President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the renewal of the appointment of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for another five-year term.
The announcement was made on Friday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Marwa, who was first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021, will now continue to lead the anti-narcotics agency until 2031. Before joining the NDLEA, he chaired the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to December 2020.
A retired military officer from Adamawa State, Marwa previously served as military governor of Lagos and Borno States. He is an alumnus of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA).
Over the course of his military and public service career, Marwa held several strategic positions, including Brigade Major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, and Academic Registrar of the NDA. He also served as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, before becoming Defence Adviser at Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Marwa holds a Master’s degree in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.
His tenure at the NDLEA has been marked by major anti-drug operations, resulting in the arrest of more than 73,000 drug traffickers, including several high-profile barons, and the seizure of over 15 million kilogrammes of illicit substances. The agency has also intensified nationwide advocacy campaigns against drug abuse.
Reacting to the reappointment, Onanuga quoted President Tinubu as saying: “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, who are out to destroy our people, especially the young ones.”
