Nigeria’s Failed Drug War

The war against drug trafficking in Nigeria does not seem to be succeeding and latest developments at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, are even more worrisome.

With a negligible staff strength of 5070, the NDLEA has not been able to train about 2096 officers it recruited a year ago because it does not have N780 million for the purpose, according to Ahmadu Giade, the agency’s chairman.

He says when the agency got approval for the recruitment of the officers he did not anticipate delay in the release of funds for training cost N780 million. He says drug control is sensitive and the training must match the functions of the officers and in the interim, he had to use his discretion to conduct their documentation and deploy them to their states of origin for orientation programme.

“This was merely introductory and does not suffice for the basic narcotic course. Consequently, I directed the commanders not to engage them in critical operational assignments save for routine administrative duties,” Giade told the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption last week.

Disturbingly, Giade’s explanation shows that the recruited officers have been collecting salaries for over a year while doing very little in their states of origin. According to the NDLEA, these 2096 officers have only been engaged in drills for physical fitness and skeletal administrative duties and not in drug war a year after they were employed. This is preposterous and makes the whole recruitment exercise look like Nigeria’s own form of social security for the less-privileged and the elderly.

The NDLEA says it needs over 20,000 officers to police more than 140 entry points into Nigeria and to effectively man the 36 State Commands and 11 Special Area Commands in the country. But for now, NDLEA officers are present in just about 20 percent of entry or exit points into Nigeria, with the agency not even present at seaports where the biggest chunk of illicit drugs are believed to be coming through.

Worse, the five body scanning machines that have been installed at Nigeria’s four international airports were all donated by the United States Government. Although the scanners are not exceptionally expensive, the Federal Government did not show any seriousness in purchasing them until the United States did.

Even more disturbing is the fact that drug convicts in Nigeria are given very light sentences and fines. It makes the whole war on drugs seem like a child’s play. Daily, Nigerians are inundated with news of arrests of drug traffickers by the NDLEA, but the story almost stops there as most suspects are either released or jailed for a few months.

At our airports, aides of VIP such as governors, kings, ministers and businessmen are not searched. There is no scanner at presidential wings of any Nigerian airport. Some of them may be smuggling drugs within and outside Nigeria.

The news of the arrests are only meant to attract international donors and deceive the international community into believing that Nigeria is a part of the global war against drug trafficking. But fundamentally, nothing is being done. No real drug war is being fought. This is not a good example for a country that claims it wants to eradicate illicit drug abuse and trafficking within its boundaries.

As NDLEA has warned before, we must not wait until we are like Mexico with a horde of drug-related deaths recorded on daily basis before we get serious about fighting illicit drug traffickers and barons. The time to act is now. We call on the Federal Government to disburse the funds to train the recruited officers as well as have a concrete plan to rapidly increase the number of anti-narcotic agents in Nigeria.

The government must also increase the budget of the NDLEA and ensure that the agents are not only present at the country’s seaports but are empowered to conduct searches unhindered. Training of officers on intelligence gathering must be taken seriously and gadgets needed for such exercises must also be purchased. The government must also engage in aggressive awareness campaigns on the dangers and consequences of drug consumption and abuse.

It is only when we do this that we will demonstrate to the international community and to Nigerians that we are serious about drug war in Nigeria. Until this is done, the drug war remains a huge joke.