Catholic Bishop of Oyo Diocese, Most Reverend Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, has raised the alarm over the menace of drug abuse and gambling among the youth in Nigeria and countries in the West Africa sub-region and charged the young people to run away from illicit drugs and gambling.
Bishop Badejo observed in his homily at the Mass to launch the golden jubilee celebration of Catholic Youth Association (CYA) in the dioceses of Oyo and Osogbo.
The cleric decried the menace of drug abuse among young people in the country, saying this had become “a very serious problem” and observed that more recently, gambling had joined the raging illicit drug abuse problem.
Bishop Badejo said: “A very serious problem ravaging the life of youth all over the black world, especially West African countries today is drug abuse and more recently gambling.
“I heard that the president of Sierra Leone has declared the problem of illicit drug abuse in his country a national emergency. Nigeria is not very different.”
He noted that “drugs and gambling consume lives and destroy the capacity of young people to become what God wants them to be”, and advised that “honest work and discipline are still the surest ways to prosperity. Imbibe them and God will act for you.”
Badejo also charged the youths to embrace a life of volunteerism, pointing out that “contrary to what current contemporary culture seems to dictate, money is not everything.
“I advise you to willingly offer your services to support noble causes around you even if it brings no monetary gain. These may be helping out at a charity/solidarity programme, working around the church without expecting money, lending a hand to a colleague, or doing the chores of the aged or the underprivileged.”
Speaking on the CYA at 50, Badejo said it was the precursor of Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria (CYON), and added that CYA began in the old Oyo Diocese (now Oyo and Osogbo dioceses) when Bishop Julius Babatunde Adelakun took the initiative, formed and inaugurated the association in 1974.
He said Emeritus Bishop Adelakun inaugurated CYA when he was barely a year old as a Bishop at the time, and that he came up with the CYA “to assist Catholic youths in growing their faith and spreading the good news of Christ among their peers, especially in the Church and in the society.”
According to him, the old Oyo Diocese was the first to inaugurate such a youth association at the diocesan level in Nigeria, adding that “the CYA existed for over a decade before it transformed into what today is the Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria (CYON), which was inaugurated in 1985 by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).
Bishop Badejo charged the youths to put into practice the theme of the Synodal Process, which is “For the Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”; to seek to promote the gospel and Christian values in the digital media; embrace and promote Church Doctrine on Human Life, Family and Sexuality; and to also fall in love with praying.
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