President Bola Tinubu has reappointed Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) as Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for another five-year term, the State House announced on Friday.
Marwa, who was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021, will now lead the agency until 2031.
Prior to joining the NDLEA, he was the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 until December 2020.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, confirmed the announcement in a press statement issued on November 14, 2025.
According to the statement, Marwa brings decades of experience to the position. Marwa, a graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973.
He later served as “brigade major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, and academic registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy.”
He had previously worked abroad as “Deputy Defence Adviser in the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, and later as Defence Adviser to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.”
Marwa has 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).”
Under his leadership, the NDLEA has achieved outstanding results.
The State House release emphasized “many drug busts, including the arrests of 73,000 drug mules and barons and the seizures of over 15 million kilograms of various hard drugs.”
The agency has also led national initiatives to combat drug misuse.
Tinubu praised Marwa’s performance, saying, “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, out to destroy our people, especially the young ones.”
Marwa, a former military governor of Lagos and Borno, is now in charge of continuing these efforts and cementing the accomplishments made during his first tenure.
According to a State House statement, the renewed appointment “means the Adamawa-born former military officer will remain at the helm of the NDLEA until 2031.”
