President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has extended the appointment of the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa, for another five-year term.
Marwa was first appointed by the late former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021, after serving as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to December 2020.
“The reappointment means the Adamawa-born former military officer will remain at the helm of the NDLEA until 2031,” the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced in a statement on Friday.
Marwa, a former military governor of Lagos and Borno States, is a graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA.
After his commissioning as a second lieutenant in 1973, Marwa serve in various capacities, including brigade major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, and academic registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy. He also served as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and later as Defence Adviser to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Marwa holds two postgraduate degrees: a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh (1983–85) and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University (1985–86).
His tenure in the NDLEA has been marked by numerous high-profile drug busts, including the arrests of 73,000 drug mules and barons, as well as the seizures of over 15 million kilogrammes of various hard drugs.
Under his leadership, the agency has also launched nationwide campaigns to combat drug abuse.
“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,” the President stated.
