President Muhammadu Buhari recently appointed former military governor of Borno and Lagos states, Maj.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd) as the Chairman/CEO of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Marwa, who has since assumed duty, replaced Col. Muhammad Abdalla (retd), whose tenure expired in January 2021.
His appointment came at a time of frightening consumption of illicit drugs in the country. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse, about 15 per cent or 14.3milion adults in Nigeria use psychoactive drugs.
This rate is much higher than the 2016 global average of 5.6 per cent among adults. This shows that the number of Nigerians taking illicit drugs has become alarming and must be checked. There is no doubt that Marwa is adequately equipped for the task ahead having had a remarkable career in the military, which spanned many decades.
More importantly, he worked as the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) between 2018 and December 2020. In this capacity, he worked with other reputable individuals to develop a blueprint on how to end drug abuse in the country. We hope that the experience he gathered at PACEDA prepared him to tackle the challenge of illicit drug abuse that is ravaging the society, especially among young Nigerians.
Moreover, his integrity, high sense of duty and conviction will go a long way to enable him shoulder the enormous responsibility entrusted on him. With his sterling credentials and work experience, Marwa is indeed the right man for the job. Therefore, Nigerians expect him to approach his appointment with utmost commitment and sincerity of purpose. The task before him is enormous but achievable.
We believe that the new NDLEA boss must reverse the ugly drug trend. Sadly, stopping the illicit traffic of dangerous drugs has not been easy for the Nigerian authorities. Recently, security agents seized over 500 million tablets of Tramadol at Lagos ports. In 2019, over 621,000 illicit drugs were seized at the ports. Some pharmaceutical companies may be complicit in the supply of illicit drugs to users.
We urge Marwa to collaborate with all the stakeholders in the health sector to stem the development. He should, however, carry the NDLEA workers along. There is need to ensure discipline in the agency. Interestingly, Marwa has stated that while dedicated staff will be rewarded, the delinquent ones will be punished. In the same vein, he has given commanders of the agency across the states marching orders to mop up illicit drugs all over the country.
We hasten to add that keeping illicit drugs off the streets requires the cooperation of all workers in the agency as well as other Nigerians. They must rid the country of manner of drug traffickers. This is crucial because there is a link between drug use and criminality. There is no doubt that the rise in nefarious drug activities can be linked to the current upsurge in crimes in the country.
We, therefore, urge the NDLEA boss to keep his word to be hard on drug traffickers, exporters and importers operating in the country. Nigerians expect no less from him.
The new NDLEA boss, who was born on September 9, 1953 in Kaduna, Kaduna State, hails from Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Marwa attended the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, as well as the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
Later, he obtained a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. Marwa was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in the Nigerian Army Reconnaissance Corps and later moved to the Armoured Corps. He has also held other posts in the Nigerian Army. He was the deputy defence adviser in the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Since Marwa has promised to ensure efficiency in the operations of the NDLEA, we want to remind him to fulfill it. We also congratulate him on his new appointment and wish him a successful tenure.