The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has assured the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) of further support and renewed partnership to rid the country of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
The new UNODC Country Representative, Mr Cheikh Toure, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja when he led a team of his top officials on a courtesy visit to the NDLEA headquarters.
Toure acknowledged the leadership role NDLEA played in drug law enforcement in Africa, particularly the West African sub-region.
The UNODC chief said that his visit was to re-engage with the agency on how to cascade the successes recorded at the national level to the states.
This, he said, was because the drug scourge was at the basis of most of the security challenges at the subnational level.
According to him, it is very important to re-engage and re-energise the relationship between UNODC and NDLEA.
“My coming here today is to tell you, I want to re-engage and reinvigorate our relationship so that it serves Nigeria as a whole and also the rest of this sub-region by following your lead.
“NDLEA has been our partner and even facilitated our implementation in Nigeria.
“So, I want a re-engagement of UNODC with NDLEA to see how together we can develop a greater plan to support the remaining implementation of the master plan and going forward, the new stages of engagement with Nigeria.
“One thing that we want to look at is how NDLEA can provide increased capacity building to West African member countries so that together we fight this menace and share best practices,” he said.
In his remarks, the Chairman of NDLEA, Buba Marwa thanked UN0DC for its support to the agency over the years while expressing confidence that the representative would take the existing relationship to a new height.
The NDLEA boss listed some of the numerous achievements the agency had attained in the areas of drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction in the past four years.
This, he said, was with the support of local and international partners including the UNODC.
Marwa said that the visit by the team provided the opportunity to present before them some of the areas they should consider in their support for the agency.
He equally asked the UNODC to support the agency’s Alternative Development Programme, which was the first in Africa, aimed at providing alternative means of livelihood for cannabis growers.
“If we are able to provide an alternative, that would be good for them and for society. That’s one of the areas that I would like greater collaboration.
“The drug use survey is another project that we need support. The one published in 2018 is quite stale..
“We need a re-assessment, and I remember two or three years ago in Vienna, I spoke to the Director of UNODC directly about the need.
“The National Drug Control Master Plan is another area of need. The current master plan is 2021-2025. Another one is due. So, that’s certainly one more area that we would work together towards,”he said.
The NDLEA boss also requested for tools and emphasised on capacity building and training for personnel “because every organisation, the bottom-line is the personnel”.
“You can check and see what’s going to be possible now, what will be possible next year, and so on. Just to help us continue to do the work that we’re doing,” he said.
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