A notification popped on my screen minutes after the NDLEA Twitter space was declared open for questions and observations on a fateful Friday. For the uninitiated, NDLEA Twitter Space is a weekly broadcast I co-host with Mr. Femi Babafemi, the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, every Friday on the agency’s official Twitter handle, @ndlea_nigeria, to broaden public enlightenment on drug-related issues in Nigeria.

Without hesitation, I quickly clicked on the popped-up notification, and I discovered that it was a private message from a Twitter user. In summation, the anonymous user asserted that she resides in Kano and that she is battling with the habit of consuming illicit drugs. She added that she has made up her mind to stop, but she needs professional help in doing so, and her biggest challenge is that she cannot come out and speak about her addiction due to the negative attitude of the general public towards drug users, especially women.

She compared her addiction to a grenade, the pin of which would be removed if she sought professional help. She also asserted that she had kept her drug addiction a secret from her family and would like it to remain so. After stating these, she asked that I keep her identity a secret (for fear of stigmatization) and read her message on the space while she listens to the solution that the panel of discussants would proffer to her predicament. I did read the message, and she received advice on what to do right away.

In the world of drug addiction, stigma is the devil, trampling victims’ rights in a variety of ways, including mockery, the inability to access both conventional and non-conventional treatment, difficulties in job employment, social humiliation, interpersonal rejection, devaluing thoughts about oneself, seclusion, and/or avoidance of intimate contacts.

I can’t think of a more apt scenario to illustrate how social stigma actively impedes people with substance dependency from accessing counseling, treatment, and reintegration than this young lady’s case. Apparently, she has made up her mind to leave behind the habit of taking illicit drugs, and she understands that to do that, she needs professional help from experts. Her chances of receiving treatment and rehabilitation are minimal, which is unfortunate because of a variety of issues, including social stigma and the ensuing discrimination associated with being recognised as a drug user in society.

Stigma, according to Wikipedia, is a Greek word that originally referred to a type of tattoo or marking that was cut or burned into the skin of people with criminal records, slaves, or those who were thought to be traitors in order to clearly identify them as allegedly flawed or morally impure individuals. Social stigma refers to the disapproval of or prejudice against a person or group because of perceived traits that set them apart from other members of society. Social stigma, as it relates to addiction, is the holding of strong, detrimental attitudes, prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination frequently associated with substance misuse and addiction.

Stigma affects all of us, and nearly everyone has felt stigmatised or has stigmatised others at some point in their lives. In a study done by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the general public was more likely to have negative attitudes towards those dealing with drug addiction than those who were dealing with mental illness. This therefore drives home the fact that drug addicts are the most susceptible to stigmatisation in society.

The particular reason for the circumstance is that drug abuse has dire social and moral repercussions, even when the person is undergoing treatment, due to its stigma. Drug addiction has typically been seen as sinful or the result of poor self-control. And relapsing after treatment is frequently and ignorantly misconceived as a lack of willpower to stop drug use. These grossly inaccurate opinions exacerbate stigma and make it harder for people to get essential care.

In the world of drug addiction, stigma is the devil, trampling victims’ rights in a variety of ways, including mockery, the inability to access both conventional and non-conventional treatment, difficulties in job employment, social humiliation, interpersonal rejection, devaluing thoughts about oneself, seclusion, and/or avoidance of intimate contacts. These, summed up, greatly affect the user and frustrate recovery.

What is the way out?

Empathy is the antidote to stigma. In the absence of empathy, stigma creeps in. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes or to understand their emotional condition. It serves as the cornerstone of all successful relationships, whether personal or professional. If you cannot imagine how another person is feeling in a given situation, you are at a significant disadvantage and may not behave appropriately towards them.

Furthermore, there is a fundamental need to step up institutional and social initiatives to combat the stigma associated with drug usage. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, established a toll-free helpline: 080010203040 in response to these demands.

Empathy is a critical component of rehabilitation and must be fostered by addicts, their loved ones, and experts above all else. Addicts themselves need to have an empathic outlook on their interactions with other people. Addiction is a long-term illness that alters the brain’s chemistry and, consequently, a person’s priorities. This creates a pattern of egotistical conduct and concentrates all mental energy on locating and taking one’s preferred substance. When suffering from a substance use illness, it is practically impossible to recall the needs of children, parents, siblings, co-workers, or friends.

Furthermore, there is a fundamental need to step up institutional and social initiatives to combat the stigma associated with drug usage. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, established a toll-free helpline: 080010203040 in response to these demands. The centre offers a safety bubble for users who ordinarily cannot access the conventional treatment services at established rehabilitation centers due to poverty, social stigma, and the subsequent discrimination attached to being an identified drug user in society, among other factors.

*Mahmud Isa Yola writes from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA (isamahmud77@gmail.com)

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Save for the fact that the news came from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency itself, Nigerians would have found it hard to believe that there is a prodigious amount of cocaine sequestered somewhere in the southwestern part of Nigeria that could weigh up to 1.8 tonnes and be worth up to two hundred and seventy-eight million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($278, 250,000), equivalent to one hundred and ninety-four billion, seven hundred and seventy-five million Naira in street value.

