NDLEA: Funds may pose threat to implementation of the 57th CND resolution

Emeka Ibemere with agency Report

There are indications that the resolution reached at the 57th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), in Vienna, Austria earlier this week may not be implemented in Nigeria following the poor funding budget of the anti-drug agency. Nigeria‘s anti-drug agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is in dire needs of fund to carry out its responsibility in tackling drug menace problem of trafficking and abuse.

Eleven point agenda-resolutions were adopted by the participants at the conference. The policies adopted at the 57th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), stressed on health, prevention and treatment in countering world drug problem. Alternative development, substance use disorders, new psychoactive substances, adequate services for drug abusers and evidence-based drug use prevention were discussed. But all these policies are capital intensive for an agency that has no serious budget to fight drug war.

No fewer than 1,300 participants from 127 UN Member States, intergovernmental organizations, UN bodies, civil society, and media converged at the opening of the 57th  plenary sessions of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND),  in Vienna, Austria to discuss the key challenges in drug policy formation from 21 March -28 2014.

For one week, several discussions on drug policy of the 57th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) were held which suggested the way forward in tackling illicit drugs trafficking and consumption.

After the seven days deliberations and debate on drug policy, the 57th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) closed with member states adopting 11 resolutions.

The 57th CND session ended with resolutions and ministerial statement stressing health, prevention and treatment in countering world drug problem. Also, alternative development, substance use disorders, new psychoactive substances, adequate services for drug abusers and evidence-based drug use prevention were discussed.

Addressing the assembled Member States in his closing speech, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, said that, over the past seven days, the world had gathered in Vienna to discuss the key challenges in drug policy.

He added, "The CND has also enabled us to strengthen our responses to such threats as drugs from Afghanistan and drug trafficking and consumption in West Africa”.

Drug policy issues raised by the member states formed the resolutions adopted by the member states. The resolutions are alternative development, substance use disorders, new psychoactive substances, ensuring adequate services for drug abusers and evidence-based drug use prevention.

Additional impetus was given to alternative development through a resolution encouraging Member States to share their expertise and experience.

 In a speech at a side event on alternative development, held on 18 March, Yury Fedotov underlined the importance of this area to UNODC when he said, "We must keep in mind that when we are talking about alternative development, we are talking about small farmers faced with poverty, food insecurity, lack of land and instability, who, as a result, find no other option but to engage in illicit drug cultivation."

The 57th session of the CND began on 13 March with the High-Level Review and agreement on a Joint Ministerial Statement on the world drug problem. Following the weekend, on 17 March, it reconvened for the regular session of CND, which ended on the last day of the discussion.

On the other hand, drug consumption and the impact of trafficking on governance, security and development in West Africa were highlighted at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

At an event organized by the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD) and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a panel including UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov and the former President of Nigeria and current Chair of the WACD President Olusegun Obasanjo discussed the vulnerability of West Africa to illicit drug trafficking, and as a spill over effect, increased drug use in the region.

The WACD held their own discussion on the side-lines of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the event was addressed by UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, the former President of Nigeria and current Chair of the WACD President Olusegun Obasanjo, and WACD Commissioner Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou were both in attendance.

Discussing the vulnerability of West Africa to illicit drug trafficking and as a spill over effect, increased drug use in the region, Mr. Fedotov noted:

"The trafficking of cocaine remains a serious challenge and there has been an increase in the amount of heroin trafficked into the region, especially since 2010. Methamphetamine production in West Africa is rising while trafficking of ephedrine is a matter of serious concern. Meanwhile, local drug use appears to have intensified, including the growing use of crack cocaine, heroin and amphetamine-type stimulants. This has become an issue for public health and safety, with an attendant rise in the number of new HIV infections attributed to injecting drug use".

President Obasanjo meanwhile warned that "developments pose serious threats to peace and security in West Africa", referring to the organized crime syndicates who use the region as a hub to transit drugs to other parts of the world. He additionally noted the importance of stepping up actions to end drug-related user problems in the region. Obasanjo called for funding to be more proportionately directed towards health, treatment and rehabilitation services, which are lacking.

This was similarly expressed by Mr. Fedotov who, while calling for additional support to stop drug trafficking, pointed to the urgent fact that there is the need, “to address demand and facilitate quality treatment and rehabilitation services."

Dr. Ould Mohamedou also discussed the health repercussions of drugs in West Africa and noted that while the region has historically been considered a transit destination, indications show that consumption is climbing, particularly among youth, as is the local production of drugs such as cannabis.

All three participants highlighted the need to tackle the underlying socio-economic factors if a lasting solution is to be found. President Obasanjo and Dr. Ould Mohamedou noted that, with high levels of poverty and unemployment, more jobs are needed as young people in particular might regard drug trafficking as an attractive income generating opportunity.

The event concluded with a brief overview of an upcoming WACD report which will be launched in mid-2014. The report, which builds on existing initiatives and will include a list of policy recommendations, focuses on both demand (drug use) and supply (drug trafficking) and has been developed in collaboration with a range of actors working in this area. This includes regional leaders, law enforcement officials, civil society organizations, and bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and UNODC.

 In Nigeria, experts are worried that lack of fund are going to work against the key challenges in drug policy formation resolutions reached at the Vienna.  With small farmers facing serious land degree acts, lack of land and instability, illiteracy and poverty, there are indications that they would still be releasing their lands to drug barons who use such lands for illicit drug cultivation. Moreso, when the agency in Nigeria lacked fund to go for massive campaign and carry out serious advocacy enlightenment programmes by letting the farmers know the implications of drugs to health. In Nigeria, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has been underfunded by the ministry that supervises it leaving the agency in the hands of the foreign donors and government to cater for the NDLEA. 

