Transnational Drug Trafficking and Nigeria’s Image in the Contemporary International System (2011-2019)

Abstract

This paper interrogates transnational drug trafficking and Nigeria’s image in the contemporary international system. The paper appropriated Rational Choice Theory as proposed by Anderton and Carter (2005.). The theory sees the action of traffickers as linked to the highest expectation of satisfaction via the rational greed factor and premised its assumption on the fact that a drug trafficker acts based on rational, calculated and conscious decisions which represent an optimal strategy to fulfil financial hiatus between expectation and achievement. The paper argues that regardless of the penalty in being caught, transnational drug trafficking in Nigeria is occasioned by governance and development deficits which hinders employment, citizen financial expectation and fulfilment. The paper further questions the nature, effectiveness and resilience of the existing legal and institutional framework response to drug trafficking in view of the emerging drug trafficking and consumption levels which have impacts on national image. Data for the study was generated only through secondary sources like textbooks, journal articles and verified internet links. A qualitative descriptive method of data analysis reveals that transnational drug trafficking negatively impacts on Nigeria’s interstates relations and her diaspora citizens. The study concludes that issues of drug trafficking are complicated by a spectrum of factors ranging from poverty, hunger, employment and complicity of security apparatus and recommends amongst other things, that Government should develop new partnerships with the relevant states to counter the drug problem while encouraging the absence of development deficit as a desideratum to deter trafficking and accentuate better national image.