FG Seeks Concerted Efforts In Fight Against Drug Abuse In Nigeria

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1 year ago

February 2, 2024

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FG Seeks Concerted Efforts In Fight Against Drug Abuse In Nigeria—-The Federal Government has called on relevant stakeholders to make concerted efforts towards ending drug abuse among youth in the country so as to prepare them for employability, entrepreneurship as well as future leaders.

Mr Ayodele Olawande, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Youth Development, made the call during a working visit to the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Abuja.

Olawande said that the ministry was planning to establish an institution that would be known as the Nigerian Youth Academy (NIYA).

He said in the institutions, youths would be taken through some training to engage them in meaningful ventures in order to avoid the temptation of drug abuse and crime.

The minister said that lack of engagement, unemployment and skill gap have led to an increase in the consumption and abuse of drugs among the youth.

“The youths are more concerned with following trends. It is now time for the youth to stop following unproductive trends and start thinking and working,” he said.

Olawande said that the ministry planned to introduce a door to door campaign, which would be spearheaded by him to engage the youths in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the federation.

“We will use the corp members as a force to engage the society at large, especially secondary school students, to curb drug abuse, corruption, and cybercrime,” he said.

According to him, it is time that society stopped neglecting the youth in the informal sector, as they are flexible and open to activities that can cause disruption and commotion in the society.

The minister called on the UN to collaborate with the government to establish the Nigerian Youth Academy in ensuring that the youths were gainfully engaged.

Earlier, Mr Oliver Stolp, Country Representative of UNODC expressed his appreciation to the minister and his team for taking out time to pay him a visit.

Stolp said that the UN had numerous intervention programmes on youth engagement, drug abuse, cyber crime, and corruption.

He called for the support of the government in these interventions.

NAN reports that the UNODC World Drug Report 2023 warns of converging crises as illicit drug markets continue to expand.

The data put the global estimate of people who inject drugs in 2021 at 13.2 million, 18 per cent higher than previously estimated.

Globally, over 296 million people used drugs in 2021, an increase of 23 per cent over the previous decade.

The number of people who suffer from drug use disorders, meanwhile, has skyrocketed to 39.5 million, a 45 per cent increase over 10 years.

The Report features a special chapter on drug trafficking and crimes that affect the environment in the Amazon Basin, as well as sections on clinical trials involving psychedelics and medical use of cannabis; drug use in humanitarian settings; innovations in drug treatment and other services; and drugs and conflict.

The World Drug Report 2023 also highlights how social and economic inequalities drive – and are driven by – drug challenges; the environmental devastation and human rights abuses caused by illicit drug economies; and the rising dominance of synthetic drugs.

The demand for treating drug-related disorders remains largely unmet, according to the report. Only one in five people suffering from drug-related disorders were in treatment for drug use in 2021, with widening disparities in access to treatment across regions.

The UN says youth populations are the most vulnerable to using drugs and are also more severely affected by substance use disorder in several regions.

In Africa, it said, 70 per cent of people in treatment are under the age of 35.

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Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly Passes at 75 After Cancer Battle

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2 months ago

May 21, 2025

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Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly Passes at 75 After Cancer Battle—-Representative Gerry Connolly, a fiery Virginia Democrat with decades of experience on Capitol Hill, died Wednesday morning after a short stint with cancer, his family announced.

Connolly, 75, was a familiar figure around the halls of the Capitol, where he was known as a feisty advocate for the institutions of Washington — particularly following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — and a champion of the many federal workers hailing from his Northern Virginia district.

First elected in 2008, Connolly rose this year to become the senior Democrat on the power House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — a seat he had sought unsuccessfully twice before.

His ascension was not without controversy. Connolly announced shortly after November’s elections that he was being treated for esophageal cancer, and a challenge for the ranking member seat from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) had rekindled the long-running generational debate over the role of seniority within the House Democratic Caucus.

Still, Connolly was a popular figure within the caucus, and he prevailed easily.

On Tuesday, Connolly joined forces with Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the Oversight Committee, to sponsor what would be his final piece of legislation: the Esophageal Cancer Awareness Act.

