It is not enough for the senate to pass the bill on death sentence for drug offenders. Tackling the menace requires comprehensive action.
By Emeka Alex Duru
In uncertain times, it is not unusual for government to deploy exigent measures to tackle issues confronting the society. It is a different thing if the strategies resolve the issues they are created to address. They may even create more problems, if not properly handled. But at that moment, they are designed to serve as the clincher or a window of escape.
That could be the nearest in explaining the consideration by senators in approving death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking in the country. On May 9, the Senate passed a bill, which prescribed death sentence for manufacturers of hard drugs in the country. The bill, titled “National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024,” seeks to review penalties provision, update the list of dangerous drugs, strengthen the operations of the NDLEA, and empower the NDLEA to establish laboratories.
The bill was passed after the Senate considered the report of its Committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
The punishment prescribed in the extant NDLEA Act is a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. In fact, Section 11 of the current act prescribes that “any person who, without lawful authority; imports, manufactures, produces, processes, plants or grows the drugs popularly known as cocaine, LSD, heroin or any other similar drugs shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to be sentenced to imprisonment for life.”
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The section was amended to include death penalty as punishment for anybody found guilty of the offences. Concurrence by the House of Representatives on the bill will make it ready for the president for assent. And it becomes law, if the president signs it.
The lawmakers’ action may have been informed by the epidemy of drug trafficking and usage in the country. Statistics indicate that in the last three years, the NDLEA had arrested 50,901 drug offenders, including the apprehension of 46 drug barons. According to the Chairman of the agency, Brig-Gen. Muhammed Marwa (retd.), the NDLEA had successfully prosecuted and secured conviction for 9,034 of the offenders as well as seized over 7,561 tons of illicit substances, within the period. For a country of preponderant youth population, the figure is disturbing.
The use of hard drugs is on the increase in the country, cutting across all ages and genders. According to the 2018 UNODC report, “Drug use in Nigeria” –the first large-scale, nationwide national drug use survey in Nigeria, one in seven persons (aged 15-64 years) had used a drug in the past year.
The dangers of drug abuse are many. Some addicts might have died as a result of the indulgence. Drug is equally a stimulant for impulsive behaviours. There is a link between drug abuse and violent crimes such as banditry and terrorism. Some traffickers have been caught and killed abroad, thus sullying the image of the country. Drug trafficking is a major factor in illicit financial flow in and out of the country. Unfortunately, most of the patrons are ignorant of the effects of hard drugs.
Until you take a compassionate look at young men and women, that have been rendered useless by drugs, those lying in the streets or under the bridges in broad day light with their future almost mortgaged or entirely wasted, you cannot appreciate the extent of harm indulgence in drug has done to human resource development in the country. To think that some of the victims were probably workers, traders or students who were doing well in their various fields before sliding into drug usage, makes the situation more pathetic. The action by the Senate must have been a last resort in tackling the menace.
There is no doubt that the senate means well in opting for the desperate measure in addressing the lingering malaise. But how far can that go in eradicating the monster? That is the nagging question that the lawmakers and other relevant authorities need to consider in adopting death sentence as the solution. Despite the good intentions of the Senate on the matter, death sentence may not yield the desired result.
To be sure, involvement in the illegal drug trade in certain countries, which may include illegally importing, exporting, selling or possession of significant amounts of drugs, constitutes a capital offence and may result in capital punishment. There are also extrajudicial executions of suspected drug users and traffickers in some countries without drug death penalties by law. But none of these severe measures has succeeded in dissuading addicts and barons from the illicit trade.
Death sentence has not deterred users and traffickers from engaging in drugs. We have ready instances of three Nigerian youths, Batholomew Owoh, Bernard Ogedengbe and Lawal Ojuolape, who were publicly executed in 1985 for drug-related offences by the then military administration of General Muhammadu Buhari. But that did not stop other Nigerians from engaging in the illicit transactions. The worst aspect of death sentence is that it is not corrective. The offender does not learn from his mistake. That is why most countries in the world are against death sentence.
There is therefore the need to tackle the problem from the roots. In this instance, the family, the society and the government share in the blames and have roles to play in getting it right. Growing up in the village, we were taught the concepts of heaven and hell. The message was that doing good would earn one a place in heaven, while wrong attitude was passport to hell fire. We were told that good name and integrity mattered more than silver and gold acquired in questionable circumstances. The society did not celebrate criminals or fleeting characters. And the leaders evolved through transparent processes.
No matter any attempts by anyone to dismiss those fundamental principles, they were handy in moulding children that later became leaders.
The situation has sadly changed. Many in contemporary Nigeria’s leadership class, are elements, who ordinarily would not get elected to offices in their village associations. These are the people who feed the youths with drugs to do their biddings at elections.
It was here in the last election that Nigerians were lectured by a presidential candidate that what mattered was to grab power and run with it. Those used in grabbing the power could not have done so in their normal senses. They could be high on drugs.
So, it is not enough for the senate to pass the bill on death sentence for drug offenders. Tackling the menace requires comprehensive action.