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The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), on Monday, disclosed that he was once compelled to sack a pilot in his multi-billion naira airline, Albarka Air (now defunct), for testing positive for drugs.
Marwa made the revelation in Abuja at the third edition of The Conversation Conference, a programme held to mark the World Mental Health Day celebration, which was organised by the Intersect Consortium in collaboration with Action Against Hunger and the International Rescue Committee.
Albarka Air was founded by Marwa shortly after his retirement as the military administrator of Lagos State. However, in September 2003, he gave up his position as the chairman/chief executive officer of the airline.
Four years later, specifically in May 2007, the Federal Government withdrew the licenses of Albarka Air in controversial circumstances.
Explaining why he fired the pilot 21 years ago, Marwa said he decided to terminate his appointment after the captain caused passengers to panic while flying a plane to Maiduguri.
He said, “I used to run an airline called Albarka Air, and one of our best flights was on Fridays, and the route was from Lagos, Abuja, to Maiduguri. It was always full on weekends and we flew the 727 on that route. It has a capacity of about 170 passengers. I used to monitor all the flights of the airline in those days.
“But on this particular Friday, I got several calls from passengers later in the evening, all saying the same thing. They were complaining about the captain of that flight. Sometimes, the last flight encountered rough weather in Maiduguri.
“They told me that midway through that encounter, the captain announced through the intercom ‘, Ladies and gentlemen, I have bad news for you’, and he kept quiet for a minute or two before saying, ‘We will be diverting the flight to Kano.’ That was all the bad news he wanted to say. But people had already panicked. Those who felt like fainting at that moment did before he concluded that they were diverting to Kano.”
Further investigation revealed that he was truly under the influence of a psychoactive substance, as indicated.
Buba stated that those close to him knew that he had zero tolerance for drug offences long before he became the NDLEA boss.
“So immediately the news got to me, I investigated and discovered it happened. Quickly, I checked if we have a captain in Kano. Fortunately, we found a 727 captain who was off for that day. So I explained to him that I was grounding the ‘bad news’ captain and putting him in charge to continue the journey in the morning.
“In those days, when you divert flights, you would also provide accommodation and feeding for all the passengers. So the flight resumed the next day and I recalled the captain as discussed. He did a drug test and tested positive for the substance. Now, normally, pilots undergo medical checks, but this man was on drugs.
“So I fired him immediately without wasting time and reported him to the NCAA. From there, we started doing random drug testing for all the pilots and crew members. The need for drug testing in our workplace cannot be over-emphasised. It is therefore important to implement drug integrity testing policy in the workplace,” he stated.
The Minister of State for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, also shared his vision, saying his ministry has intensified an enlightenment campaign on mental health awareness.
Olawande also said there are many Nigerian youth still struggling to quit the world of substance abuse with little or no support base.
He said, “There are so many youths outside there suffering from this drug abuse. Our ministry is working hard to do justice to part of it, and I can assure you that in the next one week, you will hear more from me on this (issue of) mental health. I think it is something that we will work against.
‘The major problem we are facing is because our mental health is not being taken care of. Nobody cares about anybody and we don’t blame them. It is just because of the situation we find ourselves in. I thank the organisers for making this happen. I will come back and sit with you to see how we can aggressively work together in addressing this issue.”
Meanwhile, the host of the TCC event, Vincent Udenze, has also expressed concerns that mental health is sometimes mistaken for malaria by wearied employees in their workplace.
“Mental health is often mistaken for malaria or stress. Sometimes, people call in sick, saying it appears they are down with malaria. But that is not the case. We know hunger is an issue in this country. But in truth, people are going through a lot.
“Every employer should be able to ask after the welfare of their employees including the gate man. Even if it is just to ask ‘How are you?’ In this part of the world, we don’t even appreciate the efforts of security agents like the police. Yet, they are out there taking bullets on our behalf. In the course of that journey, they also get wearied and burn out,” he said.
