Blending multi-faceted approaches to ground the menace of drug trafficking

Nigeria has had its fair-share of social upheaveal in recent times. The dimensional navigation, however saddening, has been bending towards delinquencies that speak to reflections of social decadence. The evolution of several troubling phenomena have continued to manifest with offshoots of several disturbances. The state of turbulence which has engulfed the Country could be linked to the collision of myriads of social delinquencies which have grown with expansive strings to constitute forces of disturbances ravaging the Country. These colliding forces could directly and indirectly be perused as underlying factors spurring the manifestations of other dimensions of socio-economic and political storms shaking the fabrics of the Country.

While there is a myriad of delinquent phenomena ravaging the entire societal fabrics of Nigeria, sharp practices in the Country have continued to have their tentacles expanding to assume forceful dimensions. Although, the immediate effects of some of these practices may not directly be isolated, it is imperative to note that their impacts as the instigators of several other social decadence or better still, criminal escapades are potent enough in setting the Country afire. The subterranean nature of the working character of this category of sharp practices portending impacts to spur other forms of criminal misadventures in subtlety, have not made much attention to be drafted towards addressing them appropriately. Thus, the attention given to them may be insufficient to curtail the impacts they effect in spurring other delinquencies which the Government and other social institutions may be struggling to curb. Therefore, while societal institutions particularly the government are struggling to overpower the forces of some social delinquencies producing stormy waves, the subtle character of some of the sharp practices aiding their operations may continue to put the concerned institutions on the radar of worries over the perpetuation of such phenomena despite heavy clampdown.

One sharp practice whose tentacles have continued to expand is the menace of drug trafficking. The trade in recent times has grown its wings to disturbing heights, and has been one sharp practice the Government has been unable to quell over the years. The practice which has its record for decades in the Country, is increasingly assuming troubling dimensions, particularly considering its direct and indirect impacts on the social formations of the Country. However, the character of this sharp practice falling along the categorisation of those with subterranean effects as instigators of other forms of social delinquencies and crimes, have not made the Government among other social institutions to categorise same on the top cadre of stiffening threats against the Country.

Critical observations would reveal that trafficking of hard drugs and the use of same owe strong strings to proliferation of crime. It is well observable that the worsening of security challenges and several criminal tendencies have accompanied the proliferation of hard drugs in Nigeria. Hence, it may not be out of place to argue that the expansion of the tentacles of the trade of hard drugs and its abuse is a potent factor in the worsening profile of social delinquencies and criminal inclinations in the Country. While the causative relevance may relatively be indirect and the direct impacts not easily identifiable, the resultant impacts as instigators of other social ills and criminal dispositions have been potent. It is inarguable that perpetrators of several criminal misadventures are custodians and addicts of hard drugs. In fact, many of the perpetrators of inhumane malicious crafts carry out their mischievous escapades under the influence of hard drugs. Hence, the proliferation of drug trafficking, trade in hard drugs and the abuse thereof, may not be a coincidence with the worsening of social delinquencies and criminal inclinations in the Country.

Efforts by the Government to curtail the menace of hard drugs have most recently continued to record disclosure revealing the expansive wings of drug trafficking in and out of the Country. Reports of arrest of traffickers most recently have been on the high side. Recently, two suspected drug traffickers arrested were reported to have excreted 191 pellets of heroin and cocaine while under observation at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The incidents were said to have taken place on April 10 and 16 after the suspected traffickers were arrested by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), MMIA Command. On Friday, April 16, 2021, one Ezekiel Chibuzo, who arrived in Lagos from Brazil on board Qatar Airways, was arrested for drug ingestion.

He was reported to have so far excreted 99 wraps of cocaine according to a statement by the NDLEA. “This is just as officers at the export shed of the airport have seized 822.950kg of khat leaves heading for the UK and the US,” the statement had said. The agency had said four clearing agents had been arrested in connection with the April 10 seizure of substances.

According to the spokesperson for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, the incidents happened barely two weeks after a Madrid, Spain-bound suspected trafficker, Okonkwo Chimezie Henry, excreted 113 wraps of cocaine after his arrest at the MMIA, Lagos. He had stated thus: “On April 10, 2021, during the outward screening of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines to Italy, the NDLEA operatives at the MMIA intercepted and referred one Chukwudi Destiny for scanning and the scan result proved positive to drug ingestion. Consequently, he was placed under excretion observation and in the process, he excreted 92 pellets of heroin with a total weight of 1.300Kg. Also on April 12, 2021, during the inbound examination of consignments on Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from South Africa, operatives at the SAHCO import shed made a seizure of 11.550kg of heroin cleverly packed and concealed in cornflakes’ cartons. Four clearing agents are in custody in connection with the seizure.”

It is significant for the Government in collaboration with all influence-bearing social formations such as the religious and traditional institutions, to come to the understanding of the potency of proliferation of trade in hard drugs and its consequent abuse in the degeneration of social values in the Nigerian societal fabrics. Coming to such understanding is sine qua non to reason with the necessity to address same with the corresponding force required to address the menace as a fundamental social defect with instigating potentials to spur criminal dispositions in the Country. In this light, it is paramount for all social institutions to work harmoniously with the sense of reason to evaluate the impacts of the menace through the lens of socio-psychological perusal in order to be at the vantage of addressing the delinquency pragmatically.

On the part of the Government, employing a multifaceted approach towards addressing the menace is much more rational in perspective. It will be observed that the direct and indirect impacts of drug trafficking and its abuse are equally multifaceted, just as its expressive reflects in terms of the cause and effect definitions. Hence, blending social, economic, cultural, psychological, and political provisions to develop a responsive system to ground the structural networks of the menace is paramount.