Welcome changes in the war on drugs

Social cognitive theories hold that our behaviors are partly influenced with what we observe from others and our interactions with them. In the same line, we do not expect our elders to apologize to those who are far young to them or those with authority to explicitly say that a certain strategy was wrong or inaccurate.

And in the rarest of occasions when an apology is offered by an elder to a young person it could provide for an awkward situation especially on the young person who is supposed to be receiving that apology.

As such our societies have devised mechanisms in which no apology is offered and no mistakes are acknowledged. You just see a change in strategy or direction. This is true to how our politics work. CCM and the leading opposition parties have a lot of differences but this is one of those areas where they have a lot in common.

When Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda launched his war on illicit drugs in his region; it turned out he was not the best of messengers to lead such a battle as his critics could not separate him from his message and reduced his efforts to mere squabbles among Dar socialites and who’s who in largely in the entertainment circles as well as arguing that his war on drugs was nothing but a political witch hunt.

Even parliamentarians poked at what they considered to be the holes in his private life and not the message he was trying to deliver.

On the other hand, the strategy he had opted in this difficult war on illicit drugs of publicly naming individuals he thought could help him was debatable as it could lead to dubious outcomes and the authenticity of information obtained under such circumstances will be doubtful.

President Magufuli signaled a change in the messenger and strategy when he finally appointed the new Commissioner General for the Drug Control and Enforcement Authority in Rogers Sianga and the top members of the agency. This was a welcome development because it brought into the fold professionals who are expected to do their jobs without the personal and political controversies or legal wrangles that dogged RC Makonda (of which he used a significant amount of time to clarify basing his argument on some sections of the Drugs Control and Enforcement Act of 2015) and turned him into an easy target.

This move as well expanded the war on narcotics to the national and international level.

The new Commissioner General outlined his priorities giving the fight against drugs a clear vision and direction that solely lacked in Mr Makonda’s approach.

It is far easier for the country to unite behind bureaucrats who know their trade as they come with a sense of impartiality with them.

Commissioner General Sianga’s change of strategy after being handed an envelope with 97 names of individuals who range from people with useful information to drug lords is commendable as well. By opting not to name names before being certain of their involvement or role in the war on illicit drugs shields the agency he leads from political attacks as well as legal issues which could arise out of naming individuals without any solid evidence. But there is another practical fact here as well. By its very nature, intelligence is gathered in the shadows; in the dark even more so for a sensitive issue like the war on narcotics.

Publicizing the names of those you intend to get such sensitive information from exposes them to potential dangers and to such individuals they are likely to take their chances with the guys in the dark than state organs for the obvious reasons.

State organs are expected to follow certain rules in their operations; they are accountable to the law while the guys in the dark; those involved in narcotics are accountable to themselves and their survival. They are likely to be more merciless, hence more dreadful.

The government has to go a step forward as well by investing huge financial resources in this war and be prepared to offer protection and new identities to those with sensitive information.

As a country, we need more than passing headlines to win the war on narcotics.