HARD DRUGS: NEW THREAT, NEW FIGHT

Those who know Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'adua closely say that when ever
he sets his mind on achieving a feat that has massive social
responsibility goal/implication that will serve the greatest good of
the greatest number of citizens, he never looks back and that he
scouts for the best possible experts to help in the speedy realization
of the objective.

Hauwa Ibrahim the Gombe State born Human Rights lawyer who has won
several international awards for her advocacy works aimed at providing
legal assistance to some vulnerable Nigerians of Northern extraction
that came under the hammer of the widely disputed sharia criminal code
and indeed sentenced to different forms of punishments [for alleged
sundry offences that border on adultery] including the possible
cutting of their limbs told this writer that Umaru Musa Yar'adua as a
listening Governor ensured that those accused of violating these
sharia laws are allowed to exhaust their constitutionally allowed
right of appeal.

The president immediately set his mind towards tackling this emerging
threat which his National Security Adviser General Sarki Mukhtar aptly
described as great threat to Nigeria's National Security. In line with
those qualities that those who know him said he possesses, the
president swung into action by appointing some of the best experts
Nigeria has including the impressively dedicated and patriotic Captain
Shehu Iyal the senior special assistant to the president on Aviation
to head a group of wise Nigerians to work out strategies for tackling
this gravely emerging and present danger. Henry Ugbolue the publisher
of the Abuja Based celebrity magazine 'People Monthly' told this
writer during the course of my research for this piece that he was
sure that the presidential committee under the leadership of who he
described as the ebullient aviation expert Shehu Iyal will achieve the
objectives for which the president appointed them.

Inaugurating the committee recently, the National Security Adviser
[NSA] General Sarki Mukhtar said the involvement of the employees of
Airlines in drug trafficking fundamentally undermines Nigeria's
national security hence the Federal Government was now determined to
strictly enforce airport safety and security measures.

His words; "We can no longer fold our arms and watch our national
security being compromised. Government is now determined to put an end
to this highly embarrassing situation where a few greedy people are
rubbishing the image of the great country.

So it is the job of this committee to look thoroughly at this
situation and proffer speedy solution". According to the National
Security Adviser, the federal Government would hence forth penalize
operators whose staff was either involved in drug trafficking or found
to have aided drug traffickers. The National Drugs Law Enforcement
Agency [NDLEA] hierarchy also used the opportunity of the inauguration
of this presidential committee to deplore the increasing involvement
of employees of Airlines even as he asserted that this emerging trend
posed a great threat because it may result in the eventual
decertification of Nigeria from members of the international community
as a country that is not doing enough to battle the scourge of
international drug trafficking because in his words, Nigeria is still
regarded as a major transit point for illicit drugs by the United
States Government under president George Walker Bush junior.

The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency's officials further reminded
Nigerians that apart from the stigma of being labeled a drug transit
country, the economic losses in terms of withdrawal of bilateral and
multilateral financial aids could not be imagined [though this writer
has a pessimistic opinion on the workability of these so-called
foreign aid assistance and the motives behind them].

Among the terms of reference for the Shehu Iyal-led presidential
committee is the task of examining the security lapses as possible
motivating factor for Airline's crew involvement in drug trafficking;
examine possible cause of these security lapses at the nation's four
International Airports and recommend workable solution; inspect and
examine screening procedures for passengers/cargoes at the
international Airports and recommend actions that will drastically
improve detection of infringements; examine security clearance
procedure for flight crew, cargo handlers, passengers and catering
staff, from all agencies/organizations that have direct or indirect
access to all restricted areas and Aircrafts. Predictably, the
committee chairman Captain Shehu Iyal vowed that the team would work
vigorously to accelerate efforts at arresting the worsening situation
of drug trafficking in the nation's Airports and especially the
emerging threats of the involvement of Airlines' crew which he
similarly identified rightly as a big threat to Nigeria's national
security which needs comprehensive and result-oriented panaceas. In
his words; "We are aware of the challenges the government of Nigeria
faces with respect to the seriousness of narcotics trafficking and
other related drug crimes.

We are aware of the stigma associated with the image of being a drug
trafficking hub and we promise to do a thorough job. The broad-based
presidential committee also has representatives from all relevant
security agencies and also the core stakeholders in the nation's
Aviation sector [although the committee does not have any media
representative which is a vital mistake].

By way of demonstrating the popular endorsement of Nigerians for this
renewed resolve of the Federal Government to curb this dangerous hard
drug menace and especially the denting of the international image of
Nigeria, this writer got lots of correspondences and reactions through
my electronic mail to my series of news stories published by The
Guardian in 2005 when I participated as a member of the Federal
Government's delegation to the United Nations eleventh Congress on
Crime prevention and criminal justice which took place in Bangkok,
Thailand. A particular story I did showing the high number of
Nigerians serving various prison terms in Bangkok prisons for their
involvement in drug trafficking elicited widespread reactions from
Nigerians who advocated the promulgation and enforcement of stricter
laws and sanctions against this trans-national crime of drug
trafficking. Most Nigerians were of the opinion that the extant
provisions in the Nigeria's Criminal Code and other statutes which
provides for very compassionate prison terms of say three years for
grave offences of drug trafficking smacks of literarily a slap on the
wrists of these offenders.

Others believe that because of the liberal sentencing terms applied to
convicted drug offenders potential drug mules are not discouraged from
embarking on this infamy. This writer believe that one of the
strategies for curbing these terrible and emerging threats of drug
trafficking is for the country to institutionalize workable National
Crime Prevention Strategy which will include the introduction of a
national Crime Data where all relevant information on all forms of
crimes and convictions including the convicts of crime like drug
trafficking are stored and retrieved on demand at the point of
departure and entry at the international Airports so that the security
agents will have accurate data of actual convicts in a system as a way
of checking the spread of this dangerous menace of drug trafficking
because if the convicts know that they are classified with their
photographs included in the computer system and could be accessed by
eagle eyed security operatives they would be deterred from committing
the same crime many times over. If the Freedom of Information Bill is
passed into a an Act of the National Assembly, news reporters and
other interested Nigerians could also access this National Crime Data
so as to assist in the naming and shaming of these convicts as is done
in other developed climes.

.Onwubiko wrote from Abuja