Recently, the media was awash with the success of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in ridding our society of the menace of hard drug abuse.
One of the actual threats to the nation and human security is the alarming rate of illicit drug trafficking (IDT). The
menace of illicit drug trafficking poses heinous threats to human lives, national development, and security.
Most of
the Nigerian borders are porous, therefore, giving room for the easy influx, movement, and exit of drugs. However, the failing economy, insecurity, high rate of graduate unemployment, poverty, failure of government to provide basic
necessities of life, high level of corruption, and get-rich-quick schemes among Nigerian youths constitute the
various banes behind the practice of illicit drug trafficking in the country. This study interrogates the obstacles and
threats posed by drug trafficking to human lives, state development, and national security. It assesses the
concerted efforts of the Nigerian government aimed at combating this menace with a plan to proffer solutions on how
to checkmate the disheartening phenomenon.
My experience as a journalist and undercover crime reporter when I was in Republic of Ireland exposed me to the inner circle of this underworld criminal organization.
They have a network among the staff of the NDLEA, and even put some of them on their payroll.
And with billions of naira at their disposal, they can easily influence any officer of the agency.
One of my contacts in America, a very highly-respected member of DEA, told me that few members of their staff were later found to be members of drug cartels. The more they stayed in one particular post/area posed a risk of them becoming a drug cartel member.
I had a personal experience in 2003. There was a particular parcel that was sent to Nigeria from Brazil. The parcel contained a large volume of cocaine. An officer of DEA in America informed me to contact their counterparts in Nigeria.
That was how we shared intelligence then. They gave me the number of another member of the Brazillian drug law enforcement team that will give me the necessary information that I will need to pass to my contacts in Nigeria.
Pronto! I jumped on the next flight to Rio de Janeiro Airport from my base in Dublin, met my contact, and got all the information, including the tracking number of the cargo.
I passed this information to NDLEA’s high-ranking officers in Lagos.
We started monitoring the parcel together.
But to my surprise, the day the parcel landed in Lagos, it was hurriedly handed over to the drug baron who imported it with the help of NDLEA and customs officials at the airport.
Till today, the NDLEA was unable to explain what happened and how the drug disappeared in Lagos.
I just told both the American and Brazilian governments to excuse me from anything Nigeria. That’s how I stopped communicating with the NDLEA to date.
So, I conclude that lack of adequate intelligence gathering,
insecurity, bribery and corruption, poverty, civilization, and porous borders stand as cogs in the wheel to appreciable
efforts at arresting the menace of the illicit drug business in Nigeria.
~ Mogaji Wole Arisekola writes from Ibadan.
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