President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has transmitted two bills to the Nigerian Senate seeking to strengthen drug law enforcement and establish an independent safety investigation authority covering multiple modes of transportation.
The bills were read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during Tuesday’s plenary session, pursuant to Section 58(2) of the Nigerian Constitution.
The first legislation, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Bill 2026, seeks to repeal the existing NDLEA Act and the Indian Hemp Act of 2004, replacing them with a unified legal framework for combating drug-related offences.
The proposed law is expected to strengthen enforcement against the cultivation, processing, sale, trafficking and use of illicit substances, while expanding the investigative powers of the NDLEA.
The proposed reform comes amid persistent drug-related challenges in West Africa. An assessment by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reportedly found that Nigeria’s methamphetamine production capacity had increased by more than 40 per cent since 2020, alongside significant drug seizures by the NDLEA.
In a separate communication, Tinubu transmitted the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (Amendment) Bill 2026, which seeks to amend the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau Act 2022.
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The proposed amendment would transform the NSIB into an independent, multimodal safety investigation authority, expanding its mandate beyond aviation to include rail, maritime and other transportation modes.
Under the proposed legislation, supervisory oversight of the bureau would be transferred directly to the Presidency. The move is intended to strengthen the institution’s administrative and institutional powers while protecting investigators from undue influence.
The expansion would enable the bureau to investigate safety incidents across a wider range of transportation sectors, subject to the provisions of the proposed law.
Both bills have been referred by the Senate President to the Senate Committee on Rules and Business for further legislative processing.
