Health
Economic hardship pushes more Nigerians into Drugs
...as NDLEA vows total war
Harrison (not real name) was an iron bender, who lived in Onitsha, Anambra State for a few years before returning to his community in Nsukka local government area of Enugu State in 2023. Each morning, as early as 7am, he and a handful of friends, all returnees from different cities, gathered at a local pub where they drank, smoked and whiled away time.
“It’s what keeps me going,” he says. “When I drink and smoke, I’m happy and don’t bother about life.”
Asked why he left Onitsha to return to the village, he said, “Cost of living became unbearable. And I was not getting jobs. Sometimes, I didn’t eat for a whole day.”
His friends have similar stories. Unable to find their feet in the city, they returned to the village for fresh start. But things didn’t turn out well either, and frustration soon set in, and they took solace in drugs and alcohol.
Videos of young people jumping into gutters after abusing drugs are commonplace in the country. More consumers means more business for drug dealers, and more desperation means more people willing to risk the drug trade.
“Part of the reason there is an uptick in kidney diseases amongst young people is that people just take anything to get high these days,” says Nnamdi Nnaji, a community youth leader in Amechi, Awkunanaw, Enugu. “There are many youths here, who take all manner of drugs. Because beer has become expensive, not many are able to afford decent drinks. So, they take adulterated stuff and cheap drugs. There is one they call skunk, which is widely taken these days.”
Disturbed by the trend, the government of Enugu State said on Friday that it will establish operational bases of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in all its 17 LGAs to combat illicit drugs and their abuses.
Deacon Okey A. Ogbodo, the state Commissioner of Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, stated this when he interacted with the state NDLEA Commander, Mr. Abel Sunu Wadahi, who paid him a courtesy visit in Enugu.
While decrying the negative effects of drug abuse on society, Deacon Ogbodo called for the involvement of traditional rulers, as chief security officers of communities; presidents general, religious leaders, and youth organizations to combat the scourge in the state.
“The community leaders know the victims of such abuse and their hideouts. Our ministry will partner in the advocacy. Also LGA chairmen will play key roles to enable NDLEA to achieve your goals. The fight is everyone’s fight and needs multifaceted collaboration.”
The state Commander of NDLEA, Mr. Abel Sunu Wadahi, had revealed that Enugu State is the highest in drug abuse among South East states with a total of 400,000 persons engaging in drug abuse.
A nationwide scourge
In 2024, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seized 2.7 million kilograms of illicit drugs across the country, up from 1.6 million seized in 2023. The agency, in 2024, also made 17,670 arrests, up from 13,664 arrested in 2023. In terms of convictions, the number also saw an uptick from 3,412 in 2023 to 3,4 27 convictions in 2024.
Of this total, the FCT accounted for 391, while Benue accounted for 251, according to their respective NDLEA commands.
The Benue State Commander of NDLEA, Esther Musa, who gave a breakdown of the state’s numbers, while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Makurdi, noted that 220 of the suspects arrested were male while 31 were female.
The commander said that 31 of the suspects were convicted on various jail terms, 39 of the cases were dropped, while others are ongoing. She added that the command seized different substances and drug exhibits from various suspects and also monetary exhibits.
“Cannabis sativa, popularly called weed, is the highest drug of them all. We were able to arrest one ton of cannabis (175.723 kg). The most common drug we have, Tramadol – 43 kg – was seized and withdrawn from circulation, and also Fitamin, 0.27 kg, Diazopharm 4.39 kg, and Codeine syrup 156.1 kg.”
The FCT commander, NDLEA, Kabir Tsakuwa, on his part, disclosed on Thursday in Abuja while highlighting the command’s achievements in 2024, that 365 of the suspects arrested were male while 26 were females.
He said the suspects were arrested during raid operations at different locations within the FCT by the men of field commands, area commands, squads, and operational teams.
The Abuja NDLEA boss said the command prosecuted 173 cases in court within the same period under review. He also said the command secured 72 convictions, adding that it has cumulatively 288 pending cases in court that were currently at various stages of prosecution.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), in 2021, said the South West and South-South geopolitical zones have the highest cases of drug abuse in the country.
On the occasion, he had noted that the rate of drug abuse in the South West was found to be 22.4 percent, South-South 16.6 percent, South East 13.8 percent, while the North East, North West, and North Central came after with 13.6, 12, and 10 percent, respectively.
Marwa had established a link between drug abuse and insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping, saying these crimes would continue to thrive until the issue of drug abuse was addressed.
No evidence of spike
However, while there’s been a seemingly noticeable increase in drug use amid the prevailing economic hardship, Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesperson, told Business Hallmark that the sheer uptick in the number of arrests or seizures does not necessarily indicate a spike in the number of people abusing drugs.
“Before one can draw a conclusion that there are more people doing drugs, there has to be a survey to that effect,” Babafemi said. “The outcome of the operations of an agency of government cannot be taken to draw such a conclusion.”
Babafemi explained that the number always fluctuates, depending on the effectiveness of the strategies adopted in a particular year.
