Nigeria’s growing drugs-induced headache
According to its statistics, the increase in drug use in Nigeria is directly linked to the high level of corruption in the country. The report added that Nigeria is now an active player in the $6.8billion West African cocaine market, serving as a major route and market through which cocaine is trafficked from Columbia, the […]
According to its statistics, the increase in drug use in Nigeria is directly linked to the high level of corruption in the country. The report added that Nigeria is now an active player in the $6.8billion West African cocaine market, serving as a major route and market through which cocaine is trafficked from Columbia, the main hub of cocaine production, to other centres of distribution and consumption around the world.
Then there’s the alarming rise in trafficking through the Nigeria-Brazil route, evidenced by figures released by the NDLEA. A 47-year-old textile dealer called Folashade Muslimot was arrested as she arrived from Sao Paulo, Brazil aboard an Emirate flight at Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos. She said she engaged in illegal drug business because of poverty and was arrested with 2.250kg of cocaine concealed in bed sheets inside her luggage. Hers is one in many stories that point to the growth of that particular route.
In 1984, the Special Tribunal (Miscellaneous Offences) Decree No. 20 was promulgated by General Mohammadu Buhari’s regime, made retroactive and applied on three Nigerians, Bartholomew Owoh, Lawal Ojulope and Bernard Ogedengbe who committed drug offence before its promulgation. They were publicly executed on April 10, 1985 after being found guilty.
Drug control history in Nigeria covers many decades and one of the earliest elaborate legislation against them is the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance of 1935, which prohibited the importation, exportation, transit, production, sales and distribution of opium, coca leaves, cannabis, morphine, heroin or other dangerous drugs and their derivatives except by authorized or licensed persons. It was modified by successive governments which enacted new ones to move with the times. The decree was trailed by mixed reactions, which brought to the fore critical issues, like the need to protect the image of the country and the adoption of a commensurate punishment for drug trafficking.
A portion of the UNODC report reads: “To make real progress in the nation’s fight against hard drugs, the NDLEA must understand the crucial nature of their duty. There’s a need to be properly equipped with modern gadgets for detecting hard drugs wherever they are hidden. Also, there is need for closer surveillance on the cultivation of cannabis in different parts of the country.”