One year after: Marwa’s irreversible revolution at NDLEA

 

There is overwhelming evidence that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has undergone a complete turnaround, and the war against drug barons, traffickers, and cartels intensified in the last one year since the assumption of office of retired Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

 

The rationale for the agency’s total transformation from its former comatose state, in our opinion, can easily be traced to its helmsman’s decisive resolve not only to change the old negative narrative but breathe vibrancy, dynamism, and energy into the anti-narcotic body that is statutorily charged with the responsibility of investigating drug-related crimes, enforcing drug laws, destroying narcotic plants and substances, among others.

 

In other words, we believe that the new innovative leadership and workforce of the agency who have demonstrated total commitment to its mandate requires the support and cooperation of all, government, citizens, and international partners for it to effectively fight the war against drug peddlers nationwide for the country to stamp out or drastically reduce the production and trafficking of hard drugs.

 

We recall that faced with intimidating statistics of what many had interpreted as a daunting task: an estimated 14.3million Nigerians hooked on drugs out of which over 10.6million are seriously addicted to cannabis (rated as the highest globally), Marwa,  the immediate Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the elimination of drug abuse (PACEDA) upon his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 16, 2021, was firmly abreast of the task ahead and determined to conquer the monster.

 

So, rather than despair, and perhaps energized by his pedigree and track record as a tested and trusted technocrat as well as the reputation of creating something positive out of nothing, upon assumption of duty, immediately had to identify the factors that clogged the agency’s wheel of progress.

 

In no time, therefore, according to the records, the CEO as is reminiscent of any visionary leader hungry to make a great difference and not ready to adduce reasons for failure, soon discovered that the morale of officers and men of the agency was at the lowest ebb due to multiple reasons since the establishment of the agency.

 

We further recall with satisfaction that back in January last year, the former military governor of Lagos and Borno states, hit the ground running, declaring during his maiden interaction with the personnel that: “Together, by the grace of God, we will resuscitate and reposition NDLEA to full active life, to be effective, respected and feared by concerned criminals”.

 

According to him, Nigeria “is the only country we have, we cannot fold our arms. We can, will and must eliminate the drug scourge”, adding that his plan to overhaul the agency was in total agreement with the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) he headed between 2018 and December 2020.

 

And with a mantra of ‘Offensive action’, the NDLEA boss, in no time after identifying the abnormalities, in conjunction with his team, began to address them frontally resulting in the promotion of those who had stagnated in certain positions for years, instituted, bi-monthly best-performing command award, which was later upgraded into the quarterly awards to reward ‘individual hard work and diligence of officers,  appreciate the collective effort of commands’ and ultimately strengthen the agency’s personnel for sterling performance.

 

Similarly, to beef up the manpower, more personnel were recruited, additional equipment procured, training and retraining of staff intensified, and strict implementation of intelligence-driven strategy in confronting drug barons and traffickers with amazing outcomes.

 

We found this motivational strategy very commendable and challenged other publicly-owned parastatals and agencies to borrow a leaf from the NDLEA for a positive change in their fortunes especially when gleaned from the fact that morale is recognized worldwide as the most important battle-winning factor even in war situations.

 

It should further be noted that the agency’s scorecard includes a string of successes not limited to the regular seizures of drugs among them heroin, cocaine, tramadol, cannabis, captagon worth over N100billion, the jailing of over 1,630 abusers as well as the counselling and rehabilitation of over 4,000 offenders.

 

But sadly, a major revelation in the record-breaking seizures by the agency so far was the unveiling of a hitherto uncommon but very potent drug known as captagon by Marwa, said to be in high demand by most criminals such as insurgents, bandits, cultists, robbers, kidnappers, and herders now on rampage across Nigeria but which originated from the Middle East and used by fighters of the Islamic State of Syria, ISIS.

 

A visibly-worried NDLEA boss noted: “It may interest you to know that as far as we know, this is the first time this drug is being brought into any African country South of the Sahara. This tiny, highly-addictive pill, widely available across the Middle East, produces a euphoric intensity in users, allowing them to stay awake for days, making them fearless, predisposes them to reckless action that puts the lives of people around them in jeopardy.

 

“What should give any discerning Nigerian a nightmare concerning this drug is the fact that its production and sale is controlled by militias and large criminal groups in the Middle East. And beyond any doubt, captagon has been linked to the escalation of the Syrian Civil War.

 

Further raising the alarm, he declared: “Lest we forget, captagon was the name of the drug found on the phone of the French-Tunisian terrorist who killed 84 civilians in France on Bastille Day in 2016. That is the drug we have on our hands now. If these facts are not grim enough, we should all remember a lesson from history, when in World War Two, Nazi Germany wreaked havoc across Europe with chemically-enhanced soldiers that the combined forces of Europe could not tame”.

 

However, considering the grave dangers posed by continued abuse of hard drugs on both the people and the future of Nigeria, we strongly advocate that government, citizens, non-governmental organizations, religious bodies, and foreign partners should firmly join forces with the NDLEA in its zero-tolerance for production, trafficking, and consumption of hard drugs for the war to be won decisively.

 

Specifically, its implementation of the National Drug Control Master Plan, NDCMP (2021-2025) and the War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, across the 36 states must be embraced by all to achieve overall objectives of completely eradicating the abuse of the illicit substances in the country or reduce it to barest minimum tenable which is in the national interest.

It’s a war that the citizenry cannot afford to sit on the fence but volunteer accurate information on the activities of drug barons and traffickers as well as provide logistics support to the agency.

 

In a similar vein, we totally oppose the proposed legislation seeking to legalize the production of cannabis on account of its medicinal value and potential to earn foreign exchange because of the glaring danger inherent in such a law. In our opinion, Nigeria is sufficiently endowed with abundant natural and human resources which, if properly harnessed, would make life not only meaningful for all but accelerate socio-economic and technological development.

 

Therefore, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, the Ministries of Information at federal and state levels, religious bodies, and NGOs should be empowered and mandated to launch sustained public awareness campaign on the dangers inherent in drugs abuse and trafficking even as we wholeheartedly support the agency’s advocacy for compulsory drug testing for candidates applying for admission into tertiary institutions, prospective couples, employees and above all public office seekers.

 

It is our candid view that most of the woes confronting the nation could have been averted if the necessary checks and diligence particularly a must-test for abusers of hard drugs was strictly enforced in the leadership recruitment process into public offices since the return to democracy in 1999, and on prospective candidates seeking admission into higher institutions where cultism has become endemic and innocent lives lost unnecessarily.

 

And given the grim figures from the Federal Ministry of Health that three in every 10 Nigerians suffer from one form of mental disorder or the order such as depression, anxiety, and substance abused-related, and our psychiatric hospitals unable to cope with the increasing number of mentally challenged patients, the citizens should as a matter of national emergency stand firm behind the revolutionary measures introduced by the Marwa-led NDLEA to save the nation from the scourge.

 

We further recommend the urgent formation of anti-drug societies and clubs in secondary and tertiary institutions for our young ones to fully appreciate the deadly consequences of drug abuse, the need to abhor it at all cost, while more emphasis should be placed on the teaching of moral values by authorities in public and private primary schools as part of overall national strategies to deal with the scourge. This will discourage the get-rich-quick syndrome which sometimes pushes the young ones into drug trafficking.