Since the assumption of Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd) as the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA has been recording feats upon feats in the war against drug abuse on a daily basis. There’s seldom a day that passes without the news that the agency has made a significant seizure of illicit substances or has made arrests of drug traffickers. It almost looks like the traffickers are now competing for fame through making headlines.

It almost looks like the traffickers are now competing for fame through making headlines.

Murphy’s law should have simply been enough to stop the cartel that stashed cosmic cocaine in Nigeria’s centre of excellence. But they doused themselves in ashes and blocked their vision of the impending peril. Lo and behold, the NDLEA, which had been on their trail since 2018, caught up with them, and this time, with a massive score that Nigeria had never witnessed before.

According to the NDLEA, this is the largest single cocaine seizure in the agency’s history. The press release, which was signed by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, reads in part: “In what appears to be the biggest singular cocaine seizure in the history of Nigeria’s premier anti-narcotic agency, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have busted a major warehouse in the Ikorodu area of Lagos where 1.8 tonnes (1,855 kilograms) of the illicit drug worth more than Two Hundred and Seventy Eight Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($278, 250,000) equivalent of about One Hundred and Ninety-Fifty) Naira in street value were seized.”

According to the agency, at least four drug barons, including a Jamaican and the warehouse manager, were apprehended over the course of two days in various places around Lagos state. Soji Jibril, 69, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo state; Emmanuel Chukwu, 65, an indigene of Ekwulobia, Anambra state; Wasiu Akinade, 53, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo state; Sunday Oguntelure, 53, an indigene of Okitipupa, Ondo state; and Kelvin Smith, 42, a native of Kingston, Jamaica. The arrested individuals are part of an international narcotics ring that the DEA has been investigating since 2018.

The warehouse, located at 6 Olukuola Crescent, Solebo Estate, Ikorodu, was raided on Sunday, September 18, 2022, while the barons were picked up from hotels and hideouts around Lagos between Sunday night and Monday morning.

READ ALSO: NDLEA arrests wanted drug baroness, seals her mansion, drug bunks

The class A narcotics, according to preliminary findings, were cached in the residential estate, from which the cartel attempted to sell them to buyers in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world.

READ ALSO: NDLEA arrests kingpin at Abuja airport for ingesting 87 wraps of cocaine 

Although NDLEA’s press release indicated that the busted drugs were meant for distribution to Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world, there is no guarantee that the drugs won’t be peddled internally in Nigeria. However the cartel intended to merchandise the illicit drug, this arrest and seizure deal a historical blow to illicit drug traffickers in Nigeria and a strong warning to international cartels that Nigeria is certainly not a trading ground.

This is the second time in less than two months that Marwa is rewriting history in Nigeria’s war against illicit drugs. Recall that the agency on the 4th of August 2022 destroyed 560,068.31414 kilograms of assorted illicit drugs in Badagry, Lagos state. The destruction broke history because it was the highest quantity of drugs to have been destroyed by the agency.

Leading other top officials of NDLEA, other security agencies and members of the public in the burning of heaps of illicit drugs in Lagos, Marwa, said the exercise is a strong message to drug barons and cartels that they’ll continue to lose their huge investments in the criminal trade if they fail to back out and look for other legitimate businesses.

It is therefore apparent that Marwa, who once swept the then notorious Lagos of criminality that was bedeviling the state, is rewriting history in Nigeria’s war against illicit drugs and trafficking. He has re-energized the NDLEA, which is now more sophisticated and unstoppable, and is bringing the war to the peddler’s doorstep, with major successes already recorded.

Certainly, Marwa is rewriting history, and it is not in the favour of drug offenders.

The statistics are not friendly to drug peddlers anymore. The losses that they suffer are spiking exponentially, and Nigeria is gradually winning the war. Statistics coming out from the NDLEA indicate that since the assumption of Marwa as the Chairman of the agency, the agency has arrested over 18,940 suspected drug traffickers, comprising 17,444 males and 1,496 females, including 12 barons from January 2021 to July 2022. Also, the agency recorded 2,904 convictions as well as seizures of over 3.6 million kilograms of narcotics and other psychotropic substances. The agency also said that it has seized no fewer than 286 assets and 600 accounts and has blocked over 600 accounts of drug offenders between January 2021 and August 2022.

Every kilogram of drug seized is one kilogram less on the street; every asset seized decapitates the drug business; every drug trafficker arrested weakens a link in the drug supply chain; and every conviction is a clear blow to drug syndicates. The numbers above aren’t just indicators; they serve as a fierce warning to drug peddlers that it is no longer business as usual as the flaming swords of NDLEA are ever ready to strike them down. Certainly, Marwa is rewriting history, and it is not in the favour of drug offenders.

*Mahmud Isa Yola is Special Assistant to the chairman of NDLEA. (Isamahmud77@gmail.com)

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