Fight Against Drug Abuse and Dein Leadership By Example, by Utomi Jerome-Mario

Recently, Grand Knight Emeritus, Sir Tonna Okei, President, South Carolina Organization of Africa Unity (OAU), and a Worthy Member Knights of Columbus, in a birthday congratulatory message to His Royal Majesty (HRM), Dr. Benjamin Keagborekuzi Ikenchukwu, to mark the traditional monarch’s birthday, described Royal Father as a first-class traditional monarch who has redefined leadership and made the Traditional stool known for its sanctity, honesty and respect for the Rule of Law, noting that the revered monarch exhibits the highest level of professional and traditional ethics with a mixture of selflessness, sympathy and empathy for his subjects in his service of the Agbor kingdom.

Indeed, the correctness and timeliness of the above description came flooding a few days ago, after reading the news report that the frontline traditional ruler in Delta state, Dein of Agbor, His Royal Majesty Benjamin Keagborekuzi Ikenchuku met with the Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) to seek a partnership that will end the activities of drug dealers in his kingdom.

Welcoming the monarch to his office, Marwa reportedly expressed the readiness of the Agency to collaborate with all stakeholders including traditional rulers and community gatekeepers to ensure that the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking is stamped out from communities across the country.

“We’re at the moment deploying our personnel to the local government areas to establish our presence at the grassroots to further our advocacy against substance abuse and enforce the law against those dealing in illicit drugs at that level. Towards that, we met with the leadership of ALGON last week to make this process seamless and we welcome the support and partnership with all stakeholders for successful implementation of all our drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts, through a whole of society approach”, the NDLEA boss stated.

In his remarks at the meeting, the monarch said “we’ve been having some issues with drug dealers in Agbor. We’ve tried to handle it once or twice, but we’d like to at least be able to provide some land to have NDLEA come to Agbor. My main hope is Gen Marwa right here. Everything he touches turns to gold. Since he came on board at NDLEA, you people were reinvigorated. And I have seen that since he came on board, the drug dealers are now more hesitant, and we need more of that. So, we continue to learn from his experience and continue to make sure that this Agency is strengthened as much as we can”.

He said his desire to bring NDLEA into his kingdom is to eliminate the activities of drug dealers and protect his people from the devastating effects of illicit substances destroying the lives of youths and adults all over the world. He said his partnership with NDLEA is to send a strong message to drug dealers that their time is up in his kingdom.

According to him, “I always try to tell criminals, that life is left and right, good and bad, up and down. If you are intelligent enough to be selling drugs, then you deserve to go to jail. You deserve to be incarcerated because that intelligence can also lead you to be selling houses or to be selling goods. Do something that doesn’t affect people negatively. Because every drug dealer doesn’t want their children taking these hard drugs. But they don’t mind their neighbour next door taking such drugs. It is destroying us as a nation.

“Kidnappers are now using these illicit drugs to go about their nefarious activities. The reduction of it in our society will bring down the crime rate, robberies, and so on. “So, my message to the drug dealers, beware, you are on notice; we do not want you in Agbor; we do not want you in our country.”

The monarch also has words of caution for those abusing illicit drugs.

“For those who are taking drugs, once you have taken them, it is a life-or-death decision you are making. You can take it for the first time, and you can die. You destroy your family, and you destroy the people around you. So, as much as possible, choose life over death on these drugs”, Dein reportedly concluded.

For its part, this piece believed and still believes that as earlier noted by Okei, such efforts/move can only come from a traditional monarch that truly loves his people and his kingdom-and recognizes the imperatives of selflessness, sympathy and empathy in serving others. This is a very big lesson for other traditional rulers in the state to draw.

Like the Dein of Agbor, I am of the view that this is the time for traditional leadership institutions in Nigeria to start caring for the social, economic and spiritual wellbeing of their subjects- and this they must perform at the most fundamental levels.

Utomi, is the Programme, Media Specialist Writes From Lagos , Nigeria. He could be reached via;jeromeutomi@yahoo.com/08032725374,