Featured, Interview

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FEMI Ajayi, director-general, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, speaks on the challenges, handicaps and other issues hindering the operations of the agency. He spoke to a Realnews reportorial team of Anayo Ezugwu and Vincent Nzemeke. Excerpts:

Realnews: There have been recent reports in the media that Nigeria is fast becoming a drug route. Before, we used to hear that it was a transit route but now it’s a destination centre meaning we have more users or real traffickers here. How true is that?
Ayaji: Well I’m surprised that you said it’s fast becoming. Traffickers have always been here and the truth is that as far as the drug value chain is concerned, when you talk of a value chain of a product, we are talking from the production to the end user. I think Nigeria is involved in every phase of the drug process now. Before now, we used to believe that Nigeria was a transit route; that was how it started but now Nigeria is not just a transit route, it is also a production centre because cannabis is produced here right now we have clandestine production of amphetamines. Apart from its production here, we have always known that Nigerians are often used as couriers for moving these drugs around which means that we have always been involved in trafficking. The usage that is where the denial comes in. For a long time, we have believed that we are a drug transit country or, at most, maybe a drug warehousing route. But for a long time, there was denial that may be, Nigerians were not using the drugs. But the truth is that the evidence from our health centres, hospitals, even the streets, show the number of people who are suffering from drug induced psychosis or mental derangement. And the statistics from the hospitals on the people who are suffering from drug induced problems; shows that people are using drugs also at the joints. The joints are all over the place, you see people who are sniffing and smoking. If the thing is all over the place and you can see it, there is so many joints around, we hear about cocaine or heroin parties. In some clubs, we hear that so many things are happening and yet we say we are just a drug transit country.  We are not just a drug transit country; we are involved in drug production, drug cultivation as in cannabis and actual manufacturing of some drugs like amphetamines. We have discovered five clandestine amphetamines laboratories within the past two years.

Realnews: Now that this has been ascertained, is that why Nigerians are being subjected to serious embarrassing screening at airports?
Ajayi: Before now, when you say embarrassing, you are trivialising the drug issue. When you say embarrassing you are trivialising the impact of the drug on the person who is using it, on the society and on everything. For your information, before now, I used to think that perhaps, the Americans were melodramatic, alarmists or whatever, until I went to the US in 1989 for a workshop on drug abuse and trafficking. To start with, I got the shock treatment of staying about two hours in the airport, subjected to all sorts of what I thought were indignities. There was nothing I was carrying that was not tested, was it my toothpaste, cream, everything was tested and here I was in my office in Daily Times, I didn’t ask anybody that I wanted to go to the US. The American ambassador invited me, they sponsored me. I have about 15 letters, that is communication between me and their office showing that I was a guest of the American government. But it did not stop them from screening me. In fact, they dedicated a whole cubicle to me alone, others were going but they dedicated that one to me. I think they were waiting thinking that I would ask them to defecate, whether I will defecate drugs. Anyway, I was so must annoyed but not until I went to some of their drug rehabilitation centres. Then I now saw why American authorities would hate any country that is not taking the drug war seriously. I was the science editor of the Daily Times then, that was before the NDLEA. I was reporting drugs and other issues for Daily Times so much that the Americans believe, here is our partner; that was why they sent for me. But I was not treated like a partner in progress when I reached there; I was treated like a possible enemy. But I resented it that time but I do not resent it now, because when I found out what drugs did to the American society, how it turned some of the people into human vegetables, people who are helpless and hopeless just because of drugs, I knew why they were taking all the drastic measures they were taking to protect their people. It was a case of protection of their people. As far as public health was involved, their national security was at stake and everything was at stake so that was why they had to do what they did. I mean they sponsored my trip, I didn’t even go to the American Embassy for any visa, they came to my office, collected my passport and put visa and brought it to me, that was how committed they were to my going to that place. For your information, they released me after two hours either because of the test they ran or because I didn’t defecate drugs after two hours or I also suspected that they got in touch at the other end. There were some people waiting for me at the other end, the protocol people waiting for a distinguished guest of the American government. So, they released me and apologised. When I got there, I saw what drugs had done to their people.  Why I went into that story is to let you know that the so-called indignity which we are subjected is merited. Not merited by the fact that all of us are drug peddlers but because of the implications of even one person who is able to escape through the eagle-eyes of those people. In view of the implication for public health, national security and crime wave in their country, they cannot risk anything.  So every country that is diligent and committed to the welfare of its people will do what these people are doing.

