Agency The Lagos State Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mobolaji Ogunlende, has described drug abuse as a pandemic in the state, requiring urgent attention. Ogunlende, 44, urged youths in the state to shun drugs capable of truncating their future, while speaking at the “Empowering Her Fortune Initiative on Tuesday in Lagos. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the empowerment programme was organised by Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area in conjunction with MTN Momo, a Fin-Tech Subsidiary of MTN, Nigeria.
The commissioner called on all relevant stakeholders and well-meaning individuals to join hands in the fight against drug abuse in various communities to secure the lives and future of the youth. Decrying several risks substance abuse had caused young people, Ogunlende said, “This drug affects all of us”. He said that substance addiction had caused numerous havoc, including diseases and road crashes that had sent many to their untimely grave, including innocent people.
Ogunlende said: “So, let us not say we are not concerned, it does not matter, or it does not involve us because we do not take it. “Please, I want us to take it seriously. It is a pandemic.
I have been involved in several conversations about these drugs in Lagos. “Once something is a pandemic, it is something every one of us must continue to be a part of. “The government cannot do it alone, the private organisation cannot do it alone; we must form partnership and collab.