Drug Money Causing Political Instability, Says Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo (credit: www.globalagendaint.org)

A former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday has lamented the role people in power play in drug trafficking in Nigeria and other West African countries.

The Punch reports that at the Sixth Session of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Drug Control organized by the AU's Department of Social Affairs, the ex-president claimed that people in positions of power, security operatives and extremist groups hinder the fight against drug trafficking in the region. 

While launching a report titled, "Not Just in Transit. Drugs: The State and society in West Africa" by the West Africa Commission on Drugs, which he chairs, Obasanjo stated that drug trafficking had increased corruption in West African nations.

"I would like to mention our most important of findings and conclusions. We have found that interdiction is improving. However, it is still hindered by limited capacity and resources and sometimes by the interference of the well-connected.

"In some countries, people in positions of power, the security services and extremist groups have competed for the spoils of drug trafficking. This has led to increased political instability and corruption.

The WACD chairman said further, "However, we find that the links between traffickers and terrorist networks are often not ideological but rather they are brothers in crime.”

According to Obasanjo, militarizing the response to drug trafficking would "therefore only make matters worse." He also noted that West Africa's electoral processes were "worryingly vulnerable to corruption by drug money."

While urging the countries involved to make drug traffickers and their accomplices face the full force of the law, he added that attention should be more on gang leaders rather than foot soldiers of the criminal act.

"We abhor the drug traffickers and their accomplices, who must face the full force of the law. But the law should not be applied only to the poor, the uneducated and the vulnerable.

"We have found that it is still mostly drug users and small-time dealers who are arrested and imprisoned. The small fry is caught while the big fish swim free. National and international action against the traffickers must be stepped up, especially against those running the networks rather than their foot-soldiers on the ground," Obasanjo urged Nigeria and its West African neighbours.

The former president added that during the course the commission's work on the report, it was discovered that it is not only drug trafficking that is causing major problems in the region but also drug consumption.

He said, "Drugs have become increasingly available and drug dependency has increased, especially among the young. Injecting drug use in particular carries the strong risk that HIV and other diseases might spread. Unfortunately, our region is simply not ready to deal with an increase in drug use. The response is all too often to stigmatize and punish drug users. But locking them up in ever greater numbers will not solve the problem. Even the United States has started to realize this. We have concluded that drug use must be regarded primarily as a public health problem."

Speaking further, he observed that tackling the impact of drugs through informed, humane and coordinated policy would require a strong and well-coordinated effort.

"We call on political leaders in Africa to act together to change laws and policies that have not worked. This must be led by African governments. But we shall need the support of the wider world. Reforming drug laws, offering chronic users proper treatment and not imprisonment, and stopping traffickers from making further in-roads in Africa - these are all vital steps.

"Today we know what works and what does not. It is time to adopt and adapt success stories from across the globe. It is time for a smarter approach to drug policy, which I fervently hope that the report of West Africa Commission will inspire."

UN estimates cocaine trafficking in West, Central Africa generates US$900 million annually -- The Washington Post

GRAPHITTI NEWS gathered more information from the findings of the International NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. The Global Initiative found that Illicit drugs, most notably cocaine, now dominate the longstanding trans-Saharan trafficking routes, providing unprecedented levels of financing to criminal groups and extremist organizations. Illicit trafficking is corrupting state institutions, undermining democratic processes and contributing to inequitable economic and social development.

The inter-connected nature of three sub-regional criminal economies – the coastal states of West Africa, the Sahel and North Africa – was thrown into sharp relief by the collapse of the Malian state in 2012. Continuing food insecurity, criminal activity, porous borders and a growth of terrorist groups added longstanding governance problems. These tensions remain broadly un-addressed, and the threat from Islamist groups and criminal factions have been displaced by the French led intervention and subsequent international attention.

While there has been significant attention on the degree to which illicit trafficking through the Sahel impacted upon instability in Mali, there is no ongoing attempt to measure the knock-on effects on illicit trafficking of the international intervention, both in Mali and in surrounding states.

Evidence from the West African coastal states suggests that the flow of cocaine has not stopped, and in some cases may even have increased. In Guinea-Bissau, for example, evidence from recent interviews suggests that the US indictment of two leading traffickers initially stemmed the trafficking, but this has now been renewed under the control of new actors. Extensive recent work in southern Libya also provides evidence that trafficking routes are increasingly concentrated on Niger and to some extent Chad. These trends, if correct and sustained, have important implications for the stability of the region.

Lucrative European market luring Latin drug traffickers to West Africa (credit: dallasnews.com)

Seized packets of cocaine covered a table at a police station last month in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. The country has emerged as a major trafficking point for cocaine being smuggled from South America to Europe as traffickers take advantage of political instability to aid and cover their activities. Issouf Sanogo/Agence France-Presse

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime provides a unique platform on which to engage in a process of research, analysis, dialogue and strategic action around strengthening the capacity of Mali and neighbouring states to decriminalize governance and strengthen the capacity to resist transnational organized crime and its influence on stability, development, statehood and the rule of law.

Beginning with a series of research studies of major flows in the region and the linkages between them, the Global Initiative is exploring the critical inter dependencies between trafficking and stability, governance and development in the region from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.