Referred to as 'Marlians' after British-Nigerian singer, Naira Marley, whose songs allegedly glorify the profane, they have become the face of a silent crisis in the wake of the insurgency.
Sitting under a tree just beside his displaced family's makeshift shelter made of four planks, a large plastic sheet, bits of rope and a bed cover, Ismai'l [not real name] narrated his decision to start engaging in drugs: "I began using drugs after Boko Haram assassinated my two brothers in my presence. When I take drugs, nothing matters to me anymore. When anxiety arises, drugs alleviate it". Isma'il's story is far from unique in Maiduguri, the heartland of the Boko Haram insurgency that evolved from urban conflict into a threat to northeastern Nigeria for over a decade.
During the peak of the insurgency, many people in rural areas were displaced to camps and host communities in Maiduguri and other safer cities, far from their villages and towns that Boko Haram occupied. Some displaced youths resorted to the abuse of drugs as a negative coping mechanism to forget what they have experienced and suppress pain or hunger. They abuse cannabis, codeine, and other drugs derived from various roots and chemicals. In 2016 the drugs problem was mainly in IDP camps and a few communities such as Kaleri, London Ciki, and Shehuri North, but with the hurried closure of the IDP camps last year, the problem has spread to almost all communities in the central and northern parts of Maiduguri and Jere Local Government, that low-income residents predominantly inhabit.
These drug addicts are referred to as "Marlians", after a British-Nigerian singer - Naira Marley, whose songs have been alleged to encourage a lot of obscenities among youths. While most of them are young men, some women that engage in prostitution also purchase drugs at night as they are too shy to show their faces during the day. They are primarily vicenarian youths, with a couple of teenagers between 13 to 18, and are easily identified with their 'strange haircuts'. When they are under the influence of drugs, they snatch mobile phones, rape young girls, and engage in armed robbery or political thuggery.
During my field research in the city in the summer of 2022 and 2023, the residents I interviewed identified it as a security problem affecting the city's safety and economic activities. Recently, the Borno state governor has voiced concern over the activities of the 'Marlians', and numerous NGOs are also involved in raising awareness. Still, the increased availability of drugs and the absence of good medical care are two key factors exacerbating the problem. Like any other social problem, these factors are likely sustained by some players that benefit from the situation and can do everything to frustrate efforts to address it. These include big pharmaceutical suppliers (some do not necessarily reside in the city), corrupt individuals within the security forces that facilitate drug trafficking to make money, and politicians that use the drug addicts as their political thugs.
First, some corrupt pharmaceutical dealers have vested interests (some are actively involved in the illicit drug trade), and some may have connections with influential government officials at the local and national levels. The existence of these cartels engaged in the business may explain why the problem is also prevalent in other cities in northern Nigeria. Some of the residents interviewed alleged that some drug dealers even undermined the work of NDLEA officers by threatening to use their political connections to sack them if they did not allow them to carry out their illicit drug trafficking.
Second, the problem is part of the larger war economy in Borno state. Apart from the fact that Boko Haram terrorists use drugs and collaborate with other organized crime rings to facilitate drug trafficking in the Sahel to supplement their income, some military and other law enforcement agencies are also associated with the problem. For example, some corrupt law enforcement officers and Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) militia members are accused of peddling drugs and collecting bribes from drug dealers to allow them to pass checkpoints or sell drugs unhindered in the city. These corrupt law enforcement actors, still critical in city politics, will likely scuttle efforts to address the problem.
Third, the problem also links with the city's politics and interests. Even though the governor and some state commissioners complained about the issue, some of these Marlians are political thugs, which means some politicians benefit from it, and addressing the problem can affect their political base. For example, in October 2021, the governor met with leaders of different political thugs. He threatened to deal with them and any politician. However, some of the political thugs protested the following day. They insisted that they were not miscreants as alleged by the governor, but supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and that no government or individual could stop them from what they have been doing since the emergence of democracy in 1999. This means the governor's political will to address the problem must translate into concrete action that addresses the complicity of the politicians (including members of his party) that use the drug addicts as thugs.
Given that the governor has overwhelming support, he can address the problem. One of the best solutions is to reactivate the Drug Control Committee and to include youth groups, religious leaders, and traditional leaders. The Drug Control Committee was set up by the state government in 2013, and it comprised the military, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Police, Civil Defense and other humanitarian and NGOs to address drug abuse in all IDP camps. The committee has successfully reduced the drug problem within IDP camps, but now that the camps are all closed, the drug problem has spread to many other neighbourhoods within the city, and the committee is not active.
Considering the multifaceted nature of the problem, the new committee must work in close coordination with diverse stakeholders. For example, youth groups and traditional and religious leaders can be harnessed through the committee to promote awareness campaigns on the dangers of drugs and substance abuse. The committee can also coordinate with government hospitals and NGOs to provide more psychosocial and mental health services to reduce addiction and provide unemployed drug addicts with skills training. Finally, the committee can support the NDLEA to arrest dealers of drugs and owners of drug joints, as the current NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa, the Military Governor of Old Borno (1990-1992), has already arrested many big drug dealers in other parts of Nigeria.
The task of combating drug abuse and thuggery is, in all actuality, incredibly daunting. However, like how Maiduguri residents drove Boko Haram out of the city and allied with security forces to defend their communities, enormous success can be achieved if all stakeholders reaffirm their commitment to confronting the new threat Marlians pose.
Imrana Alhaji Buba is a PhD researcher at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo. His research is on the dynamics of political violence in Nigeria and is part of the ResilienceBuilding Project funded by the European Research Council's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (852816). Before starting the PhD, Imrana founded the Youth Coalition Against Terrorism (YOCAT), a volunteer-based youth organization working to unite youth against violent extremism in northern Nigeria. He received the 2016 Queen's Young Leaders Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the 2017 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award for promoting a culture of peace in Nigeria.