The Founder, Future Focus Foundation, Chevonne Jibromah on Wednesday said stakeholders must come together to combat bullying and drug abuse, before it eats deep into the lives of young persons in the country.
In a “semi” event organised by her organisation, she said it was all about combating bullying and drug abuse in Nigerian schools that have seen even smaller kids involved in the use of illicit drugs and other dangerous substances.
“I didn’t even know what many of these things were, even up to some reasonable time in my adulthood, she said.
“To me, bullying is not emphasized enough as a problem and it’s a problem. A vibrant child, all of a sudden, becomes dull and uninterested to go to school. It affects them mentally and if not checked on time, it will eat deep into our schools.
“That is why we need to sit up early to bring preventive measures. With this, we can save some who are already victims and those on the verge of being victims”, she stated.
She said stakeholders were brought together, “meant to plan for a bigger events in October this year that will be very effective”.
“We want to create materials that can be taken back to various states delegates and organize something small in those states. Organising training gatherings for teachers on how to checkmate these things.
“We are hoping on agencies and organisations like NDLEA, UNESCO, UNICEF to sit together and create robust materials that will be passed to all these states for training.
“We’ll train a few and get them to go back and train their communities for knowledge to be passed to others. With this, we believe that drug abuse and bullying in our schools in Nigeria will be eradicated”, she added.
Head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Abduramane Diallo, represented by Oladeji Adeyemi said in respect to drug abuse and bullying, UNESCO has a project at hand which involves the training of 8,888 teachers who would be sent to different states of Nigeria to sensitize adolescents or children, not directly but, through their school teachers and lecturers.
“The case of dug abuse is prevalent in Nigeria obviously, he said.
“So, what we do is to train teachers, investigate and disseminate information related to the drug abuse and bullying in the society.
He added that drug abuse engenders violence and bullying which has caused a lot of problems and led many out of school, and stated that school related gender base violence is critical.
Teachers he said, are empowered to teach in several schools on what to do to forestall school related gender base violence. Bully has caused a lot of problems which could be as a result of drug abuse, and has left many children out of school.
He further said that UNESCO has established capacity building to address some of these issues.
“We only build capacities but, don’t implement. We provide finances and other materials to combat bullying and drug abuse.
“We currently have thirty-two billion naira project focused on capacity building to train free teachers to carry out the task in some states in Nigeria. These teachers will visit different schools and organize programs in order to disseminate information and inculcate knowledge to lecturers and other teachers, as well as, help train students in skills acquisition program.
“We have supported the government of Nigeria to help build Code Of Conduct in schools which focuses on drug abuse and bullying in schools. We are working with the Ministry of Education/SUBEB against the menace of drug abuse and bullying ravaging our educational system. We urge the government to team up with other agencies in the fight against drug abuse and bullying”, Mr. Diallo said.
The Executive Chairman, FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Alhasan Sule, also represented by Shimashimin Moses, said parents should be very conscious of the behaviors of their children at home, and teachers should as well, be on the look out of how children behave in schools.
“Those who got themselves involved in drug abuse and bullying, the attention of their parents must be drawn so that such behaviors can be controlled”, he stated.