“For instance, in 2021, we made 12,306 arrests. In 2022, that jumped to 14,152. And then, in 2023 it came down to 13,664. That’s why you cannot jump to the conclusion that there are more people doing drugs in 2022 because there were more arrests.
“But I can tell you from the operational perspective that the agency every year outlines its operation strategies and reviews the operations of the previous year and plans for the current year and deploys strategies and equipment. So, if there are variations in the number of people arrested, it is most likely that the strategies the agency deployed in that particular year were more effective and got these people into the net.
“But to say whether it is rising or not on account of arrests may be taken to be a fallacy of hasty generalization, because that will not be evidence-based unless there is a survey across the country that shows, indeed, that there is a rise. And I’m glad that we are in the process of conducting another survey following the one published in 2018.”
The 2018 survey conducted by the NDLEA in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicated that 14.3 million Nigerians abuse drugs, with the age of abusers ranging between 15 and 64 years.
But 2018 is a long time, and the findings may no longer reflect current realities. On Wednesday, Brig. Gen Marwa, the NDLEA boss, called for support from UNODC to conduct another survey.
Marwa, who spoke when he received the new UNODC Country Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Cheikh Ousmane Toure, and his delegation at the agency’s national headquarters in Abuja, while appreciating UNODC for its support over the years, outlined specific areas where further assistance is needed.
“These include Drug Use Survey: He emphasized the need for an updated drug use survey, noting that the last comprehensive assessment was conducted in 2018.
“We need a reassessment to determine the current prevalence, emerging trends, and the evolving drug abuse landscape. Marwa pointed out that the current NDCMP (2021–2025) would soon expire, necessitating the development of a new framework to guide Nigeria’s drug control efforts in the coming years.
Alternative Development Programme:
He urged UNODC to support NDLEA’s pioneering initiative in Africa, which seeks to provide alternative livelihoods for cannabis growers. If we can successfully transition them to legal and sustainable means of income, it will benefit both them and society,” Marwa explained.
Cannabis remains the most abused drug,
Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesperson, further told Business Hallmark that cannabis, popularly called “weed,” remains the most abused drug in the country and accounts for about 70 percent of seizures. This, he said, is followed by opioids, that is, codeine-based syrups like tramadol.
“Definitely, I can, without batting an eyelid, tell you that cannabis is the most commonly abused drug. That, you can also see from the 2018 drug use survey. Indeed, out of 14.3 million Nigerians that the survey captured to have abused illicit substances other than alcohol and tobacco, 10.6 million of them abused cannabis. And from our arrests and seizures, I can also tell you that almost 70% of those seizures were cannabis.
“The next is opioid, that is the codeine-based syrups like the tramadol. Last year alone, we seized more than 200 pills of tramadol. We are glad that we were able to contain that from coming into the country. Just imagine the kind of damage that could have done to public health and even our security.”
India, Ghana leading source of imports
Asked where most of the drugs come from, Babafemi explained that while large amounts of cannabis are grown locally, India accounted for the lion’s share of imported drugs, even as the country is also witnessing an influx of cannabis called Ghana Loud from Ghana, Nigeria’s West African neighbours.
“If you take a view or survey of our statements every week, you will notice that most of the opioids come from India. And when you also look at cannabis, which is the most commonly abused drug, it is grown locally here. We try the best we can to go deep into the forest to destroy the plantations before it is processed and sent into our communities.
“But we have also seen that because of the effects of our efforts in that regard, these people also devise to another means of going to Ghana to bring in what is called Ghana Loud. They are bringing it through the waters and the land borders.
“But they are also having us to contain with. We have a very active and effective marine command that is working round the clock around the beaches in Lagos and across the country to ensure that these things are not smuggled in.”
Last week, the agency announced that it intercepted large consignments of Ghanaian Loud smuggled into Lagos in two trucks and a J5 bus, which weighed 14, 524.8 kilograms.
Babafemi, who disclosed the development in a statement on Sunday, said the three vehicles conveying jumbo bags of the psychoactive substance were trailed and intercepted at the Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday, January 28.
“In the process of blocking the vehicles, two of the drivers jumped off on motion while the third driver, 66-year-old Nasiru Ojomu, who works with wanted Akala, Mushin-based drug baron, Suleiman Jimoh (alias Olowo Idi Ogede, also known as Temo) was arrested.
“In the last three years, NDLEA operatives have seized several shipments of the same psychoactive substance worth billions of naira linked to Temo. The wanted drug lord has since gone into hiding while the Agency continues a manhunt for him,” he stated.
Earlier in August last year, the NDLEA had also announced that it intercepted no fewer than 60 jumbo bags of Ghanaian Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 2,400kg, in Lagos.
Yet, in 2022, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Lagos State command, intercepted 101 bags of suspected Ghana Loud worth N64m.
Then NSCDC Lagos Commandant, Okoro Eweka, who disclosed the development while addressing newsmen, had said the consignment was seized on the high sea close to Ibeshe waters.
Babafemi said the variety called Canadian Loud is also being smuggled into the country through used cars and other means.
“You also have the synthetic variant, which comes in from Canada and the USA. These synthetic ones called loud or Colorado usually come through imported vehicles or waybills. But we have also been blocking them from finding their way into the country.”