Three Nigerian Secondary Schools Qualify for MTN ASAP 2022 Quiz Competition Finals

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), revealed that in 2018, 14.3 million Nigerians, representing 14.4% of the country’s population used psychoactive substances aside from alcohol.

This development has led to initiatives like the MTN Anti-Substance Abuse Project (ASAP) to sensitize and reduce the rate of first-time substance abusers between the age of 10 – 25.

Nigeria’s leading telecommunications brand, MTN – through the MTN Foundation, in partnership with NDLEA, has created avenues for children between the ages of 10 and 25 to learn more about substance abuse during the 2022 MTN ASAP.

For this year’s MTN ASAP campaign themed, ‘It’s everyone’s fight’, 12 schools were selected from Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to participate in a virtual quiz competition on drug awareness and anti-substance abuse.

Out of the 12 schools, ten participated in the 3-hour long quiz competition, and three of them will be moving to the final stage on June 14, 2022.

Funtaj International School Gudu, Abuja, represented by Ramat Sakman, Oluwatoyinsola Adeyemi and Ataba Shehu; Government Secondary School Ilorin, Kwara State, represented by Umar Muhammed Sultan, Abdulazeez Abiola Ahmad, Adesina Yusuf; and International Quotient Academy, Garki, Abuja represented by Raheemah Abdulmalik, Fadil Ibrahim and Khadeejah Kamil Sani are the three schools proceeding to the competition finals.

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Among the other participating schools were, Government Model Secondary School, Asaba, Queen Elizabeth School, Ilorin, West-End Mixed Secondary School, Asaba, Government Day Secondary School Gombe, Government Girls Secondary School, Aisami, Kano, Government Science Technical College (GSTC) Barunde, Gombe, and Government Day Secondary School, Owerri.

One of the moderators of the virtual quiz competition, Dr Ngozi Chidubwike, disclosed that the importance of this sensitization is peer education. She said, “the essence is to promote a drug-free lifestyle and drug-free activities in school. It is expected that students who participate can impact others. It would encourage peer education and peer counselling among secondary school students.”

MTN ASAP has been held yearly since 2019 to commemorate the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (World Drug Day) on June 26.