Realnews: Having established the effect of drugs on a decent society, what are the challenges of combating traffickers in Nigeria and how has the agency been coping with the challenges?
Ajayi: I’m assuming that you know all the implications like increasing wave of crimes, violent activities like terrorism, dropping out of schools; all those things are drug-related. Do you think that a normal human being would drive a vehicle loaded with explosives into the UN house, he knows he was going to die, he didn’t care about himself and he knew that that edifice was going to crumble, he didn’t care. And he knew the implication of his action on the image of Nigeria; he didn’t care simply because something was controlling him. There is one fact that we normally don’t talk about too much, the influence of drug is not limited to what it is doing to the individual by way of health because it affects the health of the individual, you know if it affects health, it undermines the workforce of the country, the youths, the educational system and, over time, it would even undermine the health facilities because we will not be able to cope with all the health challenges. So, that is one aspect, another aspect is the amount of money that the drug trade produces. There is so much money in drugs for those who are involved in it. The man who was arrested here for his involvement in one of the clandestine laboratories, how much money were they paying him per week? That man was earning close to 50,000 dollars per week; in a country like Nigeria, I don’t know who earns that much in a week. Just for coming to plant amphetamines laboratories around, that is why people take all the risk. So the implications are many, drug money can be used to sponsor election of candidates into public offices and can be used to bribe NDLEA officials, police officials, EFCC officials, top government officials and it can be used to undermine the law and order of a country. The implications are too many, too dismal to contemplate.

Realnews: With all these challenges, it means it is easy for your men to compromise?
Ajayi: For your information, the amount of money involved in drug business given the level of funding of the NDLEA does not even have to be this lucrative for our own people to be compromised or corrupted. The poor funding of the NDLEA in Nigeria makes a typical NDLEA officer who is not strong, who doesn’t have a strong moral foundation to be highly vulnerable and highly susceptible, we are not giving them what they need.

Realnews: So are you saying that some of your officials actually compromise?
Ajayi: Well I’m not saying they compromise but we have had cause to sack some officers for compromising. So there is evidence.

Realnews: We have confirmed cases where some of the drug traffickers arrested confessed that they were actually aided by NDLEA officials?
Ajayi: Yes, that is a very probable issue given the scenario that I have painted. I mean these are people who are heavily equipped in terms of ammunitions and who have very big pockets in terms of the amount of resources that is available to them. Now they are face to face with poorly paid and ill-equipped NDLEA officers; it’s an unequal game. In fact, I think we have to thank God and perhaps, give kudos to the kind of NDLEA officials that we have, that even corruption is still an exception rather than the rule in the NDLEA. Because, given the circumstances, so easy for them to compromise. At times, you find out that when you want to go for drug busting, maybe you want to go and clear cannabis in a cannabis farm, do you know that sometimes our people have to trek deep into the bush and when they get there they still harvest manually after the long trek. So, the life of a typical NDLEA officer is miserable and laborious. He is poorly equipped and poorly paid for the kind of job he does. For your information, there are people here are magicians, the amount of money we are getting in the NDLEA for our total operation is not even up to what the EFCC, that is an offshoot of the NDLEA is getting even for prosecution of their cases. The EFCC basically outsources its prosecutions, whereas in the NDLEA, we do all our prosecutions. For your information, till date, there is no agency of government that has as many cases prosecuted and has as many successes as the NDLEA. We have the best prosecution record in the country, either in terms of numbers or in terms of outcome both in performance and results. But unfortunately, everybody that is connected is deprived. We owe our director of prosecution and legal services millions of naira. Unfortunately for the NDLEA the more work you do the more work you need to do. In the NDLEA, the reward of work is more work, if you are very proactive in bringing drug traffickers to book, you will have many people inside your cell because, quite often, some of the people we would want to prosecute, the judges would be telling you come today come tomorrow. So, that would mean more money to feed drug suspects. But unfortunately, nobody considers the number of inmates in the NDLEA cell during budget allocations. For your information, when I join the NDLEA in 2010, the budget of the agency for operations was N630 million for the whole year. I thought it was too small but it has progressively reduced despite the fact that there is more work to do. When I came, the staff strength of the NDLEA was 3,300 for the whole federation and they were undergoing a process of recruitment when I came. Eventually, we recruited another 2000 which raised it to 5300 or thereabout. For your information, the 2000 that we recruited, up to date, we have not trained them because despite the fact that when we were making a case for the recruitment, we also told them the cost implications. In the NDLEA, you can’t recruit them and they would start work without training, they have to be trained on so many things, investigation, intelligent gathering, interdiction, how to bear arms, all those things. But up to date, the 2000 staff are with us; we have to deploy them to do general duties, we send them to their various states where they applied from to go and do general duties since we don’t have money to train them. When you hear the amount of noises that are being made about the NDLEA, you think it’s a very big agency. Let me shock you further. In our capital budget, the highest that has been allocated to the NDLEA since I came here has been N158 million. In the first year, it was N82.5 million and at the end of the day, they gave N61million out of the N82 million as capital budget for a whole year. That would not even award one contract in NIMASA. This year, they have given us N158 million but in the N158 million, we have gotten only N20 million while we are already in May. This N20 million, we are using it to pay for the people we owed N23 million in 2011. We budgeted it as money for outstanding debt and when the rest comes, in we will have already prequalified people and we are only going to award contracts when the money comes in because I don’t want people to be calling my phone every day for money I did not eat. As an Ekiti man, we are not used to debt, in Ekiti that is why we are poor, we don’t take loans or borrow money. But unfortunately, here I’m harassed because of debt owed by government. I’m trying to paint a picture of the financial impotence of this agency.

