Drug influences youths to commit crime, causes madness, death, says journalist

Favour Nwanze and Samuel Eze

Francis, with some of the graduates and post gr

Nigerian youths have been warned to avoid consumption of illicit drugs and other social vices in order to escape dreadful consequences.

The warning was made at a one-day interactive session tagged, ‘Youths Against Crimes in Nigeria,’ held at New Telegraph office, ACME, Ikeja, Lagos State, organised by Juliana Francis under the Female Journalists’ Leadership Project by Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

The session, held on Tuesday, was primarily for undergraduate and post graduate students, who are on their internship programme with the New Telegraph.

According to Francis, the advocacy session became necessary following the increasing rate of youths involvement in crimes in Nigeria. She also said that it has been discovered that most youths, under the influence of illicit drugs, go into crimes.

The session was timely, following the sudden death of three friends of David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido. The deceased young men were alleged to have died after consumption of too much alcohol and suspected drug overdose.

 Francis said: “Excessive intake of alcohol and drugs has contributed to the increased rate of crimes among youths and eventually their untimely deaths, sometimes psychotic displays.”

Francis urged the students, to ensure they begin to speak out against youths’ involvement in crimes. She also charged them to spread the messages on social media, contact with friends and worship centres.

During the session, some of the students disclosed that the latest trending youth crime is mixing of lethal drugs in drinks of guests. This drink is called skuchies. Most youths at the parties are often aware of content of their drinks. The drink is said to be lethal, causes drowsiness, fainting, memory loss, weakness and sometimes death.

Joseph Agumagu, a post graduate student with Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), noted that a society infested with criminal youths, will never have visionary future leaders. He urged government to take strict steps in censoring musical videos of musicians in Nigeria.

He explained that such videos glamourized the ingestion of hard drugs, alcohol and other vices.

Parents were also urged to refrain from exposing youths to internet too early in life. Another argued that parents should keep pornographic items on their phones.

Some of the students blamed parents for youths going into crime, urging them to pay attention to their children and learn to discuss with them.

One of the undergraduates, Tochukwu Chikere, said that the increasing involvement of youths in crime could, sometimes be traced to upbringing.

Chikere said: “I blame parents for the lifestyle their kids live. If a child sees what their parents are doing, even though it’s wrong, he or she would want to copy. Parents that do not bring up their children well are responsible for what their children become in future. They should be blamed.”

Miss Tobi said: “Most parents are never there for their kids. I was almost raped because my parents were never there for me.”

Mary Nneji, on the other hand, said: “Most youths are sometimes pressurized to do certain things by their friends. Most times when your mate is known for doing such things, you would want the same thing, hence, falling victim to peer pressure.”

Duke Archibong, another post graduate student from NIJ urged parents, school, religious organisations and the government to be proactive in the fight against youths’ involvement in crime before it consumes the society.

 His words: “The government should try as much as possible to sanction the contents that are to be aired. Parents as well should try to control the things that children are exposed to. If you have a phone that contains certain videos, try to hide such. Better still do not have such on your phones.”

The New Telegraph’s Deputy Editor, Mr. Geoffrey Ekenna, who was at the session, charged the youths to be focused and engage in ventures that will be productive to the society.

His words: “As young people, you should be able to do things that are helpful to the society instead of engaging in activities that won’t be of benefit to you.”

Deputy Sports Editor, Mr. Emmanuel Tobi said: “The rate at which the youths are taking drugs and alcohol is becoming alarming and must be quickly checkmated before we lose the entire society to the menace.”