Two events that happened in two different cities in
Nigeria (Kano and Abuja) perfectly captured the precarious security nightmare
that millions of Nigerians face on daily basis following the unrelenting spate
of bloody violence by suspected armed Islamic insurgents in the last couple of
years. One of the two shocking scenarios was captured by a foreign press-
The Telegraph of the United Kingdom, while the second was captured in picture
form by a local media- the Daily Trust newspaper.
In quick summary, the two violence-related incidents
are linked by the fact that operatives of the Nigerian Police Force
constitutionally charged with the duty of maintaining law and order were found
wanting because they stayed away and allowed unarmed innocent civilians to
suffer the consequences of the violent attacks by the armed insurgents.
In Kano, the United Kingdom based The Telegraph
reported on January 27th 2012 that during one of the biggest violent attacks
targeted at some government institutions by the armed Islamic insurgents that
operatives of the police disappeared into thin air.
The Telegraph reported thus; “When a city of 9 million
people comes under almost daily assault, the police would normally step up
their presence. But not in Kano. In the biggest urban centre in northern
Nigeria a new terrorist group has inflicted a steady drumbeat of violence since
carrying out the deadliest attacks in its history”.
The foreign Journalist
who reported from Kano wrote that; “The local police – despised and demoralised
– virtually disappeared from the streets after suicide bombers destroyed two of
their stations, a regional headquarters and the official residence of their
most senior officer”.
According to The
Telegraph; “The police stayed out of the way as Boko Haram, the Islamist
extremists who claimed responsibility, pressed on with their offensive. On
Tuesday night, another of Kano's police stations was destroyed; on Thursday
morning, a bomb concealed inside a drink can exploded at a crowded bus station,
wounding five people and causing thousands to flee in panic”.
In Abuja, on Thursday
26th April 2012, the Daily Trust online version carried a photograph showing
looters carting away valuables including furniture from the bombed ThisDay
Newspaper office in Abuja soon after suspected suicide bomber from the armed
Islamic religious militants detonated several improvised explosive Devices
(IED) and annoyingly, operatives of the Nigerian police Force took almost
eternity before showing up at the bombed premises in Jabi Abuja.
I took time to reflect
deeply on these two unfortunate incidents and one fact dawned on me that the
unprecedented scale of violence unleashed in quick succession by suspected
armed splinter groups with operational base in the North Eastern state of Borno
state, could not have been possible without some elements of substance or drug
abuses by the perpetrators who carry out these dastardly acts. Several
observers including the Kaduna state Governor Mr. Patrick Yakowa and the Vice
President Mr. Namadi Sambo have repeatedly denounced suicide bombing as
un-African and strange. What then can make a young man to go on suicide mission
if not hard drugs?
Again, I believe that
majority of those youth who purportedly took part in the looting spree that
immediately followed the bombing of the once beautiful edifice housing the This
Day media office in Jabi-Abuja may have carried out these heinous and
unconscionable crimes under the influence of hard drugs.
The unrelenting
vicious cycle of bloody violence in parts of Nigeria must necessarily have some
sinister nexus and connection with hard drug abuses by the suspected criminals.
David Friedman, an
Economist published an essay recently titled; “Drugs, violence and Economics,”
whereby he supported my postulation that violence and hard drug abuses have
some sinister connection.
He rightly stated in
that essay aforementioned that one point on which almost every one interested
in drug prohibition agrees is in the existence of a connection between drugs
and violent crime.
His words; “Supporters
of drug prohibition typically argue that drug use leads to violent crime and
should be illegal in part for that reason. Critics of the war on drugs argue
that the attempt to prohibit drug use leads to violent crime and that that is
one of the reasons drugs should be legal”.
In replying to the
all- important interrogation of how drugs might influence crime, Friedman wrote
that the link between drugs and violent crime could occur in three ways thus;
“violent crime by consumers of drugs; violent crime associated with the
production and distribution of drugs, or violent crime directly connected with
attempt to enforce drug prohibitions.”
Wikipedia the free
Encyclopedia said that substance abuse also known as drug abuse, refers to a
maladaptive patterned use of a substance (drug) in which the user consumes the
substance in amounts or with methods not condoned by medical professionals.
The World Health
organization estimates that around 140 million people were alcohol dependent
and another 400 million suffered alcohol-related problems and the UN estimates
that there are more than 50 million regular users of heroin, cocaine and
synthetic drugs.
Flowing from these
disturbing estimates scientifically arrived at by the United Nations and the
World Health Organization, it is a notorious fact that hard drug abuse rank as
one of the most rapidly growing problems afflicting clearly a majority of
Nigeria’s younger population.