Realnews: From the face of all these, how has the drug war been from your assessment?
Ajayi:  Well, for me I think the NDLEA has been very efficient.

Realnews: You mean the agency is very effective?
Ajayi: Mind my language, don’t forget I’m a communicator. The NDLEA has been very efficient. Efficiency means good use of meagre resources. I didn’t say the NDLEA had been effective. We are not in a position to cover all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. We are not even in position to cover the legal entry and exit points, not to talk of the many illegal entry and exit points. So the meagre resource given to us, we have used it very well. But we are not in a position to be effective in the task of drug control; we are not even in a position to trace all the farms, not to talk of harvesting all of them.  The challenge of drug trafficking and drug abuse in Nigeria is beyond the scope and resources of the NDLEA as it is presently constituted.  The people are doing their best but their best cannot be good enough. For your information, the NDLEA needs at least 15,000 trained staff as the minimum. Right now, we have 3,300 trained staff while the 2000 are just passengers or they are like welfare officers we are paying money for doing any work. If we say that Nigeria is actually a country of 160 million people, what is the ratio per one NDLEA officer? The thing is that even with the few we have, are they really prepared? These are people, you know you are going to face somebody who has AK 47, heavily armed and who could be on drugs, yet do you know that if we have a team of about 100 going for an operation, we may have only two people with arms and ammunitions. For your information, mobility for instance, we have 47 formations that include 36 state commands and FCT command; apart from that we have special commands like the international airports, the sea ports  and the land borders, that is how we get the 47. In all till date I don’t think we have up to 20 sound operational vehicles to service this number.  There is hardly a command without one old vehicle or the other.

Realnews: In cases where the agency announces seizures, what happens to the seized drugs and the people involved?
Ajayi:  In terms of seized drugs, we have just destroyed 102, 000 kilogrammes of drugs in Edo State, most of them were cannabis. This is the highest single destruction in the NDLEA in a particular state. When you seize them, you cannot destroy them immediately, you use it for your case and convict whoever that is convictable. After that, you apply to the court for forfeiture, once your application to destroy is granted by the court, then you assemble the stakeholders, because you don’t want to do it alone; you want witnesses that the drugs have been destroyed. All the stakeholders: the police, customs, other security agencies, the court, traditional rulers and the media. All of them are involved.

Realnews: You once advocated that the drug peddlers be sentenced to jail terms with no option of fine, why?
Ajayi: What I said is let’s follow the rules. Sometimes, the rules say 15 years, if suddenly you hear that somebody has been given one year or with an option of fine, where does that one come from? Our judiciary is too soft on drug traffickers. I’m not a municipal lawyer, but I’m an expert in international law and diplomacy. From the little I know about jurisprudence, when the penalty for a crime is clearly stated by law, exercise of discretion is not expected. That is undue use of discretion unless you want to use discretion to award more penalties because of the circumstances of the case. We are in a situation where the law says trafficking in drugs is 15 or 25 years or life imprisonment and suddenly somebody trafficking a class A drug, cocaine suddenly gets one year or an option of fine. It’s crazy.

