The National Institute for Cultural Orientation has launched campaign against drug abuse, cultism, indecent dressing and all forms of social vices in secondary schools in Imo state.

The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of NICO, Ado Muhammed Yahuza, who spoke at Ikenegbu Girls Secondary School in Owerri, the state capital, after they had visited nine other secondary schools, said that the Federal Government believes in catching the students young.

Represented by the Director, NICO South East Zonal Office, Mrs. Chioma Duru, Yahuza said that the FG believes that establishing cultural clubs in secondary schools would help the government fight all forms of social vices, including insecurity.

He said, “We are establishing cultural clubs in Secondary Schools across the nation in a bid to address the current realities with regards to globalisation and advancement in information and communication technology, which have impacted negatively on the society with the youths being the worst hit in the area of upsurge in crime and immorality; cultism; drug use and abuse; indecent dressing; mental laziness and examination malpractices.

“The objective was to foster a sense of cultural direction through the clubs, which would serve as a platform for the campaign against the vices listed above.”

He, therefore, advised the students to be on their guard so as not to get swallowed up as they assimilate foreign values.

The NICO boss intimated that the cultural club would engage in cultural debates, quiz competitions in indigenous languages, fashion parade, traditional dances, seminars, and lectures, among others.

He said that the job of having a secured society starts with raising children who will have no interest in taking to crimes, adding that the establishment of cultural clubs in secondary schools would help in having a crime free society.

The high point of the inauguration ceremony was the presentation of gift items to Girls’ Secondary School Ikenegbu, by the Zonal Director, Mrs. Chioma Duru, on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Ado Muhammed Yahuza.

Gifts such as laptop computer, projector, exercise books and pens, nose masks and big writing board were handed out to the school.