The wife of the president, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on Thursday called for collective effort to check high rate of drug abuse among the youth.
She made the call at the 2015 UN International Youth Day organised by National Youth Stakeholders Interactive Forum in Abuja.
NAN reports that the youth day celebration has as its theme “Youth Civic Engagement: Drugs, Crime, Violence and Corruption; a threat to National Development”.
Aisha, who was represented by her Special Assistant on Administration, Malam Hadi Uba, said youths were agents of positive change and future leaders of any nation.
She said that parents should be vigilant and counsel “their children to avoid them falling as prey to temptations that could have negative effect on their livelihood.
“Nigeria requires your expertise to move forward to the comity of developed nations”.
Aisha said that “the organisers of the event deserve our collective commendation for the topic chosen”.
She said that this was because of “the high rate of drug abuse and consumption among our youths today not only in Nigeria but also across other countries of the world”.
“It is no longer news to say that youths in Nigeria constitute more than half of the population as reported.
“It is certainly disturbing when you have a nation that does not have a responsible, educated and industrious youths, who are supposed to excel in different fields of endeavour,” she said.
She commended the organisers for celebrating the event and urged them to lead other organisations in finding a solution to youthful exuberance.
The President of High World International Organisation, Mr Felix Ihonre, said Nigeria needed to embark on peace advocacy to ensure peace and security in the country.
He said if such were established, Nigeria would be a peaceful and a better nation again.
“I am seeing Nigeria as the second America because we have all the resources it takes to be called a developed nation,” he said.
Ihonre said the organisation would support President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration because of his new concept of positive change.
He said members of his organisation were being trained as peace ambassadors of the country and would continue to support peace and development of the nation.
The Speaker, Nigerian Youth Parliament, Mr Abba Waziri, urged the Federal Government to establish more institutions with resources to enhance the development of youths in the country.
He said currently those institutions on ground mandated with responsibilities to empower youth economically were weak and needed to be reformed for effective performance.
Waziri urged the government to open up the sports and entertainment industries to provide employment to youths.
Mrs Kate Oluseye, the Vice Chairperson, Network of Young Female Leader of ECOWAS Community (ROAJELT), urged government to come up with policies and programmes to fully engage youths.
Oluseye said once youths were given their rightful position in the society, the issue of crime, violence, militancy and prostitution, among others, would soon disappear.
“The Facebook, Twitter and other special media platforms were developed by youths of other countries; Nigerian youths must not be an exception. Youths have nothing doing that is why they take to crime,” she said.