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Over the years, substance abuse has put an abrupt end to the promising career of many celebrities. Stars like Majek Fashek, Whitney Houston, among many others, are on an long list of entertainment personalities who have died of eccentric use of drugs.
As the lives of celebrities appear so glamorous to young people, they are also acquiring much of their beliefs from the stars who they see as role models, leading to a rise in celebrities’ influence on young people’s drug use.
Having conversations to sensitize young people about substance abuse have become essential and every year, MTN, through its Foundation, drives these interesting conversations with its Anti-Substance Abuse Project (ASAP).
For this year’s MTN ASAP campaign themed, ‘It’s everyone’s fight’, the organisers have made it fun by introducing a quiz competition for secondary school students across Nigeria.
They selected 12 schools from Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to participate in a virtual quiz competition on drug awareness and anti-substance abuse on Tuesday, June 7. Among the 12 schools, ten participated in the 3-hours long competition, and three of them will be moving to the final stage on June 14, 2022.
Funtaj International School Gudu, Abuja, represented by Ramat Sakman, Oluwatoyinsola Adeyemi and Ataba Shehu; Government Secondary School Ilorin, Kwara State, represented by Umar Muhammed Sultan, Abdulazeez Abiola Ahmad, Adesina Yusuf; and International Quotient Academy, Garki, Abuja represented by Raheemah Abdulmalik, Fadil Ibrahim and Khadeejah Kamil Sani are the three schools proceeding to the competition finals.
Among the other participating schools were, Government Model Secondary School, Asaba, Queen Elizabeth School, Ilorin, West-End Mixed Secondary School, Asaba, Government Day Secondary School Gombe, Government Girls Secondary School, Aisami, Kano, Government Science Technical College (GSTC) Barunde, Gombe, and Government Day Secondary School, Owerri.
One of the moderators of the virtual quiz competition, Dr Ngozi Chidubwike, disclosed that the importance of this sensitisation is peer education.
She said, “the essence is to promote a drug-free lifestyle and drug-free activities in school. It is expected that students who participate can impact others. It would encourage peer education and peer counselling among secondary school students.”
MTN ASAP has been held yearly since 2019 to commemorate the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (World Drug Day) on June 26.
The post How MTN Is Sensitizing Young Nigerians On Drug Abuse Through Peer Education appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
Source: TheNet
