By Chesa Chesa
Fast-rising American-Nigerian pop singer and dancer, Ada King, has launched a campaign to use her musical reach and prowess to fight the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria.
Also an activist and humanitarian, 19 year-old Ada King, who is being supported by her music label, Infinite Music & Entertainment, also based in America, unveiled The Ada King Drug-free Nigeria Initiative (TAKDNI) in Abuja during the week.
Riding on the wave of her pace-setting debut single – ‘Wahala’ – Ada King arrived Nigeria to help push a social message towards making her home-country and the world a better place, a message which runs through her songs.
“Alongside the recording label and my team, we chose to draw attention to the menace of illicit drug use in Nigeria, which across the country and among people my age, is brandishing alarming statistics!
“So, as I settle down to push my music through the streets of our country’s major cities in the next few weeks, I welcome you all to join me and my partners to carry the campaign of a drug-free Nigeria around.
“Through TAKDNI, we hope to request the partnership of individuals, groups, the media, institutions of government and other non-State actors to raise awareness on the dangers that lie ahead in the continuous use of such social drugs as cannabis, tramadol, codeine, pentazocine, methamphetamine, otherwise known as crystal meth or ‘mkpulumili’ in Nigeria’s Southeast, as well as cocaine, heroine and many others”, she said at a press conference on Thursday.
She also canvassed for better treatment and rehabilitation of drug users in the country, pointing out that “the current situation in which some of these users are flogged in villages, detained without food and treated as people without rights may as well be doing us more harm than good.
“Our recording label and my humble self have the vision to commence the building of at least, six state-of-the-art rehabilitation centres for drug users in each geopolitical zone of the country, in the first instance, before expanding further.”
President and Chief Executive Officer of the California-based Infinite Music & Entertainment Incorporated, Dr. Kester Ezuma, noted how the authenticity and morally impacting lyrics of Ada King captured the interest of his record label, and also resonating with larger music audiences.
“She has always showcased her hypnotic voice, filled with memorable lyrics about love and relationships. We are also working on signing other talented artists here in Nigeria.
“Infinite Music & Entertainment is back home to contribute its own quota to the development of the Nigerian music industry”, said Dr. Ezuma, while recalling a recent music talent hunt his firm organised recently at the Abuja orientation camp of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The record label’s Nigeria Country Director, Mr. Amaechi Okafor, said the support for young entertainment talents in Nigeria would continue, and that the winners of the NYSC talent hunt would be promoted worldwide as much as possible and likely signed on record deals; while the message against use of illicit drugs will be sustained to avert Nigerian streets littered with more “mad people” in the not so distant future.
