Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), OFR, is 70. He became a Septugenarian last week. Many know him as a thoroughbred soldier, a meritorious service and a distinguished career in the Nigeria Army. Renowned as an administrator par excellence, he is also a diplomat, author of seminal books and an accomplished entrepreneur. He was awarded the medal Distinguished Service Star (DSS) in the course of his military career.
Over the last few years, Gen. Marwa has built a formidable reputation for himself as an anti drug Czar. General Marwa was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, on January 15, 2021.
Saddled with the task of revamping the country’s anti-narcotics agency and leading a potent and efficient campaign to curb the abuse and trafficking of illicit substances in Nigeria, Marwa hit the ground running.
He executed a major reform of NDLEA, leading to expansion of the Agency and a radical shift to intelligence-based operations. He began his days in office with the launch of Offensive Action, a ramp up drug supply reduction action that translates to relentless tracking, arrest and conviction of drug traffickers.
In 20 months, NDLEA recorded unprecedented results: • 18,940 arrests (including 18 drug barons) • 2, 904 convictions • 5.4 million kilograms of drugs seized.
He also launched one of the biggest advocacy campaign in Nigeria, War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) and got governments and corporate organisations committed to building more treatment and rehabilitation centres.
On June 30, 2022, he successfully launched a drug addiction call centre with a 24/7 helpline that connects callers with counsellors and mental health professionals.
Similarly, the Agency’s drug demand reduction effort under him has been hailed as revolutionary as over 12,326 drug users were counselled and rehabilitated in 20 months.
His success at turning around the fortune of NDLEA in a short period to become an efficient Drug Law Enforcement organisation has earned him several awards from the Nigerian media including: • Excellence in Public Service (BusinessDay Newspaper) • 2021 Man of the Year (Champion newspaper) • 2021 Government Agency of the Year (Leadership newspaper) • Public Servant of the Year (Daily Asset newspaper) • Man of the Year 2021 (Our Nigeria news magazine) • Special Achievement Award 2021 (Silverbird TV) • Independent TV (ITV) Public Service Award 2021 • Exemplary Leader Award (NewsDirect newspaper) • Public Service Award 2021 (The Sun newspaper) • Good Governance Public Servant of the Year 2021 (CSR Reporters) • Outstanding Role Model in Fight Against Drugs and Substances (TMNews Summit) • Public Service of the Year Award (Bluprint newspaper), among others.
Let’s tell you more about him. He was born in Kaduna on September 9, 1953 and he is a scion of a military family, his father, Buba Marwa, and grandfather, Buba Yola, had served in the Nigeria Army, and Marwa did not deviate from that path. He had his primary school education across Nigeria in Enugu, Zaria, Abeokuta and Lagos (1960-65) and went on to attend the Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria (1966-70). Subsequently, he completed a regular combatant course at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and was commissioned into Nigeria Army Recce Corps (NARC) in June 1973.
While in the Army, General Marwa distinguished himself as an outstanding scholar in the several courses he attended in Nigeria and abroad, such as: • Communication Instructors course, School of Armour Nowshera, Pakistan • Regimental Signal Officers (RSO) course, Nigerian Army Signals School, Apapa • RSO (All Arms), Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow, India • Armour Officer Basic Course, Fort Knox, Kentucky, USA. Advanced Armour Officers Course in the Armoured Corps Centre and School, Ahmadnagar, India. Junior and Senior Staff College courses at Command and Staff College (CSC), Jaji.
He came first in order of merit in several exams and courses including: • Lieutenant to Captain practical promotion exam, Enugu (1975) • Regimental Signal Officers Course (1975). Junior Staff College Course (1979-80) where he was the only student that made the B Grade and also the first person in the history of the college to be awarded the B Grade • Captain to Major qualifying exam, Kaduna (1981) • Staff College Senior Division, 1981-1982, where he obtained B Grade.
General Marwa has two postgraduate degrees, namely Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh (1983-85) and Master of Public Administration from Harvard University (1985-86).
His other qualifications include certificates in International Security Studies, Leadership and Organisational Innovation and Project Planning and Evaluation (PPE), all from the University of Pittsburgh.
