A former member of the National Assembly, who represented
the Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani, on
Tuesday, asked the Federal Government to apologise for closing Nigeria’s land
borders.
The government had in August 2019 closed its land borders to
curtail illegal importation of drugs, small arms, and agricultural products
into Nigeria from neighbouring West African nations.
Sani had also in December 2020 while speaking to PUNCH, said the closure of Nigeria’s land
borders did not yield any result.
Sani said the closure of the borders rather worsened the
economic situation of the country and inflicted hardship on Nigerians.
“We have not achieved anything by closing the borders but
have only inflicted hardship on the border communities and Nigerians. The
closure of borders has not stopped herdsmen and bandits from moving in with
weapons.
“If it is about rice, are we now producing enough? No, we
are not doing that. The cost of a bag of rice has even become more expensive
because of the closure of the borders,” the Senator had said.
But reacting on Tuesday to the recent reopening of borders
by the federal government, Sani noted that since the closure of borders
achieved nothing, the government owed it as a duty to apologise after reopening
the borders.
“The closure of Nigeria’s borders has achieved nothing;
opening it should come with apologies,” he Tweeted on Tuesday.
The government had last Friday approved the reopening of four
additional land borders shut in August 2019 as part of efforts to curtail
smuggling and boost local production of rice.
A circular released by the Nigeria Customs Service, signed by Deputy Comptroller-General E. I. Edorhe, on behalf of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, listed the borders as Idiroko border post in Ogun State, Jibiya border post in Katsina State, Kamba border post in Kebbi State and Ikom border post in Cross River State.
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