By Afia Asare Kyei
As if West Africa doesn’t have enough hurdles to surmount, the rise of massive, powerful and wealthy organized crime syndicates now illicitly trafficking narcotic across the sub-region has thrown yet another mix into the already lengthy and “toxic brew” of threats plaguing the region. The rise in drug trafficking, including an increase in local drug production and consumption, is fast becoming a mighty adversary to overcome in the pursuit of peace, stability and security in West Africa. It is a challenge that requires a coordinated and multi-pronged solution. It also requires the active involvement of civil society actors across the region.
Last week, Ghana’s Vice President KwesiAmissah-Arthur inaugurated the West Africa Commission on Drugs. Convened by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and chaired by the former Nigerian President OlusegunObasanjo, the Commission plans to examine ways and means to crack down on drug trafficking and prioritize grappling with the impact of drug traffickingon West Africa. The establishment of the Commission is welcomed and its inauguration timely.
Transshipment of illicit narcotics from Latin America through to West Africa and onwards to Europe has increased significantly. Since 2008, the volume of cocaine transiting through West Africa was roughly 50 tons a year and its annual worth estimated at US$2 billion. Nearly 50% of all non-U.S. bound cocaine, or about 13% of all global flows, is now smuggled through West Africa. Just six hours away from Europe, and about 1,600 miles across the Atlantic from Latin America, West Africa’s geographical proximity to European markets makes it strategically located for drug-smuggling purposes.
West Africa is not only a transshipment zone. Local production and consumption is also on the rise – especially among its burgeoning youth population. Over 70% of the sub-region’s estimated 300 million people are under the age of 35. The vast majority have limited education and are unemployed or working in the informal sector. Lack of employment opportunities or reliable income puts youth in precarious positions where they may be vulnerable to involvement in the drugs trade and drug use itself. In desperate and troubling circumstances, drugs offer a means of escaping the harsh realities of everyday life.
Apart from the damaging effects of drug use on West Africa’s human resource base, related offences such as corruption and money laundering have also had a severe impact on the socio-economic development and governance of the region. Drug-related corruption and money laundering accentuate the chronic poverty in many West African states by disrupting effective economic governance. In a number of countries, the profits from trafficked drugs exceed the gross national income. Rampant drug trafficking empowers criminal elements operating outside the law, undermines governance, weakens state institutions, perverts the criminal justice system, and hijacks prosecutors, police officers, and judges. Drug traffickers do not simply undermine governments, they also use illicit money to acquire and in some cases seize political and economic power and then wield such power in the most outrageous and scandalous manner.
A lot of time and resources have been invested in trying to combat this scourge. At the regional level, the African Union has just developed its fourth revised plan of action. This new 2013-2017 policy on drug control seeks to strengthen continental and international cooperation and further integrate drug control issues into national legal and institutional frameworks. On a sub-regional level, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a declaration entitled “Community Flame Ceremony: the fight against drugs”. This was over 15 years ago. That same year, they set up a regional fund for financing drug control activities in West Africa. Ten years later, in 2008, ECOWAS adopted the Praia Plan of Action and the Abuja Declaration to address the security threats posed by drug-trafficking in the sub-region. All of these initiatives have had very limited success. At the national level, almost all ECOWAS states have adopted National Integrated Programmes (NIPs). Many states have amended their drug-trafficking and consumption legislation, empowered their judicial authorities, established new drug enforcement agencies and imposed stiffer penalties for offenders. These have fared no better than the regional efforts. The obvious question remains: why have these plans and policies continued to fall short? Many factors may help explain. Poor implementation, lack of funding, and singularly focusing on toughening punitive measures are all reasons to consider. Most policies have singularly focused on one dimension instead of employing a multi-pronged approach. Apart from the absence of political will and a clear vision from West Africa’s leaders, there has been an absence or altogether inability to mobilize a critical mass of the population to actively participate in the full stretch of the process - from inception to implementation, through to monitoring and review.
At the regional and national levels, the dual failure to build alliances with civil society and non-governmental and community-based organizations, as well as the failure to educate the populace, have been major missing elements in the fight against narcotics trafficking and use. Most governments continue to treat the drug problem as the exclusive domain of the state. Mere lip service is paid to engaging civil society. Civil society, including NGOs and community-based organizations, has an important role in raising awareness and educating citizens. Only token efforts have been made to provide information about the health, socio-economic, and security problems associated with drug trafficking and consumption. In many countries, citizens unaware of the harmful impact of drugs continue to idolize drug lords and dream of amassing their vast wealth, cruising around in flashy ‘Hummers’ as so many drug barons do.
Most civil society groups currently lack the necessary expertise to make a meaningful contribution to this fight. There is an ardent need to strengthen the capacity of civil society to monitor and report on drug trafficking and other related crimes and to help implement the various regional and national action plans. Civil society groups can engage the public - including influential religious and traditional leaders – and help facilitate public debate. Both steps can make a huge difference in educating people about the impact of drugs. In most instances, policies have been driven by external considerations. Civil society can help reverse this trend and ensure that local perspectives are heard and that initiatives are locally owned.
The new West Africa Commission on Drugs has set as one of its key objectives to mobilize public opinion and catalyze political support for further action at national, regional and international levels before drug-fuelled problems become totally unmanageable. In other parts of the world, civil society-led efforts have helped overturn social norms. It can be done in West Africa too.
Afia Asare Kyei is the Law, Justice and Human Rights Programme Manager at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)
