Senate In Focus: No Law Allows For Drug Test Before Election Contest

The electoral act signed by President Muhammadu Buhari does not have a clause where people seeking for political offices must have to undergo drug tests before they are allowed to contest.

The agency said it would also ask the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties in the country to avail its operatives access to equally conduct drug integrity tests on politicians aspiring for higher offices.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has recently raised the dust by writing to the All Progressives Congress (APC), asking them to release their presidential aspirants for drug tests.

While many would have accepted this proposal, there is no law backing it up, so several politicians will abuse it if such takes place.

Quick to respond is the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) who described the call by the Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Buba Marwa, that presidential aspirants should undergo drug test as an affront to the political parties.

IPAC which is the umbrella body of all political parties in Nigeria, said the suggestion is absurd and an affront to the political parties.

IPAC Chairman, Alhaji Yabagi Sani, said the pronunciation is outlandish and uncalled for.

“We believed it is an absurd. We believed it is an affront to the political class,” Sani said of the request by the NDLEA for presidential aspirants to undergo drug test.

He also described such as rascality of the highest order.

“I’ve never heard of a country where people who want to rule the country are asked to undergo drug tests.

“Marwa should not tell Nigeria that kind of thing. Contesting an election is a serious business. That pronunciation is outlandish,” Sani added.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country have expressed divergent views over the proposal.

Even though some of the CSOs say it is a welcome development, others say such is not part of the requirements for conducting election in Nigeria.

The CSOs who spoke are: Yiaga Africa, Transparency International (TI), Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).

Speaking through their leader, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, TI, TMG and CISLAC said Nigerians must ensure that they ascertain the mental capacity of people that want to govern them.

“I think it is a very good development if they can get the cooperation of all the politicians because we need to ascertain the mental capability, you know, and mental capacity of our public office holders,” Rafsanjani said.

According to him, “We cannot repeat another Buhari in terms of health challenges. They must be tested to know they are fit and honest because we don’t want people that will be going to hospital everyday or every quarter.

“Secondly, I think giving the rampant use of drugs by some public officials, if we are able to test them and know how mentally, physically they are, it is important the politicians cooperate to allow competent and qualified persons to take over the positions of leadership,” Rafsanjani said.

But the board of trustees member of Yiaga Africa, Barr Ezenwa Nwagwu, said there was no need for a drug test since it is not part of the requirements for aspirants to contest for a political office.

“It is not a constitutional requirement. That is number one because there is nothing in the constitution that says drug test before one can stand for an election,” he said.

While Nigeria may want such a test to be conducted, the result will have no impact on the electoral process.

It will also give some vindictive politicians to use such an exercise against their opponent. NDLEA must go further by sponsoring a bill in the 10th Assembly in the amendment of the electoral act and the constitution amendment to make their laudable proposal legal.