Drug abuse deadlier than genocide, says NDLEA

Death occasioned by drug abuse is more dangerous than genocide, says the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMIA), Lagos, Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr Hamza Umar. Umar made this submission during a presentation to the participants of Course 36, at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos.
He said: “Apart from the genocide of the Second World War, no other phenomenon has had more debilitating consequences on mankind like the pandemic drug scourge. Drugs induce social vices, civil upheavals and other forms of criminalities.”
According to Umar, narcotic drugs and psychoactive substances have been identified as a major cause of broken marriages, social vices, civil upheavals and other forms of criminalities. He added that narcotic drugs negatively affected industrial relations and millennium development goals.

The commander, in a paper entitled: “The Role of NDLEA in Industrial Relations, Labour Productivity and National Development,” said that drugs had more debilitating effects on mankind than most dreaded epidemics. He stated that while many workers were thrown into the unemployment market, several marriages had broken-up on account of drug use.
This, according to him, occurs either when spouses are incarcerated over drug related offences or when they are grappling with drug dependency. Expectedly, most children lack proper parental upbringing thus exposing them to delinquencies.
Umar argued that if drug cartels could capitalise on the high population, bustling commerce, vibrant air transportation and geographical location of Nigeria in making it a transit point for category ‘A’ drugs like cocaine, heroin and other psychotropic substances; government should harness same factors in its counter- narcotics campaign.
He said: “A state of insecurity, resulting from the activities of drug cartels can force skill workers to abandon their jobs and send students out of school. It also undermines ethical values and human capital development.” Umar enumerated sectors affected by the activities of drug cartels as investment, inflation, politics, agriculture, tourism as well as personal relationship.
He called for increased funding for the NDLEA, establishment of Liaison Offices/ Drug Attachés in all Nigerian Diplomatic Missions, regular review of drug control laws, training and re-training of officers, provision of logistics, synergy among law enforcement agencies and elaborate anti-drug abuse enlightenment.