Youths And Menace Of Drug Trafficking

Deric Addai is a 37-year-old inmate of Ijebu-Ode Prison in Ogun State. The man has spent about 11 years in jail, both in Nigeria and faraway Thailand, on a drug-trafficking offence. Addai’s story is pathetic and interesting, each time he recounts the tale in tears.

After the death of my parents, I was introduced to the drug business by a friend, an offer which I accepted.

“On my first trip to Thailand in 2000, I was, however, arrested by the Thai authorities, prosecuted and sentenced to prison.

“After spending five and half years in a Thai prison; I was deported to Nigeria on August 4, 2005, along with 55 others, to continue our jail terms in the country.

“I have spent another five and half years in Nigerian prisons, making my stint in jail eleven years altogether. What a wasted life!!” Addai laments in tears.

Addai’s case only typifies several others in Nigeria, as many citizens, particularly the youths,

are increasingly becoming engaged in drug trafficking and concerned observers moan that the phenomenon has continued to dent the image of the country.

This is because records show that many Nigerian drug couriers are currently in prison, serving varying prison terms at home or abroad, while some hapless ones had been executed in some stricter countries such as Saudi Arabia.

The situation is even more harrowing for drug convicts like Addai, the second child in a family of four from Cross River State, who were granted amnesty by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in August 2008 but are still languishing in prison because of some extraneous factors.

The pardoned convicts have been unable to regain freedom because of the outright omission of their names in the official release paper, apparently due to duplication of inmates’ names and other administrative lapses.

“All efforts to get the attention of relevant authorities to find solution to Addai’ s problem have yet to yield any positive result,” says Mr Kunle Babalola, the Controller of Prisons in Ogun State.

All the same, a report on the operations of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 2008 and 2009 indicates that several Nigerian youths were apprehended for drug trafficking offences in some foreign countries.

For instance, some Nigerians were arrested in India, Pakistan, Malta, Spain and other countries for ingesting packaged heroin or cocaine and for concealing the drugs in their luggage.

Concerned citizens say that criminal behaviour has become a major source of embarrassment to virtually all Nigerians who travel to countries in Europe and the Americas.

“You cannot imagine the kind of security checks Nigerians are subjected to whenever they arrive at the airports of major American or European cities,” says Mr Moshood Ladipo, a businessman.

“Due to the activities of the drug traffickers, the mere sighting of the Nigerian passport by airport officials in some foreign countries automatically makes you an object of suspicion and intense scrutiny,” he adds.

Analysts say that the menace of drug trafficking in Nigeria is compounded by the get-rich­ quick syndrome affecting many youths, who are obsessed with riches, irrespective of the risks involved.

The drug business has even taken some negative toll on the Nigerian society as Mr Richard­ Oluwole, a lawyer, says that the increased consumption of hard drugs in the country has created serious distortions in the people’s social realities.

He insists that a sizeable percentage of mental illness in the country can be blamed on increased dependence on hard drugs among the youths.

“The drug addicts become useless to the society, as they invariably end up as social wrecks or hardened criminals, while they often die prematurely,” Oluwole says.

Nevertheless, the creation of the NDLEA, via Decree No 48 Of 1989 (now Act of Parliament) is specifically aimed at stamping out the menace of drugs’ trafficking or consumption in Nigeria.

The establishment of the agency was part of Nigeria’s efforts to tackle decisively problems relating to hard drugs, in concert with other countries of the world, as the trade in drugs has developed into a serious global predicament.

Although the NDLEA Act does not endorse capital punishment, it, nonetheless, prescribes long jail terms, ranging from 15 to 25 years, and sometimes, life imprisonment for drug barons and traffickers.

Additionally, the law states that any person or organisation that colludes with offenders to commit a drug offence or conceals proceeds from the illicit drug trade will face punishment, including a 25-year jail term or a N2 million fine.

Other measures in the amended NDLEA law include a five-year jail term for persons apprehended in overseas countries for trafficking in drugs via Nigeria and for tarnishing the image of Nigeria.

The NDLEA, apart from overseeing the implementation of Nigeria’s drug laws and policies, also coordinates a campaign to check the abuse of narcotics and psychotropic substances in the country.

Observers have been commending NDLEA for the feats it has so far recorded in the crusade against the illicit trade in hard drugs.

For instance, the agency in 2008 and 2009 seized 452, 353.08kg of illicit drugs in the country, while 14,941 suspected drug traffickers were apprehended during the period.

However, in spite of the efforts of the NDLEA to stamp out drug trafficking, some roguish youths are still engaged in the illicit drugs business.

Therefore, a pertinent question is: What is then responsible for the rise in drug trafficking cases?

Dr Remi Aduloju, a university lecturer, believes that poverty and the high rate of unemployment in the country combine to aggravate the problem.

“The poverty situation is frightening and the unemployment rate is soaring. Some youths, out of sheer desperation, are easily tempted to get involved criminal activities such as drug peddling.

“There is a social disequilibrium and the effects are alarming. The increase in drug trafficking is one of the effects of the problem, “ Aduloju says.

Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Oluwaseun Olaniyi, a sociologist, insists that the army of unemployed people in the country presents a viable platform for drug barons to recruit couriers to carry and peddle hard drugs for them.

He, however, concedes that negative peer-group influences, improper upbringing and broken homes are some of the factors that fuel drug trafficking.

Olaniyi says that greed and obsession for undue wealth also lure some youths into getting involved in drug trafficking.

Re-echoing Olaniyi’s viewpoint, Mr Peter Okoronkwo, a civil servant claims that the continuous arrest of Nigerian youths for drug offences tend to reinforce the need for government to tackle frontally the twin problems of poverty and unemployment.

“Poverty and unemployment have contributed in no small measure to the drug trafficking problems, as several Nigerians are daily forced into the illicit drug trade and other crimes like fraud and kidnapping,” he says.

Okoronkwo says that the urge to break free from the snare of poverty and unemployment has compelled many Nigerian youths to embark on the risky, tortuous journey to Italy, Spain and other European countries via the Sahara desert.

“Hundreds of Nigerians had lost their lives in the desert of Morocco, while trying to cross to Europe; many more are in foreign prisons for drug-related offences,” he says.

Analysts, therefore, stress the need for the government to strive to address the socio­economic needs of the citizens, particularly the youth, saying that such efforts would go a long way in reducing criminal tendencies like drug trafficking.

They particularly call on the government to create more jobs for the teeming unemployed youths, saying: “An idle mind is the devil’ s workshop”.

Adeoti writes for NAN.

Victor Adeoti