Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has expressed his desire to leverage the agricultural reform programmes of Farmer Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago in Niger State and to partner with the state government to facilitate sustainable alternative livelihoods for youths and women groups in the state.
The partnership programme, according to him, will specifically focus on the deviant youth groups, including those in the custody of the NDLEA.
This partnership interest of Gen. Marwa with Governor Bago was disclosed by Dr. Jonah Kolo, who was recently appointed as the National Coordinator of Alternative Development Projects in Nigeria, at the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja.
He spoke when he paid a visit to the Hon. Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Barr. Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji, to inform him on the activities of the agency and particularly on the focus of the Alternative Development Project of the NDLEA.
He stated that Gen. Marwa was passionate about providing legitimate alternative sources of livelihoods for the deviant youth groups as a drug control strategy, hence his decision to create an Alternative Development Unit in the agency.
He said that one of the key functions of the unit in the NDLEA was "to initiate and/or identify and leverage on the children, youth, and women empowerment programmes at the community, state, and federal levels and collaborate with the sponsors and implementers of such programmes in order to incorporate illicit narcotics and related crime preventive empowerment programmes’’.
The Hon. Speaker therefore pledged his support for the partnership project and promised to take up the partnership interest with the Governor of Niger State, Hon. Mohammed Umaru Bago.
Dr. Jonah Kolo also paid an alternative development awareness visit to the Niger State Commissioner of Agriculture, Hon. Musa Salihu Bawa Bosso, where the prospects of the alternative development and sustainable livelihood project in Niger State and, by extension, in Nigeria were extensively discussed.
He said the Alternative Development (AD) approach was also a palliative towards social security and the correctional justice system as an option to punishment and was designed to provide diverse sustainable alternative sources of livelihoods for the young population, including women groups, and for illicit drug growers, traffickers, users, and other deviants.
Dr. Kolo further stated that Gen. Marwa will pay an Alternative Development Advocacy visit to Governor Bago in no distant time, during which he said the modalities for the partnership will be fully discussed.
In attendance during the meeting with the Hon. Commissioner were Dr. Mathew Ahmed, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Livestock; Mallam Alhassan Umar, Director, Planning, Research, and Statistics; and Mallam Adamu Garba Maikusuwa, Director, Agric Services and Linkages.
Others included Engr. Musa Danladi, Director, Engineering Services. Mr. Bala King, the Principal Staff Officer (PSO) of Administration from the NDLEA National Headquarters in Abuja, was also in the meeting.