The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has assured the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, of further support and renewed partnership in its ongoing effort to rid the country of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
The new country representative of UNODC in Nigeria, Mr Cheikh Ousmane Toure, stated this when he led a team of his top officials on a courtesy visit to the chairman/chief executive officer of NDLEA, Brig Gen Mohamed Marwa (rtd) at the agency’s national headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
While acknowledging the leadership role NDLEA plays in drug law enforcement in Africa, particularly the West African sub-region, the UNODC chief said his visit was to re-engage with the agency on how to cascade the successes recorded at the national level to the states.
He said this is because the drug scourge is at the basis of most of the security challenges at the subnational level.
According to him, “It is essential for us to re-engage and re-energize the relationship between UNODC and NDLEA, and I think that me coming here today is to tell you I want to re-engage and reinvigorate our relationship so that it serves Nigeria as a whole and also the rest of this sub-region by following your lead.
“NDLEA has been our partner and even facilitated our implementation in Nigeria. So, I want a re-engagement of UNODC with NDLEA to see how together we can develop a greater plan to support the remaining implementation of the master plan and the new stages of engagement with Nigeria as we advance. And one thing that we want to look at is how NDLEA can provide increased capacity building to West African member countries so that together we fight this menace and share best practices”.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said in his remarks that Marwa appreciated the global body for its support of the agency over the years while expressing confidence that the new country representative will take the existing relationship to a new height.
While listing some of the numerous achievements the agency has attained in drug supply and drug demand reduction in the past four years with the support of local and international partners, including the UNODC, the NDLEA boss said the team’s visit provided the opportunity to present some of the areas they should consider in their support for the agency.
He asked the UNODC to support the agency’s Alternative Development Programme, the first in Africa, which aims to provide cannabis growers with alternative means of livelihood.
