President Bola Tinubu has renewed the appointment of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd) as Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for another five-year term, the State House announced on Friday.
Marwa, first appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021, will now lead the agency until 2031. Before joining the NDLEA, he chaired the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse between 2018 and 2020.
The renewal was confirmed in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, dated November 14, 2025.
According to the statement, Marwa brings decades of military and administrative experience to the role. A graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy, he was commissioned in 1973 and later served as brigade major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Army Staff, and academic registrar of the NDA. His foreign postings include deputy defence adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, and defence adviser to Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Marwa also holds two postgraduate degrees: a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.
Under his leadership, the NDLEA has recorded significant gains, including the arrest of more than 73,000 drug traffickers and barons and the seizure of over 15 million kilogrammes of hard drugs. The agency has also intensified nationwide campaigns against drug abuse.
President Tinubu commended Marwa’s performance, saying the reappointment “is a vote of confidence in your onerous efforts to rid our country of the menace of drug trafficking and drug abuse,” urging him to maintain the momentum.
Marwa, a former military governor of Lagos and Borno states, is now tasked with consolidating the progress achieved during his first tenure.
