By Godwin Tsa

Brigadier General Muhammad Buba Marwa(retd), the chairman/ chief executive officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) is known for his tradition of excellence in any position he occupies. And he has occupied many.

He served as military governor of Borno and Lagos states during the military regimes of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Gen. Sani Abacha. One of his remarkable achievements in Lagos was that he truly made it a centre of excellence in terms of neatness infrastructural development.

Highly polished, intellectually deep and a pan-Nigerian, Marwa was once military attaché, Nigerian Embassy, Washington DC, USA, and defence attaché, United Nations, New York, as well as former ambassador to South Africa and the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland.

He obtained a Master’s degree in Public Administra- tion from Harvard University and another Master’s degree in International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. These are in addition to his training

in the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna.

Marwa, who hails from Michiga Local Government Area.of Adamawa State, also worked as Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) to develop a blue-print on how to end drug abuse in the country.

Since he became the NDLEA boss, he has reinvented the Agency.

On assumption of office, he declared: “Together, by the grace of God, we will resus- citate and reposition NDLEA to full active life, to be effective, respected and feared by concerned criminals. Nigeria

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is the only country we have, we cannot fold our arms. We can, will and must eliminate the drug scourge.”

Marwa issued marching orders to NDLEA men and officers on his first day at the headquarters. He tasked them with combating the illicit business that is posing a serious threat to the country.

He didn’t stopped at that, Marwa formed a harmonization committee to look into rank stagnation, promotion and other issues bedeviling the agency a few days later.

Indeed, his leadership at the NDLEA has ushered in a new era in Nigeria’s battle against substance abuse. The Agency has secured many convictions of drug barons even as many are waiting for their day in court.

Under Marwa’s watch, the Agency has recorded unprec- edented achievements, including the seizure of N30 billion worth of cocaine at at the Lagos airport, N32 billion worth of cocaine at Tin Can Port, 200kg of drugs at Kano and Abuja airports.

This was followed by confiscation of 26.840 kilograms of drugs said to be the biggest single seizure from an individual in the past 15 years.

Operatives of the agency also uncovered a village in Owan West LGA of Edo State where cannabis is grown. During the operation, they discovered 318 bags of 80kg each weigh- ing 25,440kg; 15,853 bags of 13kg weighing 206,089kg. While the total quantity seized was 2,249kg, others weighing 231,529kg were destroyed inside the warehouses.

As a kind hearted leader, Marwa recently presented over N163 million to widows and families of deceased officers of the agency as payment of burial entitlements that had been pending since 2014.

For Marwa’s exemplary performance in public service, The Sun honours him with an award.