Government should embark on enlightenment campaigns on the dire implications of trafficking in drugs.

There is every possibility that any drug courier going through any airport with drugs would be caught, particularly with the installation of powerful and sensitive scanning machines in and around most airports. Yet evidence abounds that many desperate Nigerians are still sucked into the crime of dealing and trafficking in drugs. That perhaps explains why reports that there were 10 Nigerians among the 89 foreign nationals executed this year in Saudi Arabia, predominantly for drug-related offences, came as no surprise. To worsen matters, more than a hundred other Nigerians are reportedly also on death row in various prisons across China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, having been convicted for offences such as drug-trafficking or credit card scam.

In many countries, especially in Asia, it is public knowledge that trafficking in hard drug carries the ultimate sentence. But despite frequent arrests and stiff punishment, and the increasing sophistication in technology to combat the illegal business, many of our nationals still take the risk. Across the world, several Nigerians are on death row or serving prison terms and creating enormous image problem for the country. Those in prison serving terms are even the lucky ones. Meanwhile, the huge numbers of drug mules still jetting out of the country means the enforcement agencies still have much work on their hands. This is in addition to the fact that Nigeria is increasingly becoming a destination for narcotics in its own right.

For some quick cash for the downtrodden to billions of dollars to some powerful men and women in society, many drug couriers devise new strategies to conceal these substances to outwit narcotic agents. But it is an exercise in futility. In the past few months many Nigerians, young and old, men and women have been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for trying to smuggle out narcotics or bring them in. It is therefore important for the government to embark on enlightenment campaigns on the need for our travelling nationals to know the dire implications of committing crimes abroad. The government should also employ all diplomatic means to assist those who may have been wrongly convicted.

The increasing number of our citizens being executed abroad for crime places a heavy burden on leaders at all levels of government. Even if many of these cases could be attributed to individual greed and are inexcusable, it must also be said that the turmoil in our economy has contributed to the increasing desperation. For sure, the appointment of Buba Marwa as NDLEA chairman has seen to the arrest of some major drug barons who control different cartels across the country as well as the seizure of huge numbers of these illicit substances valued at billions of Naira. With his hands-on approach to leadership, Marwa has no doubt made a difference at the agency. But, as we have highlighted before on this page, the battle against drug trafficking will require more than the efforts of one man.

In the past decade or so, and up till this moment, some of our nationals abroad have become synonymous with all manner of crimes ? ranging from internet scams, credit card fraud, forgeries of travel documents to drug trafficking. While these crimes are committed by a handful, they are enough to damage the reputation of the entire country and other compatriots in such countries. While the authority could do more to get Nigerians out of trouble in foreign land, our nationals must also live within the laws of the country they chose to reside or do business. (THISDAY Editorial)

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