Realnews: There are recent reports that some of these drug offenders actually prosecuted and convicted are not in jail?
Ajayi: Yes, that is the truth. But the job of the NDLEA ends when the person is convicted in court and taken to prison. If on the way to prison, he escapes, that is beyond the NDLEA.

Realnews: So what is the mandate of your commission?
Ajayi: The mandate of the NDLEA is to take drugs out of circulation and, of course get the people who are involved prosecuted and jailed if possible or whatever. Once they are sent to prison by the judge and they sign our records, we are no longer involved. It is not our job to go there to find out whether the person is in jail or not. We have the records, if suddenly the people are not where they are supposed to be, it’s not our fault.

Realnews: You complained of being underfunded and recently you endorsed some celebrities as ambassadors, do you pay these people?
Ajayi: No kobo. For your information, the people who are helping us and the journalists who are covering us are not paid. We don’t pay anybody, most people that come on board, they look at the negative effects of drugs on the society and they look at the consequences of failure of drug control, and they come on board. Not because of what they are going to get from it. Stella Damasus and Yinka Lawson, they, of course, knew what they were getting into. In fact, to even get them identity cards is a challenge because the people are scared that they will not abuse it. There is practically no support, it is a thankless job. But it is a job they have to do because they believed that Nigerians must be kept away from drugs because of the implications for our public health and our collective national security.

Realnews: The agency seems to be performing at the airport, what about the land borders and the sea ports?
Ajayi: How many work forces do we have to go to those land borders? I’m saying that, do you know how many international boundaries that Nigeria has? We don’t have the manpower. That is why when drugs are going out of Nigeria to other countries, it doesn’t mean that they passed through the established routes, so you would be uncharitable to think that maybe somebody has compromised. The issue is that there may be nobody there when they came in because there are many routes all over the place-porous borders here and there. Even the official borders are not sufficiently manned. Even at the airport, there are people who literarily work up to 24 hours per day, is that possible, so if he just dozes up somebody may work pass or even the person who is working all the time will be less vigilant, you get to when you are supposed to look at that X ray machine, there are some features you are supposed to look out for. If you are not composed or maybe you are half asleep, you may miss out some people. So the challenges are many, we are under-staffed, underfunded, and under equipped.

Realnews: What are you doing to collaborate with other security agencies in combating drug trafficking?
Ajayi: Other security agencies, for your information, when you talk about drug busting operations like if we have to go to Abi, in Delta State. It is a-no-go area; there is also another place in Abia State. If you want to go to those areas, of course the NDLEA only cannot go. What we do is that we secure the collaboration of the military. They will provide the ammunitions and some of the logistics.

Realnews: In several cases pregnant women are being used for drug trafficking, what are you doing about it?
Ajayi: Are they really pregnant or pregnant with drugs. Most of the time they take advantage of their situation to hide something but of course we always catch them, the machine will always detect whether you are pregnant or not. The only challenge we have at the moment is also the issue of equipment. We need mandatory screening machine. We need to be better equipped, more technological input in our operations.

Realnews: What are the effects of drug trafficking on the economy?
Ajayi: On the Nigerian economy, the issue of money laundering. When you bring hot money like that into the economy, it is capable of depreciating the exchange rate. You bring in illegal dollars, when they smuggled it into the economy, you now have a situation where there is artificially larger amount of dollars in the economy. Of course what does it mean, it means fewer nairas chasing more dollars, then there will be an artificial increase in the strength of naira. That is an artificial growth in strength of naira, it has implications. It will mean that the naira is now stronger than the dollar, it will mean you can bring in more things into the country. It can affect exchange rate, interest rate, do you know that even share prices of some companies, people can use that kind of hot money to influence it. When people bring that kind of money they don’t put it in the bank because if you put it in the bank the NDLEA, the EFCC and even police will be after you. So what people usually do is that they go to the market and change it and use it to buy stock. When they used the money to buy the stock of First Bank, their stock price will jump up; it will give an artificial growth. It can give unsustainable growth to the stock exchange market because when these people need their money either to finance one operation or the other they pull it out and the stock will crash. Drug money distorts the fores of trade, interest rate and the economy in general.

— May 27, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

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