Nigeria Country Profile

Priorities

The basis of formulating the Integrated Drug Control Priority Programme for Nigeria, Year 2002 - 2005 are the international political declarations and instruments, which are: the UNGASS Political Declaration, OAU Plan of Action and the ECOWAS Plan of Action. The government of Nigeria has analyzed these political instruments and synthesized a National Drug Control Master Plan (NDCMP), which provides strategic direction to the coordination and implementation of drug control programme in the country. The Master Plan identified four priority areas to address, namely: Adequate and Efficacious Penal Sanctions, Control of Illicit Drug Supply, Control of Licit Drug Supply and Drug Demand Reduction.

Another source of inspiration for the integrated program programme is the final report of the 1999 joint EU/US Drug Control Assessment mission to Nigeria. The mission identified strong social displacements as the critical factors that have left large sections of the population, mostly the young, vulnerable to drug abuse and involvement in the drug economy. The current government intervention has neglected this segment and aligned more towards interdiction of drug couriers and trafficking agents. The mission also implicated pervasive corruption and weak institutional capacity (lack of appropriate training, technology and maintenance culture) of the law enforcement and security services as constituting obstacles to effective drug control in Nigeria. In conclusion, the mission recommended for external assistance in every aspect of drug control to both public and private institutions. In addition, the EU/US recommended a coordinated drug control assistance between the United States and European Union, and with appropriate organs of the United Nations, especially UNODC.

This programme took into cognizance the strategic importance of the newly installed democracy, implication of drug problems on the youthful population, and the Common Country Assessment (CCA) thematic group work on drug control and crime prevention. The priorities of the Integrated Drug Control Priority Programme are:

• Building a Data/Information base on the Drug abuse situation, drug demand reduction, and drug control strategies. This will be achieved through research (mainly action research) and studies, situation assessments and material development on the local drug problems, linkage of drug and crime in the specific catchments.
• Forging stable partnerships and coordinated joint action-initiatives-interventions with Government agencies, the NGOs or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and agencies of the United Nations. Decentralization to the states and Local Government Areas (LGAs), as well as community-based and managed interventions will be vigorously pursued.
• Special attention and targeting of the vulnerable groups e.g. young people as 'street children', 'Area Boys', 'drug hawkers', 'school-based cultists', Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) and women.
• Gender Mainstreaming and integration in all programme activities and the desegregation of information/data based on gender. Gender-based projects will be encouraged especially with women organizations in the area of drug abuse, in order to explore some strategies and approaches for integrating gender issues in programmes.
• Pioneering Alternative Development by promoting the eradication of cannabis cultivation and social integration of the population at risk through crop substitution, income generation and community partnership with the private sector for sustainable rural development.
• Modernization, building the human capacity and infusion of new technologies to ensure continued operational effectiveness and programme sustainability. Progress in this area is enhanced through hands-on, close monitoring and follow-up support to the beneficiaries.
• Consolidate relationship and strategic linkages with the media, the International Community in Nigeria and the "Mini-Dublin Group". Encouraging transparency in all aspects of the programme, these consultative fora will strengthen drug control programmes, reduce duplication of efforts and avoid resource wastage.

Relationship Between International Instruments, EU/US Mission Report, National Drug Control Master Plan and the Integrated Drug Control Priority Programme