An NGO, Youth Action on Tobacco Control and Health (YATCH), on Tuesday called for the engagement of youths on life and employability skills.
Its Executive Director, Mr Seye Omiyefa, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Omiyefa said that such skills would encourage positive behaviour and reduce the rate of drug use among youths in the country.
He said: “The development of a community is a dynamic process involving all segments of the locality, including the often overlooked youth population.
“It is crucial at this point to target specific disadvantages of young people through skills and labour market training and work experience programmes, job search assistance and other employment services.
“Life skills can promote interactive, decision-making, problem solving, critical thinking and stress management skills and lead to more social acceptability, which in turn will reduce drug abuse tendency.”
The executive director also said that life skills was crucial to nation building.
According to him, youths are often said to be the leaders of tomorrow and tomorrow starts today, hence the need to equip youths through life skills training.
“It is crucial because most youths graduate from secondary and tertiary institutions without acquiring necessary life skills.
“This and other factors contribute to the kind of youths and leaders we produce as a country.
“If we equip youths properly before they graduate from high school and tertiary institutions, we will as a nation produce young people with the right mindset which will contribute to nation building,” he said.
Omiyefa said that YATCH had recently participated in a training on evidence based-substance abuse prevention which necessitated the need to revitalise its current Youth Action against Tobacco’s Club in secondary schools.
He said that the organisation was currently advocating the formation of a Prevention Leadership Action Team (PLAT) and creating a substance abuse policy in all the schools.
According to him, this is as a result of the manate of YATCH to rescue millions of people from tobacco related deaths and drug abuse.
“The introduction of the PLAT by YATCH is a way to sustain the substance abuse prevention programmes and policy in the schools without a representative of YATCH present.
“The PLAT team are currently being trained and comprises teachers, school heads, administrators, community leaders and students.
“The PLAT committee will commence evidence-based preventive intervention for universal and selected groups through ‘Life Skills Training’ with other age appropriate interventions.
“This intervention is evidence-based and should also be implemented in higher institutions in Nigeria,” Omiyefa said
NAN
