Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) has been reappointed as Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for a second five-year term.
President Bola Tinubu announced the reappointment in a statement released on Friday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the statement, President Tinubu commended Marwa’s efforts, 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, out to destroy our people, especially the young ones.”
Marwa, first appointed NDLEA Chairman in January 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, previously chaired the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to 2020. The reappointment will see the Adamawa-born former military officer remain in charge until 2031.
A former military governor of Lagos and Borno States, Marwa graduated from the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973, he held key military positions including Brigade Major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Army Staff, and Academic Registrar of the NDA. He also represented Nigeria as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, and 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 and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.
Since assuming leadership of the NDLEA, he has overseen the arrest of over 73,000 drug mules and barons and the seizure of more than 15 million kilograms of hard drugs. He has also spearheaded nationwide campaigns to combat drug abuse.