Border closure divides Senate

Senators on Wednesday took varied positions on the federal government closure of Nigerian borders against its neighbouring West African states.

Their reactions came on the heels of a motion on the impact of border closure on the Nigerian economy sponsored by Senator Adamu Aliero, representing Kebbi central.

The federal government had last month ordered the closure of all land borders to check the smuggling of arms and ammunitions and imported rice to the country.

Senator Aliero while presenting the motion praised the action of the federal government as he said that “as a result of the situation in the border towns, the Nigerian economy is experiencing a lot of positive derivatives that is impacting on the country.”

The former Kebbi state governor said that “for instance, fuel smuggling has significantly reduced thereby saving the country billions of scarce foreign exchange spent by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to import fuel into Nigeria.”

He further claimed that “the smuggling of textile and vegetable oil imported from Malaysia through the land borders which has negatively affected local production is equally grounded to a halt. The good news of the Federal Government’s action is that it has led to the revival of local production of vegetable oil and increased employment generation.”

Senators Sam Egwu and Chukwuka Utazi were amongst Senators that backed the motion.

The former Ebonyi state governor said “By living our borders porous, our economy is endangered. By living our borders porous, our security is endangered.” He called for an indefinite closure, saying “there is no way Mr President can be faulted, we should leave it the way it is.”

Senator Utazi said the policy must have been well thought out by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said, ” Mr President must have taken a position based on security report. He must have acted on security information.

“The Senate should make the Border Commission functional.

“If we make them active, we can successfully move against the illegitimate borders where illegal aliens enter this country. We shouldn’t talk about the review when we don’t have contrary security information. We are ready to support Mr President and suffer for a while.”

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Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha backed the motion submitting that it would help to sanitise the country security arrangement.

“It is the best decision considering where we are now. Those killing Nigerians aren’t Nigerians. The measure will help us to know who aren’t part of us. But it isn’t good for our economy. For me, it is good to close the border and look inward so that we can sanitise the security arrangement.”

Former Interior Minister and Senator representing Benue South, Abba Morro said the closure of borders should be the last measure as he noted that those doing legitimate businesses were already at the receiving end of the closure.

He said, “I think that we are administering the wrong dose of medicine for a sickness that seeks to kill us. Mr President, I think that issues of this nature occur and smuggling is involved, To my mind, it is the least of options.

“As I speak to you now, we have about 87 legitimate routes into Nigeria. On the contrary Mr President, we have 1, 097 illegal routes into Nigeria.

” When we close the legitimate routes, the problem of our people is compounded by the fact that those who do legitimate businesses become stranded and are caught in the crossfire.

“As I am talking to you here today, our legitimate importers of goods are stranded at the borders. Some of the goods are perishables. They will waste.

” Even those who have paid their duties are not even allowed to cross the borders. It will interest us to know that we are more of a consuming country than a manufacturing country. Most of the items that we consume here are imported through our borders.

“When we close our borders, the impact is more on our people, than even the solution we tried to find to it.

“Mr President, one of the reasons is insecurity and the proliferation of light arms. Today, the light weapons that are being produced in this country are even more than those that come from across the borders.

“As we close our borders, the revenues that accrue to us through legitimate business is not coming in again. It means therefore that activities of the borders will be stunted and stagnant for this period that our borders. are closed. This affects even our economy and affects the revenue that accrues to our country.”

Former Benue State governor and Senator representing Benue Northeast, Gabriel Suswam expressed strong reservations as he noted that sustaining the border closure was a contravention of certain multilateral agreements which Nigeria was a signatory.

He demanded adequate facilities for agencies like the Nigerian Border Commission to carry out its function of border surveillance.

” We are a signatory to several multilateral agreements. So, why close our borders? We must be mindful of binding agreements. We must learn from the example of the United States of America and Mexico where the American President, Donald Trump set strong conditions for his Mexican counterpart.

“The only way we can address this is to patrol our borders, we have a Border Commission, saddled with this responsibility. We need to have a solution that is more permanent.”

He said the Senate should appropriate fund to empower the Border Commission by procuring aircraft and other needed facilities.

Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe said the policy was an indictment of military and paramilitary agencies saddled with the responsibility of monitoring our borders.

“Those doing legitimate businesses shouldn’t be left stranded. What is the job of Customs, Immigration and others? It is the failure of those saddled with the responsibility. When we are being told that tankers with 33,000 litres move across our borders. What it tells us is that it is an organised market.”

Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun central backed the policy but advised that the closure should not be indefinite.

“I agree that yes, there is need to sanitise our borders. Indeed, we have the most porous borders with our neighbours.

“I support the closure in its entirety, maybe for two months. But if we do it, indefinitely people doing genuine business will suffer. We can’t close indefinitely because we won’t get the desired results. A great number of Nigerians doing legitimate businesses across the West Africa region are suffering. ”

The Senate later resolved to “commend the President, Commander-in-Chief on the very patriotic decision to temporarily shut down all our land borders in order to rectify the deteriorating effect on our country of persistent smuggling of products that negatively affect the Nigerian economy and the wellbeing of our nation.”

It urged the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior to increase diplomatic outreach to the government of the Republic of Benin, Cameroun, Niger and Chad to take urgent measures to stop their countries from being used as smuggling base to perpetuate the illegal importation of unwanted goods into Nigeria. The Senate also urged the Nigerian Customs Service and the Security Services to intensify the curbing of smuggling across the borders and assured them that the Nigerian Senate is with them in their onerous task of ridding Nigeria of smuggled goods and services.

The lawmakers called on the federal government to reassure friendly countries around the world that the border closure should not be perceived as a punitive measure targeted at them but a necessary action to save our economy from collapse and protect our people from terrorism and insecurity.