President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has renewed the appointment of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) as Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), granting him another five-year term to lead Nigeria’s intensifying fight against drug trafficking and abuse.
Marwa, who was first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021 after steering the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to 2020, will now remain in office until 2031.
The announcement was made in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President.
A graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy, Marwa has had a distinguished military and diplomatic career.
Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973, he served as brigade major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp to then Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, and academic registrar of the NDA.
His foreign service postings include Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Defence Adviser to Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
He also holds postgraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University.
Marwa’s leadership of the NDLEA has been widely commended for its sweeping reforms and aggressive crackdowns on drug trafficking networks.
73,000 drug mules and barons arrested
Under his watch, the agency has arrested more than 73,000 drug mules and barons and seized over 15 million kilogrammes of illicit drugs.
His administration has also intensified nationwide campaigns aimed at curbing drug abuse, particularly among young people.
President Tinubu praised Marwa’s performance, describing his reappointment as a strong vote of confidence.
“Your reappointment is a vote of confidence in your onerous efforts to rid our country of the menace of drug trafficking and drug abuse.
I urge you not to relent in tracking the merchants of hard drugs out to destroy our people, especially the young ones,” he said.
