Drug abuse: Declare state of emergency, Rep tasks FG

Studies have shown that Narcotic Drugs have almost ruined our nation. Many youth who are supposed leaders of tomorrow have  had their future burnt and a country without a preponderance of innovative young minds is doomed. I therefore fervently believe we must all work hard to wage a concerted war against narcotic drugs, for if we fail to destroy narcotic drug addiction, it will destroy Nigeria!

The motion also calls on the appropriate authorities to properly enlighten Nigerians on the danger of narcotic drugs,  build specialist hospitals as well as strengthen the existing rehabilitation centres to global standard to rehabilitate victims/ abusers, increase funding for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA to be able to bark and bite, amend the NDLEA Act to make it an autonomous body and prescribe stiffer punishments for narcotic drug traffickers.

My investigation has amongst other things, shown that, almost all the criminals tormenting this country are under the influence and enablement of narcotic drugs. In other words, if we properly tackle the menace, we are likely to drastically reduce insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, suicide, rape, savage violence and other forms of social vices bedeviling our mother land!

Unfortunately, while narcotic drugs addiction progresses at a geometric progression, the war against narcotic drug addiction slowly progresses at arithmetic progression!

This is partly because the NDLEA which is saddled with the responsibility of combating the menace, prosecuting traffickers and abusers remains a Toothless Bull Dog! The agency lives on charity from foreign countries. Indeed the few vehicles, scanners, canines, X-Ray machines, Sniffer Dogs etc used by the NDLEA for its day-to- day operations were donated by foreigners. Regrettably, the agency has only 8 Sniffer Dogs nation wide.

The NDLEA was established in 1989 by the IBB junta and vested with powers similar to the Police.  Thirty years (30), down the line, it has not undergone any serious changes, the personnel profile is basically the same and it has not embarked on full- fledged nation-wide recruitment ever since. Today,  the agency is grossly underfunded and under staffed. Staff  availability and deployment of the agency stands at two staff to a LGA while  vehicle availability and deployment stands at one vehicle to six LGAs. This is a shame. It makes Nigeria an unserious country in the comity of nations .

The annual budgetary  running cost of the agency is below N200m! Curiously, the NDLEA that should chase and arrest Drug traffickers have no sophisticated weapons to do their work. Indeed, the agency still uses weapons/arms used during the civil war! Soon, I will present a bill that will clearly insulate NDLEA from the Ministry of Justice and make it an autonomous agency like the CBN! Work on the bill is almost concluded!

Currently, being an agency under the Ministry encumbers it as the ‘envelope’ usually handed the NDLEA can hardly run it to safety after payment of salary and other personnel cost which gulps N8b annually. I thank the Cerebral Speaker of the House and my Honourable Colleagues for unanimously passing the motion!