By Eguono Odjegba

Stakeholders have expressed mixed reactions over the reopening of four land borders, almost 30 months after the closures on October, 15, 2019 by the Federal Government, purportedly to crush smuggling of goods into the country.

While some industry stakeholders gave kudos to the government for the reopening, others said the closing in the first place was misplaced, illegal and did not achieve anything, positive. 

The Federal Government, last week, approved the re-opening of the Idiroko, Jibiya, Kamba, and Ikom land borders.

• Why we closed land borders for 2 years — Buhari

Recall that after much plea, government, in December 2020, re-opened four out of the eight major land borders it had shut in 2019; Seme, Illela, Maigatari and Mfun, under a phased reopening arrangement.

The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, in a circular signed by Deputy Comptroller General, Enforcement and Inspection, DCG, E.I Edorhe, titled, ‘re-opening of four additional Nigerian border Posts’, directed the immediate re-opening of the other four land borders.

Reacting to the development, Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha, commended the federal government for the gesture, noting however that the reopening has taken longer than was necessary in the face of the criticality of the land borders to national, regional and international trade.

He stated: “It is good that the federal government has finally agreed to reopen the remaining land borders. Land borders are essential corridors in the global trade and their closure in the first instance was a bit hasty, since Africa member states complained that they were not consulted.

“We cannot fight smuggling by fire brigade approach, but l think that the management of the Nigeria Customs Service tried hard to add value to government argument by erecting additional anti-smuggling measures. Under the circumstances the Customs found itself, l think they made effort to make the closure meaningful going by seizures they said they made during the period.

“I have always believed that our customs officers and men are equal to the task, and if those who supervise and give appointments and postings think smuggling is an issue, for me, it is a question of looking inwards and coming out with a better oversight.

“Who was sacked and prosecuted for either negligence or compromise? I doubt if anyone was. That would have provided a convincing basis to say okay, the closure was worth the trouble and productive. But we must commend the government for putting a stop to it.”

Also reacting, a notable customs broker and ship agent, Dan Katsina said the reopening was political to enhance the ruling All Progressive Party, APC, electoral chances with aliens aided votes.

He said the APC has lost its entire goodwill in-country and it is the realization that even northern Nigerians will not vote for them hence the resort to reopening of the land border, as a fallback position for vote marketing.

His words: “In the first place closure of those land border did it achieve anything including stopping of illegal people entering the country. Did it stop smuggling, did it stop cross border attacks, did it stop bandits having a field day? Did it improve on the economy, did it improved on the security of towns along the border communities? All the above situations persisted when the border was closed, mostly from the northern border stations.

“To me closing of the border in the first place was not a good one, it created some illegal  millionaires  over night and made  some  law abiding citizens poorer  because the means of their livelihood was suddenly taken away by that un-popular government policy that didn’t impact anything positive on the citizens .

“I believe why they opened the border is to  bring in illegal aliens who they  will use to increase their votes in the  upcoming election to their favour, because they believed no sane person in Nigeria will vote for them again because they have almost  made everyone a refugee in their own land. Northerners can’t go to their farms, even southerners too, no food, no security of life and property. No one is safe again, fear, fear everywhere.

“Tell me what has improved on those land borders during the closure?  My thinking is that elections is coming they want to swing the votes by throwing the border open before the election date so it will not look like it’s because of election they are opening the borders .

“On the election day proper, they will close the border back just to say Nigeria has closed her borders because they are conducting Election. Who is fooling who?”

On his part, Dr. Eugene Nweke, another stakeholder in the industry, doubted if some of the land borders were closed at all, and wonder if government has the capacity to achieve a 100percent border closure.

“From where has the area comptrollers of the reopened border’s been declaring revenue and making regular seizures either as imports or export activities? Was the dorder partially or fully closed?

“Nigerians and critical stakeholders are still trying to reconcile whether the pronouncement on border closure actually achieved its set objectives.

“Within the period, it’s on record that a higher traffic of Nigeria bound imports were  enrouted to neighboring ports within the region, thereby boosting the trans-shipment activities. At the end, same found their way into the country.

“It is left for the Bureau of Statistics and  Customs to reconcile its records accordingly.

“It is one thing to  close the official approved border routes, while the unapproved routes thrives with abandon. It is also important to evaluate the influx foreigners and criminals into the country via the border within the period in question, which incidentally recorded high insecurity threats in the country, compare to when the border were not close.

“Therefore the economic and social impacts of the border closure tilts more on the negative than the positive. It is on the news that, within same period, ironically the CFA appreciated over the naira.”