Nigeria Country Profile

Drug Related Criminality

Street hawking of drugs and pharmaceutical preparations is a phenomenon commonly observed in Nigeria. The drugs and other medicines under international control and available on the streets are believed to have more serious consequences than dependence on well-known narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Whereas the well-established substances receive national and international attention, street hawking receives no or very little attention or priority and the victims are unknown. The hawkers are generally young adults and unemployed youths of both sexes who carry their wares in small bags or baskets and are seen in motor parks, markets, trade fairs, village squares, business ferries, trains and on the road sides. They usually attract attention by their entertaining jokes, stories and displays.

This phenomenon caught the attention of HONLEA-Africa and is an acknowledgement of a culture that encourages drug abuse. In fact, studies on street hawking of pharmaceutical preparations have identified controlled substances as part of the wares and contributing to drug-related offences and criminality in Nigeria.

Information obtained through the NDLEA showed that drug-related arrests in 2000 decreased with 4.63 % as compared to 1999. Male arrests decreased with 5.33 %, whereas female arrests increased with 9.09%. In 1997, the acquisitive crimes and offences of violence were estimated at 76.84 and 66.57 per 100,000 people respectively, and were obviously higher than drug-related offences and arrests estimated at 2.20 per 100,000 people, over the same period. It is very true that even though a close relationship exists between drugs and acquisitive crime and the offences of violence, this has not been analyzed systematically and correlated through studies.

Additional information generated through researchers, the media, students' organizations, the authorities and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) establishes some links between drugs and violence.

The emergence of over 16 secret cults on the campus of educational institutions (especially at the tertiary level), the general shroud of secrecy over their activities and the incidents of violence on the campuses, are testimonials of the relationship between drugs and cults.

The nexus between drugs, crime and cults, and the increasing involvement of the young people in these activities on the campuses lends credence to a problem that requires urgent action.

The phenomenon, which generally, is referred to as "Area Boys" is the consequence of a complex dynamics of socio-economic deprivation and challenges faced by the youth of the sprawling urban centers and large cities. The coercive and persuasive requests, petty crimes and sometimes-violent offences by the area boys to acquire resources, generally cash in the urban main business and crowded areas, has disturbed the civil society and defied the civic authority.

Drug abuse among the "Area Boys" has been variously reported as the cause of delinquent behavior and crime.

The true nature of money laundering activities in Nigeria is unknown. However, some informed sources report that;

Nigerian money launderers operate sophisticated global networks to repatriate illicit proceeds from narcotics trafficking, financial fraud, and other crimes. Nigerian criminal groups are importing high value consumer goods purchased abroad with illicit funds and selling them at less than the market value back in the country. Even more nebulous are the extent of bulk transportation and the use of the financial systems to move and layer criminal proceeds.

In 1995, the government introduced Money Laundering Decree and set-up an inter-agency "surveillance" committee consisting of representatives of the CBN, NCS, NDLEA and Immigration to ensure compliance with the provisions of the decree. There does not appear to have any reasonable success with the control of money laundering and encumbrances include: role confusion/diffusion among the various agencies involved in the regulation and enforcement of the money laundering legislation; some ambiguity in the provisions of the law; the lack of technical expertise in the vested government agencies; and pervasive reliance and operation of a cash economy - the banking infrastructure is rudimentary and the major method for payment, even for legitimate trade, is mainly cash.

Nigeria may well pass for a country where widespread corruption is rife. Some structural features may be germane to this intractable environment of corruption and include, low public salary levels which are at the margin of poverty lines, while the official wage policy appears fictional, and accepted by the employees with a tacit understanding of pursuing other income-generating opportunities. Many misdemeanors, including absenteeism, pilfering, extracting favors from the public are therefore widely regarded as prerequisites of the job. It is also perceived that the distribution of all the well-remunerated positions in government service is not based on merit, but according to connections and contacts.

Invariably, these conditions were conducive to drug trafficking and corruption that prevailed even at the level of law enforcement agencies, judiciary bodies and drug control parastatals.

In consequence, the laws on drug offences and related money laundering are achieving minimal results.