THE National Inter-Ministerial Drug Committee (NIDC): 1995–1998, A Precursor to LDEA (Pt-3)

BY: Cllr. Joseph K. Jallah, Senator of Lofa County

Our present evidence supports a more cautious but still significant conclusion.

During 1996–1998, U.S. engagement included:

• Liberia-related security cooperation;
• police professionalization through U.S. Department of Justice/ICITAP assistance;
• broader U.S. concern regarding narcotics and transnational organized crime in Africa;
• cooperation with African law-enforcement authorities.

However, direct U.S. sponsorship of NIDC has not yet been demonstrated from the evidence located so far.

Therefore, our documentary classification should be:

UNDCP → DIRECTLY DOCUMENTED NIDC SUPPORT.

ECOWAS → DIRECTLY DOCUMENTED REGIONAL POLICY/FINANCING ENVIRONMENT.

United States → DOCUMENTED BROADER LAW-ENFORCEMENT/SECURITY PARTNERSHIP.

That is the historically defensible position.

20. THE NIDC CHRONOLOGY WE SHOULD NOW USE

Date	Event	Evidence status
June 2, 1995	Council of State creates NIDC and Secretariat	Primary Liberian legal text
1996	NIDC operating; Joseph Jallah identified as head	Contemporary newspaper
1996	UNDCP supports NIDC; trains 10 officers and provides equipment/vehicle	Contemporary newspaper
1996	Liberia cooperates with Nigeria NDLEA	Contemporary newspaper
1996	ECOWAS identifies increasing regional drug trafficking and calls for ministerial response	ECOWAS official record
1997	ECOWAS adopts Praia Political Declaration and Regional Plan of Action	ECOWAS official record
1997	ECOWAS requires Member States to support interministerial drug-control committees	ECOWAS regulation
1997	UNDCP called upon to expand support	ECOWAS official record
1998	ECOWAS establishes ECODRUG Fund	ECOWAS official decision
Dec. 23, 1998	DEA established; NIDC dissolved; narcotics personnel/functions transferred	Liberian Act

21. ONE MORE HISTORICAL POINT WE SHOULD INVESTIGATE

The current LDEA website states that its predecessor began as the National Drug Committee of the Interim Government of National Unity in 1995, during the Council of state chaired by Prof. David Kpomakpor under Cllr. J. Laveli Supuwood as Minister of Justice.

The actual 1998 Act says that the National Inter-Ministerial Drug Committee was created by the Council of State on June 2, 1995.

Rather than choosing one and discarding the other, We think our definitive history should:

1995 National Inter-Ministerial Drug Committee

↓

1998 Drug Enforcement Agency

was the actual institutional sequence.

That would reconcile records beautifully as the archival evidence confirms it.

In other words, 1995 is the earliest predecessor, 1995 the legally documented NIDC, and 1998 the statutory conversion to the DEA.

 My recommendation for the definitive Senate history

I believe we now have enough evidence to make the NIDC chapter considerably stronger than the earlier version. The chapter should be titled:

“The National Inter-Ministerial Drug Committee (NIDC), 1995–1998: Liberia’s Pre-LDEA National Drug-Control Institution and Its ECOWAS–UNDCP–International Partnerships.”

Then we should add a separate subsection:

“The United States Connection: Law-Enforcement and Security Cooperation During the NIDC Era”

and clearly distinguish documented U.S. assistance to Liberian law enforcement generally from NIDC-specific assistance that still requires confirmation.

The other search should concentrate specifically on 1995–1998 U.S. State Department/INL records, U.S. Embassy Monrovia cables and Congressional records, UNDCP project AD/RAF/94/893, ECOWAS IDCC records, and Liberian Council of State/NIDC records. That is where we are most likely to find the missing names, meetings, travel, budgets, training missions, and actual institutional correspondence.

This is now a much stronger foundation for the historical section—and, importantly, the December 23, 1998 date is supported by the actual Liberian Act.

THE NIDC AND THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY-BASED ANTI-DRUG MOVEMENT

Turn Around America, Herman Wrice and the NIDC’s U.S. Community Partnerships, 1996–1998

A. INTRODUCTION

The history of Liberia’s National Inter-Ministerial Drug Committee (NIDC) should not be presented solely as a history of governmental and multilateral cooperation.

During the NIDC period, Liberia was also exposed to a different dimension of the American drug-control experience: community-based anti-drug organizing.

This dimension is particularly significant because the NIDC was operating in a country where the State’s institutional capacity was severely constrained by civil conflict. It therefore had an interest not only in enforcement institutions, but also in:

• community mobilization;
• youth prevention;
• public education;
• local leadership;
• neighborhood-based anti-drug action;
• rehabilitation and prevention;
• partnerships between citizens and law enforcement.

The organization most closely associated with this aspect of the NIDC’s American engagement was Turn Around America (TAA), founded by Philadelphia community activist Dr. Herman Wrice.

Independent accounts identify Wrice as the founder of Turn Around America and describe its model as an effort to organize communities against drug dealing, crime and neighborhood deterioration.