THE GLOBAL BATTLE AGAINST DRUG ABUSE AND TRAFFICKING.

BY GODWIN UKAA.

June 26 of every year is World Drug Day. This is the day set aside by the United Nations, UN, for people to be aware of the dangers posed by hard drugs and Illicit Trafficking globally.

Since 1987 when UN instituted the day, most countries of the world including Nigeria have been commemorating it.

This is the day when countries turn their focus on strengthening action and co-operation in tackling illicit drugs in all forms.

This year’s theme is “Global action for healthy communities without drugs.” It reinforces the role that communities play in addressing the drug challenge in society.

The UN focus is a clarion call on nations to do more to tackle the menace of drugs and see the drug war as a collective responsibility of all. The world body therefore charged countries of the world to institute successful strategies in drug use prevention and treatment that would involve families, schools and communities to build on protective factors against all forms of drug abuse and trafficking.

The drugs in focus here are Opium/Heroin, Coca/Cocaine, Cannabis and Amphetamine-type stimulants.
                                            
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, world drug report released in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital, shows that the United States and mostly Europe are where cocaine, heroin are produced and highly consumed and trafficked at a global level of thirty-six percent.

Africa might not be a producing continent of such drugs but recent statistics reveal that it is becoming a drug transit zone through some countries in East Africa. In fact, in 2009, heroin seizures were highest in Southern and North
Africa.

However, Africa is not exempted from the drug menace, Cannabis herb which is known in local parlance as “marijuana, wewe, igboo or grass” is commonly produced, trafficked and highly consumed in Africa.

In West Africa, Nigeria is in the forefront on the battle against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. The Nigerian government in 1990 established the National Drug law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, for this purpose.

In its operational scorecard, the NDLEA revealed that this year alone, the agency has publicly destroyed over one hundred and thirty-four thousand kilogrammes of illicit drugs seized from major drug traffickers in the country.

Besides, almost two thousand suspected drug dealers were arrested and over ninety-nine thousand kilogrammes of various drugs were also seized. This is in addition to ninety-three hectares of cannabis farmland equally destroyed by the agency in Nigeria.

In fact, with  a committed trained workforce, the NDLEA has zero tolerance for corruption, it adopts detailed investigation, best practices in exhibit handling and diligent prosecution of offenders. Because of this, Nigeria was delisted from the United States drugs major lists in September last year.

But, for the drug law enforcement agency in Nigeria to sustain this momentum, some vital issues must be addressed.

NDLEA needs to be adequately funded by government. There is also need for the private sector, corporate organisations and other international agencies to compliment the efforts of government in this direction, as the effects of drug abuse knows no bounds.

In a country of over 150 million people, a paltry 3,300 staff strength of the NDLEA is not enough to police the
illicit drug business in the country.

Meanwhile,the Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Nigeria has been engaged in some sensitization programmes aimed at reducing the overall domestic demand for illicit drugs.

These include provision of information to the youths, the highly risk group, on the attendant problems of drug abuse and trafficking, the infusion of elements of drug education in the curriculum of the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. This is in educating the school pupils and students on the grave consequences of drug abuse and illicit trafficking.

It is also raiding cannabis farmlands, destroying the products and arresting the farmers in rural areas in the country.
At the airports, full screen of travelers is done and it has paid-off with the arrest of over two thousand persons this year alone.

The agency has also confisticated properties of convicts which run into billions of naira and even within its staff it was able to convict its former boss, Alhaji Bello Lafiaji for tampering with exhibits.

The battle against drug abuse and illicit trafficking in Nigeria is indeed a total responsibility of all and sundry. It therefore beholds on all members of the society to join forces with government and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to stamp out drug abuse and trafficking.

That way, Nigeria will have a society devoid of all forms of drugs and trafficking.           

 

Broadcast on Thursday July 06, 2011

 

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