Obasanjo Charges Africa To Curb Drug Trafficking

Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who currently chairs the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD), has charged African leaders to curb drug trafficking in the region.

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Reuters reports that the former President, who condemned the growing drug trade in West Africa, gave the charge while presenting his report to Ghana’s President John Mahama.

According to him, it was imperative for West Africa to openly confront its political and governance weaknesses in order to check the growing drug trade in the region,

“West Africa is no longer only a transit zone of drugs but an attractive destination where pushers take advantage of the weak political system to perpetuate their trade” Obasanjo said. “We believe that we should confront openly the political and governance weaknesses which the traffickers exploit.”

Obasanjo further revealed that drugs are undermining the stability of West African countries and their development, adding that it has eaten not only into the normal life of the youth, but also the political and system of governance.

WACD in its June report called on the West Africa governments to decriminalise drug use and treat the issue as a health problem.

Obasanjo, while explaining why drug trade was still thriving, attributed it to the amount of money involved, saying: “drug barons can buy, they can do, and they can undo – buy officials in the military, security and pervert justice.”

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations chief in his response, said the wrong policies made by government, leaders and other influential people in the society have destroyed more lives in the region than drug use.

Meanwhile, WACD, which was inaugurated last year by Kofi Annan, to find ways of halting the growing drug trafficking and use in the West Africa region has 11 members including former President Pedro Pires of Cape Verde and former Togolese Prime Minister Edem Kojo.

West Africa has long produced and consumed cannabis but its collection of weak states has over the last decade become a major transit zone for Latin American cocaine destined for Europe. Heroin from Asia is also passing through the region.

 

It is indeed undisputed that the drastic increase in drug trafficking has become so alarming, especially in Nigeria where officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have made several shocking arrest. People still indulge in drug trafficking as it offers them the opportunity to make quick and big money, without considering the legal implication if they caught. On August 12, 2014, a 38-year-old auto parts dealer, Agbala Eze Cosmos was arrested with drugs worth N322 Million by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) attached to the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Lagos State.  On July 29, a 39-year-old trader, Chibuzor Ogbodo, was also arrested by NDLEA operatives at the MMIA, with drugs confirmed to be cannabis, with a street value of about $10,000 in China.