In 2011, the National
Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) published that it seized narcotic drugs
worth N31 Billion and arrested 8,639 suspected drug traffickers at different
international entry points into the country.
The National Drugs Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) also confirmed that in the year 2011, a total of
195,283.917 kilograms of various drugs were equally traced locally and seized
from drug traffickers across Nigeria.
According to the anti-hard
drug agency, cannabis Sativa otherwise known as hemp constitutes the largest
seizure with 191,847.91 kilograms closely followed by psychotropic substances
with a total haulage of seized drugs amounting to a whooping 2,985.45
Kilograms. Cocaine seized amounted to 410.805 kilograms while Heroin seized
amounted to 39.752 kilograms.
If you think that the
unrelenting circle of violence in Nigeria are not stoked by unprecedented
abuses of hard drugs then take a few minutes to read the online version of a well
crafted story by the Cable News Network (CNN) carried on August 1st 2009 aptly
titled thus; “Drug war fought in Nigerian forests.”
In that report, the
Cable News Network narrated a story of an operation by operatives of the
National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency in parts of Ondo Forest where they
stumbled on farms illegally growing Cannabis. The commander of the anti-drug
agency in Ondo state confirmed to the United States based television (CNN) that
most of the drug barons are dangerously armed with machetes and pump action
shot guns.
In the same report, we
were informed that the Nigerian government has consistently failed to
adequately fund the operations of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency
thereby exposing the operatives to corruption and bribery which in effect makes
the circulation and proliferation of abuses of substances and drugs by Nigerian
youth much more disturbing.
Why for instance will
government treat the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as one of
those government departments under the Justice ministry that must go cap in
hand begging for paltry operational funds every year?
Does government of
Nigeria not know that apart from bringing opprobrium and international shame on
Nigeria whenever Nigerian drug traffickers are arrested outside our shores, the
consequences of the proliferation of drug abuse among younger citizens is the
unprecedented violent crime in Nigeria?
The other day, the
Chief prosecutor of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency told a bewildered
court room packed with Nigerians and foreign journalists in Lagos stste that
the total operational fund released to the entire anti-drug department every
quarter (three months) is just a little less than N25 million. The Lagos High
Court had earlier returned a verdict that the National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency pays the Lagos based comedian Mr. Baba Suwe the Judgment sum of N25
million in damages for illegally detaining him for weeks after he was allegedly
arrested and paraded for alleged drug trafficking offences which turned out to
be false after several instances of laboratory analyses of his faeces/excreta.
The question to be
asked is how on earth does government expect the anti-drug department to
effectively police the activities of hard drug traffickers and substance
abusers with such scandalously poor budgetary funding in a country of 160
million people?
If the Federal
government is not yet convinced that high drug intakes by the younger
population in the country inevitably leads to crime, then the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency should be funded to conduct transparent scientific analysis
in places such as Maiduguri, in Borno state, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt
in River State, Ibadan in Oyo state and Yenogoa in Bayelsa State to find out
the extent that youth abuse substances.
Nigeria should learn
from the United States of America that has an excellent tradition of waging
successful battle against hard drug because successive administrators of the
United States are aware of the damaging consequences to the security and
stability of their country if drug trafficking and substance abuses are treated
with kid gloves the way we do in Nigeria.
For instance, the
battle against drugs was first called the “war on drugs” in 1971 by President
Richard Nixon and he also branded drug abuse “public enemy number one. From
findings, the United States government accepts the fact that reducing drug
trafficking in the United States is of vital importance to all United States
citizens. It is also a notorious fact that the United States has consistently
waged war against drug since the 1900’s.
I sincerely believe
that Nigeria needs to commit meaningful funds into waging relentless war against
drug because of the sacred fact that bloody violence has brought shame to
Nigeria, caused unquantifiable fatalities and has virtually destroyed the local
economy of the entire Northern Nigeria.
In the United States,
the government spends nothing less than $42 Billion United States dollars to
enforce the anti-drug laws across the country going by 2007 estimates made by a
researcher Jon Gettman.
Rob Kampia wrote thus;
“why $42 billion? Because that is what our current marijuana law cost American
tax payer each year, according to a new study by researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D.
$10.7 billion in direct law enforcement costs and $31.1 billion in lost tax
revenues. And that maybe an underestimate, at least in the law enforcement
side, since Gettman, made his calculation before the federal bureau of
investigations (FBI) released its latest arrest statistics in late September
(2007). The new FBI statistics show an all- time record 829,627 marijuana
arrests in 2006, 43,000 more than in 2005.”
*
Emmanuel Onwubiko, head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF
NIGERIA
writes from www.huriwa.blogspot.com
27/4/2012
27/4/2012
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