Professor Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has been named the Special Ambassador of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The honour is in partnership with the anti-narcotics agency in its renewed war against drugs and use of other dangerous substances leading to addiction in the country.
Commander for Narcotics at the NDLEA Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammed Ajiya, announced the ambassadorial recognition during a courtesy visit to the Commission in Abuja last weekend.
He said the objective of the NDLEA’s visit was to partner with the Commission in order to reduce the number of drug addicts in the country through sensitisation programmes.
Ajiya said one of the aims for the collaboration is to explore the use of telecom platforms to disseminate information about its activities to sensitise the citizens.
He said this has become strategic as nearly all Nigerian youths are telecom subscribers who interface with telecom platforms from time to time.
Ajiya said NCC comes readily to mind as a good partner to the NDLEA to achieve the latter’s mandate of reducing cases of drug addicts among the Nigerian youths.
“The NDLEA has rehabilitation centres across the country. This shows that we do not only apprehend the drug addicts, but we have rehabilitation centres where we monitor and guide them until they are fully rehabilitated,” he said.
The NDLEA Commander for Narcotics expressed appreciation that the NCC executive chairman considered and accepted the role in the fight against drug addiction in Nigeria.
NCC Director, Human Capital and Administration, Usman Malah, received the NDLEA’s delegation on behalf of the EVC of NCC.
He assured the visiting team of the Commission’s commitment to supporting the drug agency in eradicating drug abuse and sensitising the citizens, especially the young generation, majority of whom are telecoms consumers, on the effect of drug.
“Strategic collaboration and partnership is one of the key pillars of the two regulatory roadmaps of the Commission– the Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2020-2024;
“And the Strategic Vision Implementation Plan (SVP) 2021-2025– and we would convey the NDLEA’s message to the Commission’s management to see how we can explore the areas of collaboration being requested by your agency,” Malah said.
