We must remain resilient, drug war is a generational task, Marwa charges NDLEA officers

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.) has charged officers, men and women of the anti-narcotics institution to remain resilient in view of the persistent nature of the drug challenge, which he described as a generational responsibility.

He gave the charge on Thursday during the 12th Chairman/Chief Executive Officer’s Commendations and Awards ceremony at the Agency’s national headquarters in Abuja.

 At the event, Marwa honoured 274 personnel for outstanding performance in the discharge of their duties, and 18 best-performing commands as well as 19 NGOs and media organisations for their commitment to the war against drug abuse (WADA) advocacy in Nigeria.

According to him, “the war against illicit drugs is not a campaign with an end date. It is a generational responsibility. For every cartel we dismantle, intelligence tells us another will attempt to rise. For every corridor we shut down, traffickers will search for another route.” 

He explained that the fight against drug trafficking could never be won by enforcement alone, noting that NGOs work quietly within communities to walk young people back from the edge of addiction, while journalists have told difficult stories on trafficking routes, rehabilitation, and family recovery that are not always easy to tell.

He acknowledged that many more deserving organisations and media platforms across the country exist beyond the honourees, describing the gesture as “the beginning of a tradition, not a closed chapter,” and assuring that subsequent editions of the ceremony will continue to identify and honour more individuals and organisations doing similar work.

“The fight against drug trafficking and substance abuse was never going to be won by enforcement alone. It is won in the communities where NGOs quietly walk young people back from the edge of addiction. It is won in the newsrooms where journalists chose to tell the difficult stories, the stories of trafficking routes, of rehabilitation, of families rebuilding, even when those stories were not the easiest to tell. Our partners in civil society and the media have been the multiplier effect on everything this Agency does. You have taken our message into homes, schools, and communities that our uniforms alone could never reach.”

Marwa highlighted some recent major operations that he said captured the character of the Agency: the dismantling of the Amadi Simon drug cartel; the takedown of two Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine cartels operating within forests in Ogun and Oyo States; and the disruption of a tramadol cartel exploiting the Togo–Benin Republic–Nigeria corridor, which he described as a route that had for years fed a crisis of opioid abuse among Nigerian youth.

“These were not simple raids. They were the product of patient intelligence-gathering, cross-border cooperation, and officers willing to go where the criminals believed no one would follow”, he noted.

The NDLEA boss charged officers of the Agency to see the honourees as a standard to reach for rather than a ceiling to stop at, and urged partners in civil society and the media to view the recognition as an invitation to do more, not a reward to rest on.

He congratulated all recipients of awards and commendations, and thanked their families as well as Nigerians who continue to place their trust in the Agency.