I have often wondered why some adventurous and daredevil people choose to serve as merchants of illicit drugs and masterminds of drug cartels. The growing practice has defied sociological, psychological and physiological explanation. While poverty, as well as economic and financial deprivation could compel people to fall into a life of crime, these deficiencies do not constitute a justifiable ground on which people could embrace illegal drug marketing. 
Every society is known by the way it responds to, treats, and manages socioeconomic problems. There are countries with higher levels of poverty than Nigeria and yet fewer of the citizens engage in illegal drug trafficking. Many governments are taking the fight against drug trade beyond their borders essentially because consumption of the drugs is harmful to human health.
The question must be asked: What do Nigerians find attractive or rewarding or fulfilling in illicit drug marketing? Surely, there are better, less dangerous, more rewarding, and more legitimate businesses than drug peddling.
Within the past six weeks, officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested or intercepted within the country hard drug couriers and large consignments of illegal drugs. The agency must be beating its chest about the successes it recorded in July and August this year. Within that period, the NDLEA achieved the following: arrested an Italy-bound woman who was captured with 100 packages of heroin and two bundles of the same illegal product at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; seized at the cargo shed of the airport a consignment of illicit drugs bound for the United Kingdom. The package comprised 66.600kg of cannabis sativa, 1.600kg heroin, and 1.450kg of cocaine, all of which weighed 69.65kg hidden inside cosmetics.
During that period, NDLEA officials confiscated another package containing 25.8kg of cocaine and cannabis, both hidden inside food items destined for London. Also seized around the same time in Benue State were 65.436kg of diazepam tablets. In Delta State, 286.3kg of cannabis were confiscated at Ogwashi-Uku.
The arrests and interceptions are astonishing. They point to widespread trade in, and use of, illegal drugs in Nigeria, including those intended for overseas destinations. These developments show that some people are desperate to work as drug couriers despite the risks to their lives, the harsh punishment imposed on them, and capital punishment inflicted on convicted carriers in some countries. In an article published five years ago, I wondered why some Nigerians would juggle knives in the dark by endangering their lives through illegal shipping of drugs to foreign countries, particularly Southeast Asia where conviction for drug trafficking attracts immediate execution or a lifetime in jail. In that region, there is no state pardon for convicts.
The execution of four Nigerians in Indonesia in April 2015 for illegal drug trafficking, and the killing of three other Nigerians in July 2016 for drug offences in the same Indonesia have failed to discourage some Nigerians from that illegitimate and deadly business. It is unthinkable that our citizens should turn Southeast Asia into a hub of their illegal business.
Why would anyone take a long-distance flight to Southeast Asia with a load of illicit drugs in order to make quick money, to live a short-lived life of ostentation and to transform themselves into temporary celebrities? In the hard drug business, money and life do not interconnect and do not last long. The illegal money is seized by anti-narcotic officials and the courier’s life is snuffed out by the executioners’ bullets within weeks or months following conviction. What a life of tragedy.
Why would anyone push their luck intentionally and dangerously too far? What do some people find extraordinarily irresistible in dealing in illegal drugs?
Every time Nigerian citizens are executed overseas for drug trafficking, our image goes down a notch in the global community. The executions raise distressing questions about the kind of people we are, and the kind of government we have. There are also questions about the measures put in place by the government and security agencies intended to end that illegality and to save citizens from losing their lives unnecessarily.
Consider this. Indonesia is thousands of kilometres away from Nigeria. But that geographic distance has not put off some hard drug couriers from travelling to that country in search of grubby money. It is odd, isn’t it? While some people do everything to protect and prolong their precious lives, others seem determined to end theirs quickly and ignominiously.
Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have tough, hard-nosed laws against illegal drug trafficking. In these countries, death by hanging or execution is usually the punishment for convicted drug couriers. Visitors to the countries and their own citizens are warned about the dangers and the harsh penalty for trying to bring in drugs. That means nobody could make the lame excuse that they did not know about the death penalty law for drug trafficking.
The Federal Government needs to strengthen security at all international airports and toughen the laws against drug pushing. Perhaps the government has done so, and the dividends could be the increasing arrests and interceptions by the NDLEA of illegal drug pushers and their wares.
The war against drugs should not focus only on prevention. The strategy should include exploring the forces that are driving Nigerian drug lords to engage in that deadly business. Understanding the factors that push people into hard drug business would help the government to develop ways to deal with the problem. The government might want to look into how the mindset and values of Nigerian youth could be changed to make them aware that there is no honour in trading in hard drugs at home and overseas.
Some reasons have been adduced to account for why Nigerian youth are trading in illicit drugs. First, there is the notion that citizens are attracted to illicit drug business when they cannot find legitimate sources of livelihood. A related explanation is that people tend to embrace crime when all avenues to earn decent incomes are shut down. This is what usually happens when people are pulled down by social and economic challenges without hope for redemption.
While these arguments might appear unassailable, a closer examination will show they are tenuous. Surely, Nigeria is not the only country with a large population of neglected people. As noted previously in this essay, there are African countries that are worse economically and yet their citizens do not engage in illicit drug trade. Perhaps it is fair to say that Nigerians who trade in illegal drugs do so because they are driven by greed.
The rising number of arrests of drug traffickers, as well as interceptions of drug packages intended for other countries, should alert the government, the NDLEA and other anti-narcotic agencies that the illegal practice is spreading. This means the government and the NDLEA must undertake sustained public information campaigns aimed to promote awareness about the dangers of trafficking in, and consuming, illegal drugs. I cannot remember the last time I saw or heard about such a publicity. It is virtually non-existent.