Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) has been appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for an additional five years by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
After serving as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to December 2020, Marwa was initially appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021.
The reappointment means the former military commander, who was born in Adamawa, would continue to lead the NDLEA until 2031, according to a statement released by Bayo Onanuga, Special Advisor to the President on Media.
Marwa, a former military governor of Lagos and Borno States, graduated from both the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and the Nigerian Military School.
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973 and held a number of positions, including Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Brigade Major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, and Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, the Chief of Army Staff at the time.
Marwa also worked in diplomatic defence positions, first as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and then as Defence Adviser at Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
His two postgraduate degrees are a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University (1985–86) and a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh (1983–85).
The NDLEA has made significant progress under his direction, including the apprehension of more than 73,000 drug dealers and traffickers and the seizure of almost 15 million kilogrammes of different illegal substances. Additionally, the organisation has stepped up its national efforts to combat drug usage.
“Your reappointment is a vote of confidence in your tireless efforts to eradicate drug misuse and trafficking from our nation. President Tinubu declared, “I implore you not to give up on tracking the hard drug dealers who are out to destroy our people, especially the young ones.”