Since the appointment of Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) as the Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 2021, the shape and scope of the war against illicit drug has dramatically and stupendously changed as the battle has been taken to the dark sides of the nooks and crannies of the country.
The retired General is no-nonsense personality who believes that the youths and even adults of this nation must be saved from the debilitating effect of illicit drugs. Having worked himself up the hallowed cadre of the Nigerian military and having served as military governor of Borno State and later Lagos State during his military days, Marwa developed the passion and concern to save the youth and indeed some misguided adults of this country from ruins.
During his service years as a soldier, Buba Marwa got in contact with the people whose lives and wellbeing had been made meaningless by illicit drugs; their vulnerability and conquest by hard drugs showed that if nothing was done, the 21st Century youths would have been wrecked and therefore gone. The General concluded that his beloved country, Nigeria needed to be saved from this an unusual turbulence. He pledged to respond to it squarely if the opportunity comes.
Interestingly, providence hit the rooftop later on in his life: few years after retirement, General Mohammed Buba Marwa was appointed Executive Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), an assignment that saw Marwa being offered the opportunity to walk his talk, his ambition and his dream. Using his military background as a springboard and special advantage, the NDLEA Chairman took the battle to not only the retail outlets, (known in the underworld parlance as Bunks), but to the jugular of the drug lords, Barons, traffickers etc who were hitherto untouched.
It was indeed bad news for drug lords, Barons and their kingpins, their agents/traffickers, their contacts in Nigeria and around the globe as they learnt in a hard way that a new Sheriff is in town. They tried to make him to compromise, but couldn’t reach him. It was indeed a brick wall. They sent proxies and the proxies were disgraced. They resorted to blackmail and got their fingers burnt.
Marwa refused to concede. He is determined to change history and does the obvious which haunts the Pablo Escobars of this world found in Nigeria. If Marwa had found himself in Colombia during the ‘reign’ of Escobar, he would have decimated him (Escobar) and his inglorious criminal gang the way he’s doing today in Nigeria. But nature has a way of planting people at different locations at a particular time. Recall that Escobar was the most powerful and dangerous drug trafficker in the world. He died in 1993 when Marwa was still serving as a soldier.
His excellent service as a courageous NDLEA boss prompted the President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the Commander of the Armed Forces to reappoint him in November 2025, an appointement widely acknowledged as putting a square peg in a round hole.
It will be noted that on assumption of office in 2021, the NDLEA boss, equipped with the certitudes of courage, dedication, commitment and patriotism to his fatherland, wasted no time in arresting over 77,000 Barons, drug lords and traffickers including drug patrons of different hues. The agency under his watch has made seizures worth over 20 million kilogrammes, according statistics available to this writer. This is possible because of the resilience, commitment and determination of the staff of the agency in the national headquarters and across Nigeria, who the Marwa continuously motivates.
Investigations by this reporter show that Marwa’s work ethics appears to be: ‘Service and Dedication, Untainted by Barons’. The workers, despite limited funding by the authorities, are following their leader because of his forthrightness and commitment to the execution this assignment with resounding success. NDLEA boss wants to get things done; he is impatient to get drugs routed out of the space of Nigeria, he is combative about it and makes no pretence on it.
However, his success in this regard is being hampered by inadequate funding. Investigations also reveal that NDLEA is grossly low rated in terms of financial allocations. Therefore, the rhetorical question remains: how can an agency that fights the Nigeria’s version of Pablo Escobar, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, Griselda Blanco etc be given little funds yearly to wage such great war? How can it win this all important war if the budgetary allocation is a little bit above zero level?
The cartels are not resting on their oars. They are not only increasing in myriads of hundreds on daily basis, but becoming more brutal, ferocious, vicious, dangerously aggressive, deadly, malicious sophisticated; using drones, manmade kites etc to ferry their wares. Why won’t the NDLEA be a step ahead of these criminals? What is delaying the authorities from putting the agency in the First Class list of paramilitary agencies?
It is disturbing to comprehend that NDLEA is still struggling to hold itself together financially in the comity of parastatals in the country. A courageous institution set up by the Law to eliminate illicit drug cultivation, processing, manufacturing, sale, export and trafficking as well as fight criminals engaged in hard drugs should be in the first line charge of government’s financial obligations.
However, despite, the modest budgetary allocations, Marwa’s unrelenting crusade against malpractices and corruption in the agency led the current win-win posture NDLEA is recording. Happily, his anti corruption campaign just like his war against illicit drug remains real and not cosmetic. They are depth and are etched in stone.
Today, myriads of hundreds of drug barons, drug traffickers and drug users are serving various prison terms in the country’s Correctional Institutions courtesy of the vigorous war being waged by the General Mohammed Buba Marwa’s led NDLEA. In March 2025, a 59-year-old drug baron was arrested by the operatives of the NDLEA after 17 years on the loose.
A week ago, the agency successfully arrested a fugitive drug lord wanted in the United Kingdom after jumping bail there. Last year January, the agency arrested some members of a drug cartel carrying out illicit business in an estate in Lagos. These ;Marwa’s boys’ in connection with the United States Agency for Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) carried out a successful sting operation in the estate and the result was enlivening: a huge haul was made and the seizure of the drug whose street value ran into billions of dollars was recorded.
The ‘Narco’ Trade war has also led the operatives of the anti hard drug agency to the nooks and crannies of Nigeria since Marwa’s appointment. In this regard, billions of dollars worth illicit drugs were seized and the traffickers and the barons arrested. 93 bags of cocaine were seized in one of the high profile escapades of NDLEA. I recall that in November 2025, a hideout of a notorious drug trafficker was raided in Lagos as drugs whose street value ran into millions of dollars were seized.
In fact, since he became Chairman of NDLEA, Buba Marwa has become synonymous with sanity, purity and calmness in the drug world. Sales outlets (Bunks) that were springing out everywhere across the country before he took over as the agency’s boss are disappearing as the patrons, mainly youths and students, are abandoning the “puff-puff” lifestyle and turning a new leaf.
Special commendations should be given to the international donors and allies who have at various points assisted the NDLEA to wage the war against these drug traffickers. They include: the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States, the government of United Kingdom, France and other partners who are continually providing technical knowhow, technologically based equipment and some necessary support.
However, it is not yet Uhuru for the drug war fighters as the ‘equipment’ to operate with optimally continues to be obsolete while the government looks the other way over the call to equip the agency with modern tools. The worry is that the Barons, the traffickers and addict/users are increasingly becoming ferocious against the lackadaisically attitude of the government. But the good news is this: beyond the insensitivity of the authorities, stands a man who has refused to compromise in the midst of obvious challenges.
Author:
Uche Nwosu, a Journalist based in Umuahia, Abia State
Shell BP Double Award Winner on Environment and on Investigative Journalism in the Year 2000
Onetime Special Adviser on Media to the Governor of Abia State (2019 – 2023)
