President Bola Tinubu has renewed the appointment of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) as Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for another five-year term, the State House confirmed on Friday.
Marwa, first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021, will now remain at the helm of the agency until 2031. Prior to his NDLEA tenure, he served as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to December 2020.
The announcement was confirmed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a press statement dated November 14, 2025. According to the statement, Marwa brings decades of experience to the role. A graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973.
He has served as brigade major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, and academic registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy.
Marwa also served abroad as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, and later as Defence Adviser to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations. Academically, he holds 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 significant milestones, including arrests of 73,000 drug mules and barons and seizures of over 15 million kilogrammes of various hard drugs. The agency has also led nationwide campaigns to tackle drug abuse.
President Tinubu commended Marwa’s performance, stating, “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 States, now faces the responsibility of sustaining these efforts and consolidating the gains of his first tenure. The renewed appointment means the Adamawa-born officer will continue leading the NDLEA until 2031.
