from the ruinous effects of drug abuse in order to safeguard their future.
“The goal is that we want to improve the wellbeing of the Nigerian youth (ages 18 to 35) and anybody, really, who is a youth at heart,” she stated.
It emerged that bringing the anti-substance abuse campaign to Enugu was timely a data presented by NDLEA at the event raised the alarm on the extent of the problem in the state.
The data showed that over 360,000 youths in Enugu State, representing 13.4 percent of the youth population in the state engage in drug abuse.
However, Sanya said that the MTN Foundation would not relent in its efforts to pull the youth population out of the morass of substance abuse. She stated that the Foundation has already reached over 100 million Nigerians with the awareness of the dangers of mind altering substances.
The ED said that in the course of the anti-substance abuse campaign, which started seven years ago, 50,000 students have been made ambassadors of the campaign, adding that 30,000 more would be raised in 2026.
According to her, the students so enlisted in the campaign would eventually take the anti-substance abuse messages home to their families and communities thereby escalating the campaigns.
“These children also spread the information. And that’s what we’re trying to do,” she stated.
Aside from children, Sanya also said that the Foundation has trained and equipped over about 1,556 teachers to help in steering students away from veering off to substance abuse.
She lamented that many youths have lost their future to drug abuse, adding that concerted efforts must be made to preserve the future of Nigerian youths as they constitute the nation’s human resources base.
The ED, MTN Foundation argued that “if our future then is our young people, it’s the human resource that we’ve been blessed with, not necessarily the minerals in the ground”, and that being the case, ” then you need a human being to be able to dig up that mineral and make it into something that earns money back for them and for the country”.
She stated that the stakeholder engagement which held in Enugu would be replicated in other parts of Nigeria to enable the Foundation to work together with CSOs and state governments to save the youth from substance abuse.
In his goodwill message, Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah urged all stakeholders “to embrace innovation in our response mechanism” to substance abuse.
The Governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). Professor Chidiebere Onyia, said that substance abuse “is more than a health issue” and should not be tteated with kid gloves.
“It is a development issue, a security issue, an educational issue and a social issue. Its consequences extend beyond the individual to families, communities, institutions and the wider economy,” he said.
“We must leverage technology, data, community engagement, peer education and strategic partnerships to stay ahead of this emerging threat to us as a nation,” Mbah added.
The Enugu Governor stressed the need to “understand that prevention remains the most effective strategy in combating substance abuse”, adding that “when young people are educated, when they are engaged, when they are empowered and inspired, they are less vulnerable to harmful influences and destructive behaviors”.
He noted that Enugu government has placed youth development on the front burner of its policies and programmes in recognising “that the future of our state depends significantly on the quality, productivity and well-being of our young people”.
Mbah commended MTN Foundation and other stakeholders, including NDLEA, CSOs
“for their commitment to confronting one of the most pressing social and public health challenges of our time – substance abuse”.
He described as timely and profound the theme: the world drug problem, existing issues, new challenges, innovative responses, is both timely and profound.
“It reminds us that while the drug problem is not new, the dynamic continues to evolve. New substances emerge, trafficking methods become more sophisticated, and social pressures affecting young people continue to grow,” he said.
The conference brought together secondary school students and their teachers, NDLEA and other paramilitary agencies, CSOs, psychologists, care givers, among other stakeholders, in the quest to combat substance abuse.
