NDLEA, MKI Foundation urge youths to shun drugs, learn skills

The Makoji Kelvin Ibrahim Foundation has urged young people to avoid drugs but get involved in learning skills.

The Founder of the NGO, Mr Makoji Kelvin Ibrahim, disclosed this during the Bridge Nigeria summer boot camp, held in Idah, Kogi State from August 19 to 24.

He said: “Drug abuse has become a prevalent problem in society and the Boot Camp basically is to get a lot of young individuals, basically teenagers, 50 each from five key schools to learn skills.

“We trained them in computer literacy, financial literacy, software development and then we also thought them not to rely on white collar jobs.

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‘’We partner with local businesses here in Idah. We sent a few of them to mechanic workshops to learn how to repair cars. We also partner with make-up artists, barbers, fashion designers to teach them how to make clothes.” 

Ibrahim said the Summer Boot Camp tagged Bridge Nigeria, was a forum to get young people, especially teenagers, together to teach them skills and make them mentors.

“There is lack of mentors in our society and a lot of young people are getting motivation from social media or their peers on who to look up to in terms of how to model their lives. So, we are bridging the gap by showing them people they can learn skills from or get the proper guidance from.

The MKI Foundation has also given full year scholarship to 50 students from this camp.” 

In one of the training sessions, Deputy State Commander, Drug Demand Reduction Unit of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Abdullahi Zuwaira, enlightened the teenagers about the dangers of drug abuse.

She said: “As youngsters, we try to enlighten them on the dangers that is inherent in drug abuse. When we catch them now, we would have taught them the right thing before other people begin to influence them. It’s a good initiative from the MKI Foundation.”

One of the students, Miracle Ushubi Ojo, said, “I have been wanting to learn more about software, coding and other things. But with these few things that they taught me, I’ll try to develop more on it.”