Drug test for candidates: A fitness check or political witch-hunt of rivals?

Decision of the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission to subject aspirants to mandatory drug test ahead of the October 26 statewide local council election is generating ripples among the political parties. Of common concern is its lack of legal footing in the Electoral Act and alleged abuse by the ruling party, MURTALA ADEWALE reports.

The decision of the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) to conduct drug tests for all candidates contesting October 26 local government election is unsettling party leaders and stakeholders in the state.

While some see the decision as a practical answer to the clarion call by the President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Uche Ojinmah, and Chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Gen. Muhammed Buba Marwa, advocating compulsory drug and psychiatric examinations for politicians seeking to occupy public offices, other stakeholders believe the decision was to disqualify candidates of the opposition parties.

It will be recalled that Dr Ojinmah had said that some of the policies and level of corruption being reported among public office holders could only come from demented minds.

Marwa, who also appealed to political parties to include drug integrity tests as part of their screening processes to prevent drug addicts having access to public funds regretted that money meant for public services are being diverted to consume illicit drugs.

He said: “For politicians, we have long advocated and I take the opportunity again to repeat the advocacy that when they run for public office, it demands a lot of responsibility from the person and we need to be certain if he is a person that is already a drug addict/user, who will spend public fund to consume cocaine and his head will not be in stable condition to handle the affairs he has been entrusted with.”

The narcotic agency had reported that about 14.3 million Nigerians are involved in drug abuse, with abusers ranging between 15 and 64 years, and more women are now involved. Nigeria’s drug prevalence rate stood at 15 per cent, almost tripling the global prevalence rate of 5.5 per cent.”

Although NDLEA demographic analysis indicated those in the prime age and youth among the majority of those who abuse the illicit substance, other influential personalities and elites in the society are not excluded in the alarming figures.

Indeed, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, had in 2017 set a precedent when he canvassed for a law that will compel public office holders to undergo drug tests to ascertain the state of their psycho-social fitness.

The concern of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) resonated from economic policies and decisions being chunked out by public office holders in the country, and the grievous social and economic impact on the citizens.

Nigerians are no less worried over the mental stability of some public office holders in view of the quality of governance and policies that are making life unbearable to an average citizen. It is believed that no leader would deliberately inflict pains on those he took oath to serve, except such actions are executed under the influence of hard drugs.

It therefore segues into KANSIEC’s stance that any aspirant willing to contest both chairmanship and councillorship, but tested positive to any illegal substance, would not be allowed to purchase nomination form until such person undergoes subsequent drug tests and certified negative to narcotic substance abuse by NDLEA.

Complying with the state electoral agency decision, the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) ordered its aspirants for the coming local government election to go for the drug test. The party was shocked with the results from NDLEA revealing that 20 among the aspirants presented tested positive for opioid (codeine), THC (Tetrahydro cannabis, an active ingredient for cannabis sativa), benzodiazepines and nicotine. Since then, aspirants from both NNPP and opposition parties have stopped going for the drug screening.

Curiously, the chairman of the ruling NNPP in Kano State, Hashimu Dungurawa, whose state government is in support of the drug screening for the aspirants has rejected NDLEA’s result of the test. Though Dungurawa conceded the validity of NDLEA scientific test, he insisted that such test cannot override the moral values of the NNPP aspirants whose moral background are not in doubt.

Dungurawa said that aspirants presented for drug tests have been found morally credible and possess educational qualifications to contest the council poll.

“We have tested these aspirants here in our party headquarters and we found them to be sound in terms of moral and education qualification. We in Kwankwaso promote education. We are not in support of drug abuse. Our policy in Kwankwaso is against drug abuse. How can we present a drug addict to contest in our party,” he insisted.

Also reacting, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it is a welcome development while the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) insisted such a policy may be detrimental to opposition.

State Secretary of PDP, B. L. Aliyu, opined that the idea of drug test is pertinent not only to aspirants seeking votes but also for all public officer holders to reshape the ills in the system.

Although Aliyu posited that such a decision will redefine the faculty of quality leadership and give birth to good governance across all tiers of governments, he however, regretted that PDP has no candidate to undergo drug test because the party structures was still under construction.