A cerebral scholar, he is the author of the books Nigerian Army Dictionary, Appreciation and Grand Tactics. He is a co-author of Nigeria in Peace Keeping Operations, a reference book on the history and nature of peacekeeping by the Nigerian Armed Forces and Police since Independence.
He has held several command and staff appointments in the Army, including Deputy Defense Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC and Defence Attachee at the Mission of Nigeria to the UN in New York. By and large, he is renowned for his public administration acumen.
Appointed Military Governor of old Borno State (present Borno and Yobe states) from June 1990 to 1992, his administration had a far-reaching impact on the populace in diverse ways including in health care delivery (where he built seven hospitals from scratch and equipped 14 general hospitals), education and agriculture. Marwa created the first Ministry of Water Resources at state level (first of its kind in the country) and by direct labour, the state undertook the construction of roads and completed the Maiduguri International Hotel.
In the area of security, his administration remains evergreen in the annal of Borno State.
The appointment of Gen. Marwa as the administrator of Borno State coincided with the time Idriss Deby, an erstwhile rebel, seized power from President Hisen Habre, thereby dislodging members of the Chadian Army, most of who went rogue and carried out raids across the border into Borno State. The marauders’ pillaging of towns, villages and communities, was not unlike Boko Haram’s.
Marwa’s immediate response, the establishment of Operation Zaki, a joint military operation by army and airforce formations stationed in Borno State, nipped the problem in the bud and brought the situation under control within one year.
In 1992, Gen Marwa was posted as Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy. And in 1993, he returned to foreign service as Defence Attache at the Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York.
In August 1996, he was appointed Military Administrator of Lagos State. His three-year tenure in the state was accompanied by resounding success.
He orchestrated a turnaround of Lagos with several strategic programmes and actions which, amongst others, are: • Operation Sweep, which brought violent crime, especially armed robbery, under effective control • Operation 250 Roads, which eventually culminated in the construction and rehabilitation of over 700 roads mainly through direct labour • Construction of mini-water works and boreholes that provided potable water for over 500 communities • Revamping of the healthcare sector with construction/rehabilitation of several general hospitals, construction of two accident and emergency hospitals (the first in Nigeria), the establishment of a diagnostic centre, and construction of Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) from scratch. A new order of free treatment of malaria and admission of children was instituted • Taming the scourge of area boys, with thousands of the street urchins rehabilitated, trained and empowered with vocations • Construction and completion of eight housing estates • Construction of Eko Tourism Resort with 120 individual chalets by the Atlantic Ocean • Establishment of integrated public transport service which included hundreds of buses, ferry service, train shuttle between Alagbado and Iddo, and, for the first time in Nigeria, the introduction of the now-ubiquitous three-wheeler vehicle (popularly called ‘Marwa’).
The feats were achieved on a strict budget of N14billion. Marwa, who did not borrow from any bank throughout his tenure, handed over a cash amount of N2billion¯the highest amount handed over from one state administration to another.
His exemplary leadership earned him “Nigeria’s Man of the Year 1997″ by Newswatch, Nigeria’s oldest and influential weekly magazine.
After retirement from the Nigeria Army, General Marwa was appointed Chairman of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) (2000-2006).
His tenure at DICON witnessed the resuscitation and upgrade of arms production from rifles, pistols and furniture to RPG–7, 60mm mortar and 81mm mortar, all produced from scratch using local materials. DICON then proceeded to the next logical step, which was the production of the Artillery 105mm Pack Howitzer.
General Marwa was subsequently appointed by President Umaru Musa Yar’adua as High Commissioner of Nigeria to the Republic of South Africa, with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdoms of Swaziland and Lesotho in 2008. He resigned in 2010 to run for political office.
In 2018, he was appointed Chairman of a 27-member Presidential Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari. PACEDA was tasked with the task of critically examining the drug abuse problem in Nigeria, which was thrice the global average, and making recommendations as to how to effectively and urgently rid the nation of the scourge in a sustainable manner.
General Marwa, an avid lover of sports, is happily married to Hajiya Munira Marwa with children. When he turned 70 last Saturday 9th September the media was agog with congratulatory messages. This is because of the solid reputation he has built for himself.
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