Ayo Oyoze Baje
“Our visit is to underscore the importance of our collaboration and to assure you that we’re ready to support your work. If there is any area of assistance you would like, we’ll be ready to assist you,”-Ms Candace Spradley ( Director of INL in Nigeria )
Leadership,viewed from different perspectives as it relates to individuals, communities and countries and considered from the dimensions of politics,the social and economic spectrums, succeeds when the drivers key into partnerships and collaborations with those who share in similar visions. As the renowned American entrepreneur Sam Walton once posited: ” Individuals don’t win. But teams do”. Yes, members of such a team must act like spokes in a bicycle wheel, each complementing the other to move the body forward.
In light of the above-stated, and as Nigeria grapples with different challenges in the search for good governance, one of the federal government’s agencies to glean lessons from is the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA ). With Brig. Gen. Mohammed Marwa ( Retd ) as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since assuming office on January 18, 2021, the agency has recorded outstanding and remarkable achievements in the frontal battle against the deceitful and devious demons of both drug trafficking and its abuse, especially by the rudderless youth.
For instance, while calling for a partnership with the United Kingdom, the UK, he revealed that the NDLEA within a short span of 38 months arrested a staggering number of 50,901 drug offenders, among whom were 46 key players in the nefarious trading of hard drugs, with 7,561 tonnes of the illicit substances seized. And out of these, some 9,034 offenders have been successfully convicted. This is a feat and one decisive blow to the drug barons and their consciousness cartels. But these would not have taken place without the support of its partners, including the security operatives from several countries across the world.
That perhaps explains the assurance given by the United States Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) with the pledge to keep supporting the NDLEA, more so in the continued fight against illicit substance abuse and drug trafficking. According to the Director of the INL, Ms Candace Spradley, during her visit to the NDLEA office in Abuja on April 28, 2025, in the company of her colleague, Ms Ada Aki, the United States government commends the giant strides taken by the Agency to carry out its statutory functions. In that wise, the INL has reiterated its commitment to deepening cooperation with the NDLEA. It is ready to do more to stem the tide of drug trafficking as well as its abuse.
It is interesting to note that in a similar vein to the support from the United States INL, the United Kingdom Home Office International Operations (HOIO) has extolled its collaboration with the NDLEA in Nigeria in the fight against substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking. It noted that the fight is yielding positive results, as evidenced by the streak of successes recorded by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in recent times.
That is according to the Head of UK Home Office International Operations, Victoria Pullen, who stated this when she led her colleague, Kristoffer Hawksfield, on a courtesy visit to Marwa to sign a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) between HOIO and NDLEA in Abuja.
Worthy of note is her gratitude to Marwa for “excellent cooperation.” Pullen said the challenge of drug trafficking is a huge global issue, which takes a huge global effort to try and counter.
“I think it’s evident by some of the recent successes and the volume of some of the illicit commodities that your teams are finding that that cooperation is working exceptionally well, and we are enjoying working with your team on those successes,” she said. She also acknowledges the willingness of the NDLEA teams to work with the HOIO and do things differently.
She noted that the commissioning of the NDLEA Marine Command Headquarters, built and donated by the UK government in Lagos, was a significant marker in the cooperation between the Agency and HOIO. One cannot agree less.
Good enough, in response Marwa expressed appreciation to the UK government for supporting Nigeria’s efforts to curb the scourge of illicit drug trafficking, especially with the building and donation of the Marine Headquarters facility to the Agency and a similar operational facility at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Command in Ikeja, Lagos, last year.
With such pragmatic partnerships from foreign countries, it is quite understandable that Marwa was able to defend NDLEA ‘s N67.5bn 2025 Budget before the House Committee on Narcotic Drugs and the Senate Committee on Drugs and Narcotics in Abuja, with the level of confidence that he did. That was on January 14, 2025. He is appreciative of the remarkable courage and commitment aptly demonstrated by both committees. That is the type of partnership that MDAS need to carry out their constitutional duties under a democratic dispensation.
The point being made here is the imperative of such symbiotic relationships to act as catalysts for the agencies to excel at their operations, all to the benefit of the people.
The NDLEA has, therefore, exhibited not just accountability and transparency in the discharge of its programs and projects but also shown value for the public fund made available to it. That is one profound lesson for others to learn from. It also explains why the agency keeps moving forward from one great achievement to another.
With such a high level of confidence the NDLEA has generated it is understandable why, as its spokesman, Femi Babafemi explained, it underscores the acceptance by some state governments to embrace its advocacy to make drug tests mandatory for appointees and employees. So, with that firmly in place, some politicians found guilty of the offence have been prosecuted. It makes a lot of sense, as the policy has been extrapolated to other sectors, with employers, higher institutions and even prospective couples also adopting the life-saving policy.
Still on the issue of partnerships, it is gratifying that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has pledged unwavering support for the NDLEA in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse. That is specifically so within the nation’s maritime corridors.
This resolve was emphasised during a courtesy visit by the NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), to NIMASA’s headquarters in Lagos. The meeting highlighted both agencies’ shared commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s waterways from illegal activities.
In the views of the NIMASA’s Director General, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, the NDLEA’s relentless efforts under Marwa’s leadership, which have brought tangible progress in combating drug-related crimes, are worthy of commendation.
Without such collaboration, it would have been one Herculean task for the NDLEA to discover an 80-room new hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, used as a cover for the distribution of illicit substances. A raid on the place uncovered a strong strain of cannabis with a total weight of 417.3 kilograms, worth a whopping one billion forty-two million five hundred thousand Naira! One can only imagine the number of precious lives such drugs would have wasted.
For the NDLEA to keep succeeding against all the odds, every one of us has to play their part as parents, teachers, preachers and opinion leaders; to act as the moral compass to guide our younger generation of Nigerians right on the path to success in life
