Abuja’s drug menace must be addressed as a national emergency

The recent exposé on how deeply drug abuse has permeated Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, is both alarming and distressing. It demands more than routine condemnation—it calls for a holistic, multi-layered response that addresses the menace at its root. An investigative report aired on Trust TV and published in this newspaper revealed the disturbing extent to which […]

The recent exposé on how deeply drug abuse has permeated Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, is both alarming and distressing. It demands more than routine condemnation—it calls for a holistic, multi-layered response that addresses the menace at its root.

An investigative report aired on Trust TV and published in this newspaper revealed the disturbing extent to which Abuja has become a hub for illicit drugs. Nigeria, once largely a transit route for narcotics in the 1980s and 1990s, has now tragically evolved into a consumer country. Victims, mostly youths, are wasting away under the influence of hard substances.

A 2018 survey by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimated that 14.4 per cent of Nigerians used illicit drugs—far above the global average of 5.6 per cent. This has turned many citizens into fuel for a multibillion-dollar global drug industry, with Abuja now believed to be in the driving seat.

According to the report, behind Abuja’s polished exterior of clear streetlights and visible security presence lies a thriving drug economy. Transactions take place in broad daylight—sometimes just metres away from law enforcement agents. At night, dealers openly hawk narcotics and offer delivery services directly to customers’ doorsteps.

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Most shocking, however, is that one of the city’s major drug hotspots, an area called Tora-Bora, lies not far from the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) headquarters and about a kilometre from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Despite this proximity to national security institutions, dealers operate openly, seemingly unbothered by the presence of law enforcement personnel.

Their confidence appears to stem from a troubling history of impunity. One dealer alleged that some operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) previously colluded with traffickers to release impounded drugs marked for destruction, which were then resold on the black market. While the NDLEA dismissed the claims as baseless, it admitted to facing significant challenges in its enforcement efforts. These include financial incentives for traffickers, legal bottlenecks in securing convictions, and frequent attacks on its officers.

Nevertheless, the NDLEA reported arresting 1,819 suspects—comprising 1,738 men and 81 women—in the Federal Capital Territory over the past three years. During the same period, it seized 33,510.3 kilogrammes of illicit drugs and 293.1 litres of codeine syrup, while securing 529 convictions.

While these figures suggest some progress, the scale of recovery is negligible, compared to the drugs in circulation. The agency must do more, particularly in surveillance and intelligence gathering, not just to apprehend street-level couriers but to dismantle the powerful trafficking networks behind them.

There is no doubt that enforcement remains lax. Drug abuse fuels violent crime, not only in Abuja but across the country. The normalisation of drug use is exacerbated by lenient sentencing. Too often, convicted dealers are given the option of paying a paltry fine or serving short prison terms—only to return as a worse threat to the society.

Addressing this crisis must begin with effective border control. Any serious effort must start at the country’s entry points—airports, seaports and land borders. The Nigeria Customs Service must rise to its responsibility. These illicit substances cannot flood the country without negligence or outright collusion.

It is commendable that the National Assembly has taken notice. A motion by Senator Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila (Kano) called for the establishment of a special committee to investigate the findings of the Trust TV report. According to him, the committee should audit security agencies, track drug seizures, recommend prosecutions and protect whistleblowers throughout its transparent proceedings.
The motion also recommended launching of community surveillance programmes to train local task forces in drug hotspots to gather intelligence using secure hotlines and mobile apps.

Further, it urged the Senate president to convene a national summit on drug abuse to bring together key stakeholders for in-depth deliberation and action.

Importantly, the motion proposed compulsory drug testing for all individuals seeking elective or appointive office. This measure—already in place in states like Kano—should be adopted nationwide. There are credible reports that some politicians fuel this crisis by supplying drugs to youths during elections to execute violent activities on their behalf.

While these proposals are laudable, we must acknowledge that drug abuse is a societal problem that cannot be solved by arrests alone. It requires societal re-engineering through sustained sensitisation. The family must take primary responsibility for shaping its members, while the state must support this effort with aggressive campaigns through the National Orientation Agency and media organisations.

Without urgent and coordinated action, we risk losing an entire generation to addiction while allowing criminal networks to tighten their grip. The time for complacency is over; this crisis demands immediate intervention at all levels of the society and government.

The drug crisis in Abuja must be declared a national emergency for it graphically and undeniably illustrates how far the epidemic has spread across the country.