President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has renewed the tenure of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), giving the NDLEA chairman another five-year term to continue what many now describe as the most aggressive anti-drug campaign in Nigeria’s history.
The announcement, made Friday in a statement by Presidential Adviser Bayo Onanuga, came with strong commendation from the President, who said Marwa’s reappointment reflects the administration’s full confidence in his “relentless, results-driven fight against drug trafficking and drug abuse.” Tinubu urged him to intensify his crackdown on “the merchants of hard drugs determined to destroy our youth.”
Marwa, first appointed in 2021 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, has transformed the NDLEA into a visibly more assertive agency. His new mandate means he will remain in office until 2031—one of the longest tenures in the agency’s history.
A veteran military officer and administrator, Marwa previously served as military governor of both Lagos and Borno States and held a range of strategic roles—from brigade major and Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Army Staff, to academic registrar of the NDA, to Nigeria’s Deputy Defence Adviser in Washington and later Defence Adviser at the UN Mission.
Armed with postgraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University, Marwa has brought a blend of military discipline and technocratic reform to the NDLEA.
In four years, the agency under his watch has recorded over 73,000 arrests, including major drug barons, and seized more than 15 million kilogrammes of narcotics. He has also anchored far-reaching public education campaigns that pushed the issue of drug abuse from the margins to the centre of national conversation.
With his reappointment, expectations are high that the momentum—already unprecedented—will rise even further.