In a statement, Connolly’s family remembered him as a devoted family man and dedicated public servant, one who had served Northern Virginia for decades in both county and national politics.

“Gerry lived his life to give back to others and make our community better,” they wrote in a statement. “He looked out for the disadvantaged and voiceless. He always stood up for what is right and just.”

While pointing to Connolly’s accomplishments in elected office, the family said his greater contribution was to the local community, where he leaves behind a host of local projects that will serve as his legacy.

“[M]ore important than his accomplishments in elected office, Gerry lived by the ethos of ‘bloom where you are planted,’” they said. “From the Silver Line to the Oakton Library, Mosaic District to the Cross County Trail and beyond, his legacy now colors our region.”

Connolly’s illness had caused him to step back from his daily responsibilities on the Oversight Committee last month, when he tapped Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), another senior member of the panel, to take the seat as interim ranking member — a temporary position requiring no elections.

With Connolly’s death, Democratic leaders will now start the process of seating a permanent replacement, which is likely to be fiercely contested and could pit senior members against a newer crop of up-and-coming Democrats clamoring to rise quickly in the ranks.

Lynch, 70, is among the most experienced Democrats on the panel, but several younger members — including Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) — have expressed interest in the seat.

Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, has said she won’t seek the seat.

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Former POTUS Joe Biden Diagnose With Advance Prostate Cancer

Published

2 months ago

May 18, 2025

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Former POTUS Joe Biden Diagnose With Advance Prostate Cancer—-Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, a statement from his office said on Sunday.

Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after he saw a doctor last week for urinary symptoms.

The cancer is a more aggressive form of the disease, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 out of 10. This means his illness is classified as “high-grade” and that the cancer cells could spread quickly, according to Cancer Research UK.

Biden and his family are said to be reviewing treatment options. The former president’s office added that the cancer is hormone-sensitive, meaning it can likely be managed.

After news broke of his diagnosis, the former president received support from both sides of the aisle.

President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that he and First Lady Melania Trump “are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis.”

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family,” he said, referring to former First Lady Jill Biden. “We wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Former Vice-President Kamala Harris, who served under Biden, wrote on X that she and her husband Doug Emhoff are keeping the Biden family in their prayers.

“Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” Harris said.

The news comes nearly a year after the former president was forced to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election over concerns about his health and age. He is the oldest person to hold the office in US history.

Biden, then the Democratic nominee vying for re-election, faced mounting criticism of his poor performance in a June televised debate against Republican nominee and current president Donald Trump. He was replaced as the Democratic candidate by his vice president Harris.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer affecting men, behind skin cancer, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 13 out of every 100 men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives.

Age is the most common risk factor, the CDC says.

Dr William Dahut, the Chief Scientific Officer at the American Cancer Society and a trained prostate cancer physician, told the BBC that the cancer is more aggressive in nature, based on the publicly-available information on Biden’s diagnosis.

“In general, if cancer has spread to the bones, we don’t think it is considered a curable cancer,” Dr Dahut said.

He noted, however, that most patients tend to respond well to initial treatment, “and people can live many years with the diagnosis”.

Dr Dahut said that someone with the former president’s diagnosis will likely be offered hormonal therapies to mitigate symptoms and to slow the growth of cancerous cells.

Biden had largely retreated from the public eye since leaving the White House and he has made few public appearances.

The former president delivered a keynote speech in April at a Chicago conference held by the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled, a US-based advocacy group for people with disabilities.

In May, he sat down for an interview with the BBC – his first since leaving the White House – where he admitted that the decision to step down from the 2024 race was “difficult”.

Biden has faced questions about the status of his health in recent months.

In an appearance on The View programme that also took place in May, Biden denied claims that he had been experiencing cognitive decline in his final year at the White House. “There is nothing to sustain that,” he said.

For many years, the president had advocated for cancer research. In 2022, he and Mrs Biden relaunched the Cancer Moonshot initiative with the goal of mobilising research efforts to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by the year 2047.

Biden himself lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

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