Drug abuse in Nigeria has not only become endemic, it now also acts as a propellant for criminality by providing both the financial motive and the psychological courage for violent acts. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, 2018), Nigeria has one of the highest rates of drug abuse in Africa, with an estimated 14.3 million people aged 15–64 years using psychoactive substances.
This sad reality came to the fore in June 2025 when Nigeria joined her counterparts around the globe to mark the World Drug Day with the theme ‘The Evidence is Clear: Invest in Prevention.’ Speaking at an event marking the day, the chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), retired Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa, linked more than 90 per cent of terrorism, kidnapping, and violent crimes bedevilling the country to drug and illicit substance use.
“The evidence is clear; drug abuse is driving violent crime in Nigeria. More than 90 per cent of those involved in terrorism, kidnapping, and violence are drug users,” Marwa said, lamenting that the widespread drug abuse is no longer confined to the streets, but now infiltrating schools, homes, and communities. He also revealed how the NDLEA, in the last four and a half years, arrested over 66,000 drug offenders, including 94 drug barons, and seized 11.1 million kilograms of illicit drugs.
Security experts have also identified substances like cocaine, tramadol, and methamphetamine as major enablers that fuel Nigeria’s escalating security crises, with terrorists and bandits among biggest drug users in the country.
Commenting on the recent brutal killing of a mother and her six children in Kano, Mahmud Isa Yola, a special assistant to the NDLEA Chairman, said “The vast majority of homicides, cold-blooded family massacres, and acts of extreme depravity are committed by individuals whose minds have been hijacked by psychoactive substances. A normal human mind has a brake—a conscience that screams ‘stop’ when it tries to take a life. It takes a chemical agent to cut that brake.”
Yola also revealed that statistics from the NDLEA prove that terrorism and violent crime thrive on the abuse of drugs by insurgents. He recalled how in September 2021, operatives at the Apapa port seized 451,807 tablets of Captagon weighing 74.119kg, destined for insurgents in the North East. Captagon, also known globally as the “Jihadist Drug” is used by ISIS in Syria to stay awake for days and kill without remorse. Millions of Tramadol pills have also been intercepted from syndicates supplying bandit camps.
Experts say criminals reach a false state of invincibility and psycho-emotional detachment from their actions through the use of illicit drugs. Boko Haram, for instance, behead some of their captives or keep them against their will without any form of compunction. This is why a cyclical relationship now exists where the need for drugs drives crime, and the proceeds of crime are used by criminal syndicates to maintain a steady and uninterrupted supply of illicit drugs to their camps.
We must all come together to break this nexus between drug abuse and all forms of criminality acts. We all have a role to play in this. From the security agencies stationed at our various points of entry, to the people in our communities, no one must look the other way as drugs continue to become readily accessible. If we allow drug abuse to fester, we will continue to raise monsters and victims in equal measures.
