One of the actual threats to the nation and human security is the alarming rate of illicit drug trafficking and consumption in Nigeria. This menace poses heinous threats to human lives, national development and security. Most of the Nigerian borders are porous, therefore, giving room for 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-quickly syndrome among the youths in Nigeria, constitute the various banes behind the practice of illicit drug trafficking and use in Nigeria.
Nigeria as a nation has witnessed an increase in the illicit drug trafficking and consumption. This detestable business and lifestyle of some Nigerians has dished untold hardship to the nation in the area of increase in crime and other irresponsible acts. To curtail this destabilizing trend, the government of Nigeria at various times came out with measures to tackle this problem.
The war against drug trafficking in Nigeria started in earnest with the establishment of the Drugs Ordinance of 1935. This ordinance guided the then Board of Customs and Excise and the Nigeria Police to tackle drugs trafficking locally. Another important period in Nigeria’s war on drugs was the Decree No. 20 of 1984 which prescribed the death penalty for all those involved in drugs trafficking. However, due to public outcry this law was adjusted to between two years and life imprisonment, depending on the offence. The enactment of Decree 48 of 1989 saw the establishment by the Federal Military Government of an independent body known as the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to tackle the menace of drugs abuse and trafficking. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is a Federal agency in Nigeria charged with eliminating the growing, processing, manufacturing, selling, exporting, and trafficking of hard drugs. It was actually established by the administration of the former military President, Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida through the promulgation of decree no 48 of 29th December,1989, now an act of parliament whose major target was aimed at exterminating illicit drug trafficking and consumption in Nigeria.
The origin of drug trafficking problem in Nigeria can be traced to the period just after the Second World War when Nigerian soldiers who had served in Burma, India, came back with seeds of cannabis sativa plant
A 2012 report by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), submits that Nigeria tops the list with the highest trafficking and drug use in West Africa.
For some years running, there has been an increase in the sale and use of had drugs in Asaba, the Delta State capital. This has to do with the increase in population, which brought in people of different colour and creed. Today, the drug situation in Asaba is becoming worrisome as hard drug outlets are found in almost every street in the State capital. Sometime in 2023, a young child was killed and the younger one seriously injured by members of the NDLEA during a raid on hard drug corner in an area within the capital territory.
The drugs are mostly sold by young boys from the northern part of the country. They hide their prohibited commodities in the very deep drainage channels built by the State government to control flooding in Asaba. They know when genuine law enforcement agents are coming, so they are ever ready to run inside the drainage channels which can take them miles away.
It took me one good month to monitor the activities of these young illicit drug sellers and their buyers. I have watched the police arrest those that bought from the boys, not at the spot or at the point of buying, but some poles away. One begins to wonder why they cannot arrest both the sellers and buyers at the spot Those boys behave as if they control the law enforcement agents as they always know when they are coming.
The most disheartening is that I have seen law enforcement agents, becon on the boys and they bought from them. This is an indication that fighting the drug war will take a longer time to achieve. My interaction with the boys, revealed a lot of decay in the system. They told me that their big chief, who gives them the drugs to sell is highly connected and that he settles some of the security people. They told me that they are aware that they could be sent to prison if they are caught and convicted but said they were not afraid because their big chief gave them the assurance that nothing would happen.
These things are in the public domain, but who is going to save the society from the hands of some of the corrupt security personnel in the State. The problem is that the Delta State government gives adequate material and financial support to the security agents in the State, but their control masters are in Abuja. So all efforts made by the State government to tackle this illicit drug menace in the State, yields little positive results.
The Delta State government, however, has created some agencies that are putting efforts to tackle this drug menace, but the suspects arrested by them will always end up on the desk of the federal police and other security agents under the federal authority.
To ensure that this drug selling and consumption in Asaba is brought under control, those highly placed drug barons that use the young boys to sell the illicit drugs should be traced, investigated and prosecuted. If urgent steps are not taken, Asaba may be turned to an illicit drug capital. Let us act quickly to save our children from this growing drug menace in our capital city.