How Buba Marwa ‘Locked In’ NDLEA Officers, Ordered General Drug Testing

‘Charity begins at home’ is an old saying that we should first focus on those under our care before looking out for others. This must have weighed on the mind of Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa when he decided on one Monday morning to make officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) undergo an unexpected screening for prohibited drugs.

The officers, both juniors and seniors, did not have prior knowledge that the NDLEA chairman would subject them to tests for illegal drugs on arrival at their workplace.

Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson of the NDLEA, disclosed this when he featured as a guest on THE WHISTLER Forum held at the newspaper’s Abuja office on Friday.

“The chairman of the agency did not tell anybody…nobody was aware. We just resumed work on a Monday morning and he asked that the gate be shut. People could come in but nobody could go out. The moment you come in, you can’t go out and once you come in, you are railroaded to the conference room [where you’d be tested’,” said Babafemi who represented Marwa at the interview session.

Babafemi said be they junior officers or directors, the NDLEA boss ensured that everyone at the agency’s head office got tested.

He attributed the sudden huge volume of illicit drugs being confiscated by NDLEA officers to the unique leadership style witnessed by operatives of the agency after Marwa took office

In January 2022 when Marwa clocked one year in office, the NDLEA had declared that it seized cash and illicit drugs worth over N130 billion in the last 12 months, surpassing the achievements of any given year in the past 30 years of the agency’s existence.

Babafemi further spoke on Marwa’s recent recommendation that students seeking admission into higher institutions and undergraduates as well as political aspirants and public office holders should be made to take drug integrity tests.

The NDLEA boss had argued that no public office holder nor students under the influence of drugs can think straight and contribute meaningfully to society.

Asked to what extent he felt Marwa’s recommendation can help, Babafemi said: “I will tell you that it’s something that will largely help and is already helping.”

He said, “It is also part of the deterrence effect because when people, for instance, students, know that when they get to campus, they are going to undergo drug test, they would run away from it. So, that way you know drug is not something that will show in your bloodstream if you take it today. It is something that stays there for weeks or months.

“So, that puts them on their toes that they cannot afford to take this thing and gradually the attraction will be lost because he knows that when he gets to campus, he can’t take it, when he goes home on break, he can’t take it also because he is afraid that when he returns to school, he would undergo a drug test. So, gradually the urge for it would be lost. That is for students.”

He also recommended that prospective couples should be made to undergo such tests, noting that there is a strong nexus between drug abuse and domestic violence.

According to him, the NDLEA is already in talks with the clergies who are responsible for joining couples on how this could be implemented.

For politicians, Babafemi said: “We’re also asking [that for ] political office seekers, let the political parties also call for drug test. If they call for that, you will see that a lot of people would stand straight because you wouldn’t want to elect somebody to office, somebody that has access to public funds, who would take the money for roads and housing to go and buy cocaine and heroin. That would be tragic.

“You need somebody who is mentally stable to represent and lead you. But if you go and put somebody that is on drugs [into office], then I’m not sure you’re going to get the best representation. So, those are the reasons.”

The NDLEA spokesman noted that states like Kano have already started demanding such tests from political aspirants while urging others to follow suit.