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It has been about 32 months since Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa was appointed to office as chairman and chief executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Reflecting on his outing thus far, Marwa has in those months recorded more wins in the fight against illicit drugs than his predecessors. In fact, it could be argued that within those months he made his predecessors seem like they spent their time in office either snoring after some doses of substance or they merely looked the other way and allowed the illicit drug dealers have their fun.
Those who know Marwa very closely say he has always been a man after results. This suggests that he is rather more interested in delivering results than he is in the appeals of the office. Many recall his days as Milad of Lagos State and the ferocious alacrity with which he attacked bad roads in the state. His ‘activism’ on Lagos roads ended a regime of sad tales about the non-availability of bitumen, which was the popular line of defense of his predecessor in explaining why Lagos roads could not be fixed before he was replaced with Marwa. For those who recall, Lagos roads had craters that could swallow cars, yet his predecessor had his fun administering the state and managing its resources while excusing his incompetence with the argument that there was no bitumen anywhere to fix the roads.
Back to NDLEA. The last time I engaged minds on this page over drugs, I wondered how many Nigerian youths have become slaves, or, becoming slaves to mkpurummiri. I am told that it is better known as crystal meth. Well, its fans in the south east know it as mkpurummiri or mkpulummili in some parts of the region. The reality then was that many young people found in the drug, an escape from the pain of poverty or joblessness.
They engaged and they enjoyed though the after effects were as devastating as they still are today. It never changed. I had thought that NDLEA was not aware of the prevalence of the abuse of crystal meth. To an extent, I argued within myself that NDLEA operatives must either own some of those ‘laboratories’ where those things were manufactured, or, they collaborated to provide cover with the actual owners for fat returns. I may be wrong. I may be right. Experiences are personal and many Nigerians have had personal experiences of the reality. We leave it there!
The thing here is that Marwa has shown us how illicitly drugged Nigeria is. His harvest of arrests of illicit drug lords, indicated that the problem is entrenched, much more entrenched than many had thought. UNODC, which I am told stands for United Nations Office for Drug and Crime, has an entry on its website which reads: “Nigeria is a transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for European, East Asian, and North America markets”. It further stated that “Since 2004 drug traffickers have been increasingly using West African countries, including Nigeria, for smuggling large amounts of cocaine from South America into Europe and North America”.
One would wonder why South American cocaine, meant for North American markets, has to transit Nigeria before entering North America. If you analyse the regional map again, you will find that from South America to North America is closer than going round the globe through Nigeria. But there is a reason… lax and compromised security.
UNODC is not yet done with Nigeria. It further states that “the country has relatively high rate of drug abuse due to the continued availability of illicitly manufactured and diverted pharmaceutical products containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. The most abused drug in West Africa is cannabis, mainly in its herbal form. Cannabis is locally produces all over the region and it is therefore affordable”.
That office gives the statistics on drug abuse in Nigeria to be at 14.4 percent, as per 2022 estimates, which represents about 14.3 million people aged between 15 and 64 years. That’s the number of folks that UNODC says abuse drugs in Nigeria. Many above 64 are deeply entrenched in consumption of cannabis too.
Marwa’s NDLEA has proved UNODC right. The manner in which illicit drug barons are busted by ‘Marwa Boys’ has created a new image for the agency which is consonance with its mission that aims at “total eradication of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances by cutting off the supply of illicit drugs and bringing suppliers to book…” For me, it is the bringing to book angle to the mission that is yet to win the heart of Nigerians.
Marwa’s NDLEA may have been successful in busting and arresting illicit drug dealers, but it is yet to achieve convictions at the same rate that it is arresting. This is the point where many Nigerians get worried. For instance, many Nigerians ask to know what happened to the Ikorodu drug warehouse bust. The last many heard about it was that some of the evidences taken from the warehouse had been destroyed. So, is that all? Was that end of ‘Solomon Grundy’?
Marwa is doing well at NDLEA, no doubt. He has given the agency a new name and new meaning. He is proving that he is not comfortable with what his predecessors tolerated. He has shown the meaning of preparedness and that has made NDLEA to be taken seriously across Nigeria.
The mere mention of NDLEA causes trepidation among illicit drug users and dealers. At least, they now know that someone will take action. However, the actions do not need to stop at arrest and destruction of farms and illicit drugs seized from warehouses. The agency needs also to convince Nigerians with detailed and serious minded prosecution that delivers results.
That is the surest way of letting Nigerians, and the illicit drug trade ring, to know that it is now game unusual. But again, there is another angle to it and this is located in the problem of illicit drug hawkers and hawkers of sex enhancement drugs in gardens and parks across Nigeria. These unregulated products are openly hawked in public gardens and parks by persons who know next to nothing about their chemical compositions and side effects.
The only knowledge they have of then is “na man power”. While this may not look like the real problem, importers and distributors of those ‘man power’ drugs are also making fortunes at the expense of the health of Nigerians.
