Lagos orders suspension of Shi-Sha smoking school girls, seek rehabilitation

The five female students of a school in Lagos state spotted in a viral video profoundly smoking Shi-Sha have been identified and suspended from school. The underage girls who were seen in the clip puffing smoke in their school uniforms while serenading to music playing in the background.

The footage within few hours of sliding into the media space drew widespread concerns among commenters on several social platforms and a famous public affairs commentator, Femi Fani-Kayode has blamed this mishap on failure of parenting.

Findings from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Youths and Socit Development, identified them as students of Oreyo Senior Grammar School, Igbogbo, Ikorodu area of the state.

It was later gathered that the alleged students were later suspended by the authorities of the school while the state government has called for their rehabilitation with immediate effect.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Tokunbo Wahab, confirmed the development.

Following this, report from People gazette noted that “Shisha which was formally popular mostly in the Eastern Mediterranean region is now gaining popularity globally and has become a trending tobacco product in Nigeria. Shisha smoking is a way of inhaling tobacco, sometimes mixed with fruit or molasses sugar, through the mouthpiece of a bowl hose or tube.”

“Shisha has different names depending on the region. It is also called water pipe, hookah, narghile, or hubbly bubbly. It is a means of smoking tobacco in which the vapor passes through water before inhalation.”

“In a recent study, titled shisha smoking in selected nightclubs in Nigeria,  the overall prevalence of shisha smoking was 7.1 per cent. The age of initiation into shisha smoking was lower among women, but men were significantly more likely to be more frequent users, daily or weekly users, and also to be current cigarette smokers.”

“The study also reported that specifically, shisha smoking has been documented to have hypertensive effect, it is also a risk factor for respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive airway disease, lung, oesophageal and gastric cancers, obstetric and perinatal complications such as birth defects and infectious diseases due to viral isolates such as herpes from the water pipe.”