But his counterpart at PRP, Musa Maigari, insisted the introduction of drug tests was designed by the ruling party to indict opposition parties. He pointed out that PRP was not interested and would not trust NDLEA to carry out such evaluation on its candidates.

It was not clear whether All Progressives Congress (APC) would subject its candidates to drug tests but the party has expressed willingness to take part in the conduct of the council poll. Several calls and text messages put across to the state secretary, Zakari Sarina, for inquiry were not returned.

Experts have drawn a significant connection between mental health of personality in leadership positions and the quality of policies and decisions in any given society. While Nigerians battle with terrible decisions on fiscal and social policies from political leaders struggling with their mental health, the situation is bound to get worse, if citizens fail to ascertain the mental health of those presently seeking votes at local government councils.

A psychiatric expert, Dr Aminu Ibrahim of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano explained high tendencies of users of illicit substances to develop mental and psychological illness in the nearest future, however believed the percentage of those that could suffer the effect are negligible.

He reminded that only the severity of usage of narcotic substances will determine the impact on decision making. “We have seen leaders in developed countries who suffered mental health and still delivered good governance. But in Africa, our major problem is that our leaders chose to hide the state of their health.

“Mental illness is classified into mild users, severe, heavy, and addiction, but those that mostly come down with challenges are a very insignificant percentage. Of course, every young person taking cannabis will have psychological challenges in life.

“Yet, it not everyone that are susceptible to such condition. In fact, a very negligible percent will suffer such impact and so there is no basis for generalisation. On the evaluation being conducted by NDLEA, it is safe to say the outcome of the test cannot be100 per cent accurate,” Dr Ibrahim noted.

The questions wagging many tongues is, would KANSIEC prevent the indicted aspirants of the ruling NNPP from contesting? Or would KANSIEC succumb to pressure to jettison its guideline on compulsory drug and psychiatric tests because it doesn’t favour some interested party?

But what is the position of electoral law on the compulsory psychiatric and narcotic test on the aspirants. What will be the fate of those tested positive to hard substances?

Responding to these questions, Commissioner in Charge of legal matters at KANSIEC, Muktar Garba Dandago, said that the guideline clearly empowers the commission to screen aspirants and is bound to adhere to its guidelines.

But a Kano-based legal practitioner, Ibrahim Baba, expressed a contrary opinion. According to hi:, “I am yet to see any law that clearly spells out that an aspirant must undergo psychiatric evaluation or drug test before eligible to contest election.

“Similarly, I have not seen any law that empowers KANSIEC to require psychiatric evaluation and drug tests for aspirants before they can stand and contest elective positions. What they are merely doing is putting the cart before the horse.

“What the Constitution requires is for someone to be in sound mind and it is not for the umpire, who is supposed to be the referee, to now say you have to prove anything. NDLEA first came up with the recommendation advising the political parties to subject their candidate for drug and psychiatric evaluation before they can contest election.”

The legal practitioner added: “Now, with the 20 aspirants said to have been tested positive for narcotic by NDLEA, at this point you will now wonder whether the result of the test is enough to disqualify aspirants from contesting election. For me, I will say no. So far, the electoral law has not been amended, testing positive to narcotic is not enough to deny anybody from contesting an election.

In fact, no law says aspirants should submit themselves to NDLEA to conduct drug evaluation before they can stand any election because the test is not part of the certificate to submit.

“So, I felt KANSIEC is standing on the wrong side of the law and this is the more reason anybody who is not comfortable with the decision can challenge it at the court.

And that is not to say I am encouraging drug pushers to take over the mantle of leadership in our nation but I believe until the Constitution is amended, the state electoral agency is erred.”

However, another lawyer, Mr Kabir Sanni, disagreed with Dandago’s position. To him, if the 1999 Constitution says political office holders should have sound mind, “can we honestly say drug addicts have sound minds?”

“It is time we do what is right in Nigeria, if laws banned sports men and women from using hard drugs, why we are afraid to stop illicit drug users from holding public offices in Nigeria.”