Taking the Drug War to the Grassroots
By Adekunbi Lawal
A few weeks ago, when it was in the news that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) graduated a new set of narcotics agents from training and another 2500 cadets due to pass out in a month’s time, the significance of that development was not immediately clear to Nigerians.
Not until last week, when the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), unveiled the plan to deploy anti-narcotic agents to the 774 local government areas of the country.
This is good news for the citizens of this country. We all can attest to the extraordinary performance of the agency in the past 33 months as it worked to curb the menace of illicit drug use and trafficking in our society.
The performance of NDLEA since Marwa took over its helm has been superlative, a fact no right-minded citizen would oppose.
The number of arrests made weekly and the quantity of seizures recorded so far, not to mention the number of convictions in court, have shown Nigerians the severity of the illicit drug problem in the country.
By the same token, the NDLEA performance has restored the confidence of Nigerians in its capability to rid our country of this menace.
While we can say with all sense of modesty that the country is in safe hands with Marwa and his NDLEA operatives, we shouldn’t overlook that some conditions must be met if the agency were to achieve its long-term objectives of making our society safe.
For instance, until October 17, the NDLEA workforce was about 9400, whereas the country’s population was over 200 million. We don’t have to stretch our imaginations to know that although the agency is working very hard, it lacks the numerical strength for effective policing against illicit drug trafficking.
That is why its latest recruitment of 5000 officers is a positive development. One can safely assume that the efficiency of NDLEA will increase once its workforce is beefed up with these new personnel.
Hearing Marwa confirm that NDLEA will post anti-narcotic agents in the 774 local government areas in 2024 is heartwarming. For Nigerians who are happy at the resurgence of the agency, this latest confirmation from Marwa reinforces the belief that the agency’s present rich vein of form is not a flash in the pan but a carefully planned reform that is sustainable well into the future and to the benefit of Nigerians.
