Sanwo-Olu, actors, others grace Scourge screening

The First Lady of Lagos State, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, penultimate week joined a number of Lagos commission¬ers and Nigerian movie stars to preach against drug abuse among youths, es-pecially in Secondary Schools.

At the screening of the movie ‘Scourge’, produced by Yinka Olaiya for Trauma Savers Life Support (TSLS) Foundation and directed by Saidi Balogun, which took place at the Lagos Theatre in Oregun, Mrs Sanwo-Olu encouraged students to constantly say no drugs and turn away from a life of crime and decadence.

According to Olaiya, the movie pro¬ducer, one in five youths who are drug users are suffering from drug addiction. This rise, according to her is what in¬spired the initiative, Trauma Savers Life Support (TSLS) Foundation.

“A lot of parents live in denial. We be¬lieve that we have trained our children better than that and they cannot become involved in drugs, but that is a lie. The re¬ality is that you need to investigate to be sure that your child is not involved, she said.

She added, “I didn’t come into the Nigerian film space to entertain, I’m here to educate. And in my career as a mental health and addiction special¬ist, I have seen a lot of things, and I would like to pass that information across to other parents like me.”

In addition to the movie screening, Olaiya further launched the ‘Be The Change Club’ for schools and award¬ed monetary gifts to leading Nigerian secondary school students for essays written by the students on drug ad¬diction. The schools that produced winning students were also given prizes.

The foundation, which is set to re¬lease its debut film, ‘Scourge’, is fo¬cused on eradicating drug addiction among Nigerian youth.

Scourge stars actors like Saidi Balogun, Patrick Doyle, Adedoyin Kukoyi, Jide Kosoko, Tobi Bakre and many others.