How to curb vices among youths, by Lagos govt

By Oziegbe Okoeki

The Lagos State government has offered some ideas on how to curb social vices especially in tertiary institutions.

At a sensitisation event at Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo, Lagos on Tuesday, Special Adviser, Office of Civic Engagement, OCE, Princess Aderemi Adebowale said schools should strengthen their counselling departments to de-radicalise students showing antisocial tendencies.

“Parents and guardians should also monitor their wards and show disapproval of any attitude considered inappropriate,” she said.

Students and officials from all the tertiary institutions in the state attended the event.

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Adebowale said cultism, drug abuse, rape, indecent dressing examination and other malpractices have bedeviled the state’s tertiary institutions, adding that peer influence and pressure are excuses for students’ participation in these vices.

These vices, she said, has led to all sorts of acts of violence that violate societal norms and values, “safety of lives and property are no longer guaranteed on campuses as students engage in a cult war leading to deaths, gang rape of girls and drug abuse among students”.

“We are gathered here today to bring to the fore the need for all to address the issue of social vices in the state’s tertiary institutions to jointly proffer solutions to the menace such vices constitute to the school and the society at large”, she said.

The malaise, she said, is fast spreading to the larger society with cult killings in communities, resulting in sorrow and anguish for parents who have lost their children, loss of valuable time because of school closure, development of mental related ailments due to drug abuse and disruption of economic and social activities because of cult related killings.

“This group of youths who we look up to as the future of our dear country should not be allowed to continue to drift, the schools are designed to prepare them for positive contributions to the society in future but today we see a breach of the societal expectations.

“This explains why the Lagos state government is joining other stakeholders particularly the students to rub minds on curbing vices on our campuses and the state at large,” the special adviser said.

In his remarks, chairman of the occasion, Commander of Rapid Response Squad, RRS, Tunji Disu, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who was represented by Wale Ajao, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, while saying the police was advocating for community policing to tackle social vices also called for attitudinal rebirth.