Esther Oluku
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has partnered with the Campaign Against Drug and Substance Abuse (CADSA) in a movie series aimed at enlightening the public on the harmful effects of drug and substance Abuse, the Converner, CADSA Nigeria, Mr. Valentine Ugochukwu has said.
While fielding questions from journalists during CADSA’s media launch recently, Ugochukwu stated that the vision to initiate the movie series is a part of it’s campaign programme geared towards having a drug free society.
The first arm of the campaign agenda, he said, is to engage the youth population in secondary and tertiary institutions in all the geopolitical zones in the country one zone at a time and is billed to begin in December, 2022.
Ugochukwu, who has been in the entertainment industry for over twenty-five years, stated that the entertainment industry has the power to redirect the mindset and behavioural patterns of young people as many look up to entertainers as role models and heroes.
“Entertainment is something you cannot do without and the truth is that in the industry, we’ve been reeling out over a long time more of the negative aspect of what creativity can do.
“Entertainment is a force that if properly channelled would create positive changes but funny enough most of our visible colleagues are culprits. I know that if we are able to chart this cause from within the entertainment industry, it would be a lot faster in taking this message to the youth and then getting the youth off drug because entertainers are like icons.
“Young people want to be like entertainers and once we begin to get all hands on deck across board I think the awareness to get people off drugs would spread faster,” he said.
Adding to the discussion, the Chief Executive Officer of AFOREVO tv, Mr. Afam Anawana, who also doubles as media partner to CADSA Nigeria on the television series, stated that the movie series is still in the writing stage and would capture the ills in society in a bid to correct them.
“We are totally in support of this and would do our best to make sure that all the issues regarding these malaise in the society are well highlighted when the series get launched. We would make sure that the effects on the addicts, their families and the indirect ills that it brings into the society are well highlighted and that people can see a pathway to deliverance,” he said.
According to Ugochukwu, the sensitisation exercise to schools across the federation would enlist some celebrities that are drug clean and provide employment opportunities for young people to prevent them from subsequent relapse.
