An officer of the United States Army, Captain Sunday Adebomi, took a giant step to curb drug abuse among youths in his native Ekiti State by sponsoring an essay competition among secondary schools. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports.
He was in faraway United States of America where he was serving in the Army when he read on the Internet that his native Ekiti State in Nigeria was one of the leading states in the abuse of cannabis sativa also known as “Indian hemp” and “Marijuana.”
As an officer of the US Army, Captain Sunday Adebomi, who hails from Ise-Ekiti, headquarters of Ise/Orun Local Government Area of Ekiti State was concerned that many youths, including pupils and students in public schools are hooked on drugs.
In a bid to secure the future of the younger generation, Adebomi bankrolled an event in conjunction with Youth Saving Lifestyle Creation Initiative (YSLCI), a non-governmental organization and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to create awareness on the evils of drug abuse.
The US Army Captain envisioned an Essay Competition among students of public schools as a means to spread the message on the adverse effects on drug abuse.
The single largest seizure worth 77 tonnes with a market price of N83 million was destroyed in the state in 2009 by NDLEA and since then, the agency has stepped up the drug war by arresting abusers and destroying Indian hemp plantations
Forty one students from various schools were short listed after undergoing series of tests in their different schools to participate in the final competition.
All the 41 wrote an exam in the full glare of the audience and under the watchful eyes of invigilators at the event which held at the Sheikh Ibiyemi Hall of Olaoluwa Muslim Grammar School, Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
They had emerged winners at their school and local government levels before emerging as finalists for the state level with the overall winner expected to represent the state at the southwest competition.
Topic of the Essay was “Drug Abuse, Cultism and Youth Violence in Secondary Schools in Nigeria.”
Shortly after the students wrote their essays, their papers were marked by teachers who were already on standby and the results were announced.
The programme was chaired by the Onikun of Ikun-Ekiti in Moba Local Government Area of the state, Oba David Olatunde.
Other dignitaries include NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Colonel Abdallah Mohammed (rtd) represented by National Director, Drug Demand Reduction, Alhaji Baba Hussein; the Oloye of Ekiti, Oba Oluwole Ademolaju; former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Prof, Modupe Adelabu represented by Mrs. Dupe Bakare, Ekiti NDLEA Commander, Suleiman Jadi; state President of All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools(ANCOPSS), Mrs. Folake Alade and state Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Chairman, Chief S.A. Osadare.
Female students dominated the competition as they won the first, second and third positions winning cash prizes, laptops and big notes from the sponsor for their outstanding performance.
Miss Deborah Ekunloluwa,from Comprehensive High School, Ado-Ekiti, came first with 80.5 percent, while Miss Kolawole Kehinde, from Ijaloke High School, Emure-Ekiti came second with 77.5percent and Miss Fabunmi from Okemesi High School, Okemesi-Ekiti came third with 77percent.
The three female winners would represent Ekiti in the southwest zonal competition.
Reacting, the sponsor of the programme, Adebomi, while giving out prizes to the three winners congratulates them for their outstanding performance.
He gave the first 10 students in the essay competition certificates and notebooks for participation while different laptops were given to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners.
He vowed to pay for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) fee of the overall winner of the competition.
Adebomi charged the three female winners not to relent efforts in reading and focusing on their studies.
Speaking on his motivation to organize the programme, Adebomi said: “I was in the US when I read on the Internet that Ekiti is number one in marijuana cultivation and it has been my passion to discourage something like this.
“Most politicians encourage drug abuse among our youths in order to use them to foment trouble and it has been my desire to mentor the young generation. This is just the beginning because we are still going to extend our campaign to churches, mosques markets, motor parks and other places.
“If you go out there and see what marijuana has done to the lives of these young ones, you will be sad. I started this programme this year and it will continue every year, that’s why we brought NDLEA into it.
NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Col. Mohammed who was represented by Mr Husein congratulated the students.
He charged them to educate their friends that smoking of cannabis and abusing drugs are dangerous to their health.
His words: “A competition of this nature is good, the youth are being used to plant hard drugs and they are the ones that abuse hard drugs most.
“The drug war has to be fought by everybody and it requires the collective efforts of all, traditional rulers are also being mobilised.”
NDLEA Commander in Ekiti, Mr. Jadi, said the Fountain of Knowledge no longer leads cannabis production and consumption in Nigeria through his agency’s advocacy, crackdown on offenders and collaboration with various interest groups.
Jadi, who noted that the menace of drug abuse has become a global phenomenon, called on all critical stakeholders to join hands with the agency to prevent the future leaders from being consumed by the scourge, he said had affected virtually every family in the country.
Reeling out statistics to justify his claim that the NDLEA was winning the war against this menace, Jadi said: “in 2013 out of 600 suspects arrested by our agency for drug related offences, 76 of these cases were students.
“But between September, 2015 and now, only four cases have been reported to have connection with students’ involvement, which shows that drug abuse indexes in Ekiti had dropped.
“We are appealing to the sponsor of this programme to make it annual event because youths are the ones involving in hard drug and they normally exhibit such tendency from secondary school level”.
The YSLCI Executive Director, Oke Olugbenga, expressed sadness that Ekiti’s image has been dented as a major producer of cannabis in West Africa noting that through effort like this, its name will be removed from the hall of infamy.
