Lawmaker representing Amuwo Odofin constituency 1 of Lagos State, Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, says most Nigerian youths are high on drugs all the time.
Alli-Macaulay said this during a plenary at the Lagos State House of Assembly on the looting and pandemonium in the wake of the #EndSARS protest that was hijacked by hoodlums.
She said the National Orientation Agency needs to be alive to its responsibilities and help change the attitude of the youths.
The lawmaker said, “The National Orientation Agency needs to get to work. We need to begin to orientate our young people. They need people who can talk to them from time to time. They are high on drugs all the time, most of them. They go to social media and do all sorts of things. I’m even scared to give my young children phones because I am scared of what they may see on social media. It is that bad.”
Alli-Macaulay said unemployment should not be an excuse for looting, adding that unemployment was not exclusive to Nigeria.
She said, “It is not unemployment that should be the reason why youths should come out and begin to misbehave. There is unemployment across the world, even in the United States.
“I schooled in the UK and I saw a lot of young people who were not employed but they didn’t become hoodlums. Why can’t we look inwards and look for solutions to our problems?”
The lawmaker argued that an unemployed graduate could get a job in the informal sector instead of complaining about joblessness.
“Why can’t the young people look within themselves, look for their talents? Even if you are a graduate, what stops you from being a designer or a professional tile man and make a brand of it? There is no excuse for being a hoodlum,” she said.