This was simply too hard to digest. For starters, stories about the youth in Malawi being used as drug mules were simply being discussed in dark corners, and once in a while, they would make the inside pages of local publications and quickly disappear, without generating much discourse among the citizenry. But all that was about to change one dark morning in May, 2018.
Malawians, from Nsanje to Chitipa, were thrown in a state of delirium when news trickled in one sad morning that one of their own had met an untimely death while running a not-so-honourable’ errand of trafficking dangerous drugs out to Brazil.
What was even more difficult to comprehend was the statement by Hannif Randeree, father to the deceased, who claimed that his only son, 26-year-old Riyadh, had gone missing on April 24, 2018 and was last seen with Alex Ojukwu, a tenant of Randeree in the Area 47 suburb, in the capital Lilongwe.
It is highly believed that Ojukwu, a Nigerian national nick named ‘old man’, was the one who had shipped the boy to Brazil on a suspected drug mission.
“It was two weeks ago when I saw my tenant going out with my son, in a taxi. I went off to bed but my son did not return. When I asked my tenant, he said my son was within town. But after a few days, I called my son through WhatsApp and I was told he was in Canada.
“I held on to my patience, thinking he was okay and he would come back. Unfortunately, it was yesterday when the wife to my tenant came to tell me that my son was sent to Brazil by his husband and he has since died,” he is quoted in the Daily Times of Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
Much as it was difficult dealing with the pain and reality associated with the death, some people believe Malawi has always been sitting on a time bomb in as far as the drug problem is concerned, stressing that the monster has always been lurking by.
While the family version about Riyadh’s death indicated that he had succumbed to Malaria in the course of executing the dangerous mission, it was reported elsewhere that the death had been induced after condoms he had swallowed containing drugs, burst before they could be retrieved from his body at their earmarked destination.
It is not only trafficking that is giving the public a headache as there are also those who are actually using drugs.
“While the youth are a primary target, adults can be prone as well. In the world of drugs, all they want is you to be addicted so you keep coming back and paying more and more for it. Anyone can be exposed and addicted, vigilance is important to prevent yourself or family from that initial exposure,” Doctor Bridget Malewezi wrote in her Health and Wellness column which appears in this newspaper.
According to Drug Fight Malawi Executive Director Nelson Zakeyu, drug abuse and trafficking is a long standing problem that needed to be addressed a long time ago.
“This is really a sad development in this beautiful land. Drug abuse is very dangerous to people’s health and especially those under 21 years of age. The brain is still growing and once exposed to use of drugs, it is permanently destroyed. The youth have no future,” he said.
One would therefore have understood the boiling rage among Area 47 residents, who had felt betrayed by the country’s law enforcers, claiming they had on a number of occasions tipped the cops that their location was becoming a hub for drug dealing but the police did not give the issue attention. It was even alleged that certain officers were on the drug dealers’ payroll, which was neither confirmed nor denied by top cops at the national police headquarters in Lilongwe’s Area 30.
Concerned residents, particularly women, threatened a demonstration to “flash out” all foreigners who are suspected of being involved in drug and substance dealings. Chiefs from the area quickly called for a meeting last month, which took place at Mkwichi Secondary School to discuss how best the problem, can be eliminated.
“We want to see action being taken in light of this meeting, otherwise all hell will break loose,” one female resident, who attended the meeting, had remarked.
No doubt, the recent occurrences have set tags wagging but what most people are forgetting is that there are many more of the country’s youth who might have been intercepted far beyond the country’s borders, and are languishing in jail right this moment for drug trafficking. The continued presence of the mentally deranged on the country’s streets is another constant reminder of just how a menace drug abuse can be, for a majority of them were addicts who could not get help on time.
Indeed, old habits die hard because months after Riyadh’s death, it appears the story about taming the monster that is drug trafficking and abuse is fizzling out.
But not all is lost as, according to Zakeyu, all the country needs is to tighten its laws and seal the loopholes that see people from other countries using Malawi as a transit nation for smuggling drugs, with the youth in the country also falling into the trap as mules for the trade.
“We would like the country to have in place the ‘National Drug Control Policy’. This will demand the government to work very closely with NGOs in the field to ensure that people are involved in its development. The National Drug Control Law has to be reviewed to ensure, among other things, that penalties on drug traffickers are updated,” he said.
Until something drastic is done, drug trafficking and abuse will remain a monster that Malawi has subconsciously raised as a pet, that is slowly but surely leaving in its wake sons and daughters of the soil as casualties; some of them wasted while the unfortunate ones, like Riyadh, are learning the hard way by paying with their dear lives.
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