The recent discovery of about 6,000 foreign nationals from our Northern neighbour, the Republic of Niger, as holders of the National Identity Numbers, NINs, of Nigeria, did not come as a surprise. The surprise is that only 6,000 of them have been discovered and reportedly deleted.

Niger Republic residents do not seem to know where their country ends and Nigeria begins. They loom large in our internal affairs in meddlesome and importunate ways that often threaten our national interests. Something urgent and drastic must be done about it.

Out of the four countries bordering Nigeria – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic – Nigerien nationals seem the most self-entitled to do whatever they like in Nigeria without regard to our laws. Unfortunately, this unacceptable attitude is greased by the laissez-faire tendencies of government officials towards them, which largely ignore the fact that they are not Nigerian nationals.

Many Nigeriens resident in Nigeria are illegal carriers of our Permanent Voter’s Cards, PVCs. They freely vote in our elections. In the same manner that electoral officials in the North break the law and issue voter’s cards to minors, they hardly discriminate between Nigerians and Nigeriens.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari brazenly took this impunity to preposterous levels by often inviting political leaders from Niger Republic to his campaigns in the North. He built roads for them, donated our taxpayer’s cash and bought vehicles for their government. Even when Buhari closed the borders in August 2019, reports had it that rice smuggling openly thrived through the Niger borders.

To cap it all, Buhari initiated a $1.9bn railway network from Kano through Daura to Maradi in Niger Republic without the approval of the National Assembly. His smug explanation for these acts of impunity was that his relatives lived there. His father, Hardo Adamu, hailed from Niger Republic.

The argument that Northern Nigeria and Niger have a historic cultural commonality is no justification for Niger nationals’ free-wheeling in Nigerian affairs. We also have similar cultural ties with our Western and Eastern neighbours, yet the line is properly drawn to prevent the civic overreach that Nigeriens illegally enjoy in Nigeria.

We call on our enterprising Minister of the Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to go beyond the deletion of the foreign culprits from our NIN registry and ensure that henceforth, non-Nigerians are not allowed to trespass into our citizenship rights with impunity.

This not only distorts our political affairs and demographic records, it is also a big marker for the multi-frontal insecurity afflicting this nation. We once again call for the scrapping of the illegal railway project to Maradi.

Nigeria must always come first.