Tinubu Reappoints ex-Military Gov as NDLEA Boss for Another 5-Year Term

President Bola Tinubu has approved the reappointment of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd.) as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for another five-year term.

The State House confirmed the development on Friday, extending Marwa’s leadership of the NDLEA until 2031. Former President Muhammadu Buhari first appointed him in January 2021.

Before his appointment to the NDLEA, Marwa served as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Drug Abuse from 2018 to December 2020.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced the reappointment in a statement dated November 14, 2025, highlighting Marwa’s extensive military and administrative experience.

According to the statement, Marwa is a product of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973, he went on to serve as brigade major of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Aide-de-Camp to then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, and later as academic registrar of the NDA.

His international service record includes postings as Deputy Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and subsequently as Defence Adviser at Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Marwa also boasts an impressive academic background, holding 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 achieved unprecedented successes. The State House highlighted several milestones, including the arrest of 73,000 drug traffickers and barons, and seizures totaling over 15 million kilogrammes of illicit drugs. The agency has also intensified nationwide campaigns against drug abuse.

President Tinubu commended Marwa’s performance, stating: “Your reappointment is a vote of confidence in your 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.”

A former military governor of Lagos and Borno states, Marwa is now tasked with building on the gains recorded during his first tenure and sustaining the agency’s momentum in the fight against narcotics.

Marwa was born on 9 September 1953 in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria to a military family; his father, Buba Marwa, and grandfather was Fulani, Buba Yola, had served in the Nigeria Army. He had his primary school education across Nigeria in Enugu, Zaria, Abeokuta and Lagos (1960–1965) and went on to attend the Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria (1966–1970). Subsequently, he completed a regular combatant course at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and was commissioned into Nigeria Army Recce Corps (NARC) in June 1973.

He was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant in the Nigerian Army Reconnaissance Corps before moving to the Armoured Corp. He held various posts in the army, including Brigade Major (23 Armoured Brigade), Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Theophilus Danjuma, academic registrar of the Nigerian Defense Academy and deputy defense adviser in the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC. In 1990, he was appointed Governor of Borno State. In 1992, he became the defense adviser to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

General Marwa has two postgraduate degrees, Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh[1] (1983–85) and Master of Public Administration from Harvard (1985–86).

He has held several command and staff appointments in the Nigeria Army, including Deputy Defense Adviser at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC.

He was Military Governor of old Borno State (present Borno and Yobe states) from June 1990 to 1992. Marwa created the first Ministry of Water Resources and by direct labour, the state undertook the construction of roads and completed the Maiduguri International Hotel.

The appointment of Gen Marwa as the administrator of Borno State coincided with the time Idriss Deby, erstwhile rebel, seized power from President Hisen Habre, thereby dislodging members of the Chadian Army, some of who went rogue and carried out raids across the border into Borno State. The marauders’ pillaging of towns, villages and communities, was not unlike Boko Haram’s.

In 1992, Gen Marwa was posted as Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy. And in 1993, he returned to foreign service as Defence Attache at the Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York.

In August 1996, he was appointed Military Administrator of Lagos State. His three-year tenure in the state was accompanied by strategic programmes. The feats were achieved on a strict budget of N14billion. Marwa, who did not borrow from any bank throughout his tenure, handed over a cash amount of N2billion―the highest amount handed over from one state administration to another.

His leadership earned him “Nigeria’s Man of the Year 1997” by Newswatch, Nigeria’s oldest and influential weekly magazine.

His renewed appointment, the presidency noted, means the Adamawa-born retired military officer will continue to steer the NDLEA until 2031.

By PRNigeria