President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the renewal of the appointment of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd.) as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for another five-year term.
Marwa, first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021 after serving as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (2018–2020), will now remain in office until 2031.
The announcement was made in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Bayo Onanuga, who described the reappointment as a reinforcement of the administration’s confidence in Marwa’s leadership and the agency’s progress under his watch.
An accomplished military officer from Adamawa State, Marwa is a graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973, he held several strategic roles during his military career, including Brigade Major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp to then Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, and Registrar of the NDA.
He also served in diplomatic defence capacities: first as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and later as Defence Adviser to Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
A former Military Governor of Lagos and Borno States, Marwa holds two postgraduate degrees — a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh (1983–85) and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University (1985–86).
Since assuming leadership of the NDLEA in 2021, Marwa has overseen several major operational breakthroughs. The agency has arrested more than 73,000 drug traffickers and dealers and confiscated over 15 million kilogrammes of various illicit drugs. His tenure has also seen intensified national campaigns against drug abuse.
President Tinubu praised his achievements, stating:
“Your reappointment is a vote of confidence in your onerous efforts to rid our country of the menace of drug trafficking and drug abuse. I urge you not to relent in tracking the merchants of hard drugs who are out to destroy our people, especially the young ones.”
Marwa’s renewed mandate signals continuity in the federal government’s aggressive stance on drug trafficking and substance abuse nationwide.