Unknown to government of Nigeria, the country has gradually strolled into the comity of nations tagged as places where illicit drugs are produced.

In the last two years, more than six clandestine factories, producing illicit drugs have been uncovered inside remote areas of Lagos and Anambra States of the country from where the drug traffickers pick their ‘wares’ and headed to its places of consumption-America and Europe. In no small measures, Nigeria has become a hub of drug trafficking in West African zones of the continent.

 Few months ago, the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed the sleepy community of Shapeti, off Lekki-Epe, Expressway, and Lagos State and discovered another methamphetamine Clandestine Laboratory.

NDLEA says Methamphetamine is a powerful addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system.

According to the agency’s investigation, the current laboratory is the sixth of such illegal methamphetamine production factories uncovered in the last two years. It’s located opposite two private nursery schools.

The first Clandestine Laboratory in the country was discovered in 2011. The accused persons have been charged to court and the case is still on-going.

It’s no longer news that drug barons have institutionalized themselves in Nigeria and it is happening when there are no political will to confront this ugly trend.

 The present National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, investigation has shown that NDLEA doesn’t have what it takes to fight the scourge more so when the agency is broke financially.

The institutional mechanism to handle the consequences of the drug cartel in Nigeria is lacking. Until the federal government rekindle her effort in fighting drug war what is happening in Latin America may be a child’s play.

In some states in Nigeria, a bag of cannabis sativa cost higher than a bag of rice and investigation have shown that in those states where cultivation of sativa is being engaged with serious attention, farmers are picking up sativa stems instead of cash-crops for cultivation.

The only drug cultivated in significant amounts locally in Nigeria, is marijuana or cannabis sativa. Nigerian-grown marijuana is the most commonly abused drug domestically. Drug barons also export marijuana throughout West Africa and to Europe through Nigeria’s porous borders.

NDLEA’s budget is inadequate to implement the plan. The Government of Nigeria held NDLEA’s budget at its 2011 level of approximately $61 million. Of this, 0.02 percent or approximately $140,497 is allocated for NDLEA staff training.

Personnel costs account for 92.4 percent of the NDLEA’s budget, while one percent supports capital expenditures. With this paltry sum, it would be difficult implementing the resolution of the 57th plenary sessions of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), in Vienna, Austria on challenges in drug policy in Nigeria.

Also, drug demand and reduction policy in Nigeria is at all time low due to funds. The agency is only interested in the arrest and seizures without accompanying treatment of drug users because of finance. It cost average of N60, 000 to admit a drug user patient. Even the Psychiatric Hospitals throughout Nigeria are not enough compared to the increasing wave of mental illnesses ravaging the country’s population.

 Neuro -Psychiatric Hospitals are tertiary mental health institutions under the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja. Currently there are eight full fledge psychiatric Hospitals in the federation, which includes Federal Neuro -Psychiatric Hospital in Kaduna, situated along Barnawa Road, opposite Shagari Federal Low Cost Houses Barnawa, Kaduna South, Kaduna State. Others are psychiatric hospitals Iselu Benin City, Maiduguri, Kware Sokoto, Enugu, Calabar, Abeokuta and Yaba Lagos States.

The financially handicapped national anti drug law agency of the oil rich Nigeria, the   National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and their operatives have not gone on training in the last decade, following the paucity of funds that has crippled the agency’s activities.

 The Federal Ministry of Justice and Attorney General of the federation in charge of the agency and the federal government have neglected the agency in terms of budgetary allocation meant for the running of the agency. 

It was gathered that because of the poor funds allocation, the staffers of the agency had not gone for training and that there Jos training school, in Plateau State is in bad shape without maintenance.

Early August, while delivering his address at a business meeting of the Rotary Club of Lagos which took place in Ikoyi, Femi Ajayi, Director General of the NDLEA, said the problem of underfunding has continued to cripple the activities of the agency despite all powers granted to her to control drug abuse.

 “Despite the fact, that Section 41, of the NDLEA, Act, Cap N.30, empowers the agency and her officers to enter into any premises and conduct search without warrant in the course of their duties upon a reasonable suspicion of the commission of a drug offence as well as Sections 4 and 43 of the NDLEA Act that empower the agency to, on the respective approval of either the President or Attorney-General of the Federation, investigate anybody who appears to be living beyond his apparent source of income, the NDLEA has always been confronted with various challenges which include poor funding, inadequate equipment and poor staffing.

 In an interview with Daily Newswatch recently, the DG lamented over the poor funding of the agency and said the entire agency’s responsibilities have been affected.

“It is rather absurd that in a nation of about 160 million populations, the staff strength of NDLEA is still below 5,300 for the entire country with a lot of borders, legal and illegal entries, which have led to increase in criminality in the area of drug abuse,” he said.

  Ajayi noted that before now, Nigeria was just taken for a passage of drugs, but the NDLEA has discovered five different clandestine laboratories where drugs are being produced. According to him, in the last 30 years, Nigeria has moved from small player to major player in drug production and consumption.

“Nigeria is now known for trafficking in drugs and production of the substances, and unless more money is pumped into the agency, drug control would be compromised, the work force would be compromised while the future of the youth is put in jeopardy.

 “It is pertinent to point out that by the nature of her functions; NDLEA has the responsibility of safeguarding the health of Nigerians, contributing to maintenance of peace and security in the nation, as well as promoting and enhancing the country’s international image and integrity to attract support and investments. These have led to granting of special powers to the agency to enable her discharge her mandate,” Ajayi said.