Poor Parenting Cause Of Drug Abuse Among Young Artistes –Zack Orji

Nigerian actor, Zack Orji, has lent his voice to the recent drug related deaths of young artistes in the entertainment industry and blamed poor parenting for the ugly trend.

He said, “I would say the problem of drugs in the entertainment industry especially with young musicians is a problem of poor parenting. We must inculcate in our children a good moral compass. When they go wrong, we must not fail to correct them. We should not condone certain things and make our children feel like they can get away with certain things. That is one of the problems we have with the so-called influential people in the society. They are always ready to bail out their children irrespective of what the children did, not minding the fact that whatever your son does to another person, that is also another human being. “A number of parents in America for example, who choose to be their children’s managers do that because of the bad influence they fear that they might be exposed to either from their peers, managers or other places. Look at Beyonce who started at a young age; in her early 20s, she was already an international superstar but she was being managed by her parents. That helped to guide her. I know a number of young Nigerians who are heavily on drugs; some of them have gone for rehabilitation. A lot of it has to do with poor parenting, negative peer pressure and a feeling of insecurity; believing that you have to do something to belong to a certain class.” Citing himself as an example, he opened up to Saturday Beats that he also experimented with cigarettes and Indian hemp but quit the bad habits when he realised that they only caused him more harm than good.

Orji said, “I quit smoking because at a certain time, it was no longer pleasurable. As a matter of fact, I discovered that anytime I smoked over the years, I fell sick. I gave it up the first time for three years, then I relapsed but I finally stopped three years after I got married. I just discovered that anytime I smoked, I did not feel comfortable with myself, so I gave it up.