John Ofikhenua, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the deployment of drones, aircraft and geospatial technology for the monitoring of borders, it was learnt on Tuesday.
A source said the strategy was part of the e-Customs that the nation will use for the surveillance of the movement of illicit goods and persons.

With the procurement and deployment of the e-Customs, the borders shall record a watertight security that will foreclose the need for the erection of physical walls.
The source said: “The President has just approved e-Customs. E-Customs encompasses the deployment of border management technology, which will incorporate the use of drones, aircraft and other geo-spatial technology to be able to monitor our borders to ensure that any illicit movement of goods and persons do not take place. Once that is in place, I think we will be very safe that we do not need walls to be erected.”

This is coming on the heels of the joint operation border patrol code-named ‘EX-SWIFT RESPONSE.”
The Ex-SWIFT RESPONSE, coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), comprises the Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies to address trans-border security issues.
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Comptroller-General, Mohammed Babandede, disclosed in Abuja at the joint press briefing of the EX-SWIFT RESPONSE that President Buhari approved has enhanced the implementation of the ECOWAS protocol.


Following the implementation, the NIS, according to him, has ensured “if you don’t have traveling document, we (immigration) cannot allow you to leave Nigeria. We have refused the entrance of 1,111 people, who wanted to enter into Nigeria. ”
Continuing, he said that we have removed people that have already entered, 728 people have been removed.”

Babandede revealed that there are non-ECOWAS nationals among those that the NIS arrested during the ongoing border closure.
The Immigration boss revealed: “We have arrested Pakistanis. We have arrested North Koreans. Those people are supposed to be deported. We have deported around seven of them. We getting the documentation to make sure they reach North Korean.”

He noted that illegal migrants have been banned from entering into Nigeria for life even through recognized routes.
He added that with the closure of borders, there has been reduction in banditry and kidnapping, stressing that some of the criminals are foreigners.

He vowed that the NIS operatives will continue the border monitoring to ensure that only legitimate migrants enter into Nigeria through the legal routes.


https://thenationonlineng.net/buhari-approves-drones-for-border-monitoring/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Pakistanis and North Koreans.. Mtcheww See they are targeting. Which borders are you monitoring with all kind of contraband coming through the water from Cameroon? Policies just to suffer the masses

Omo he be like say this thing no be play play...

Buhari's so called border closure is funny. Goods and people from Cameroon, Benin & Niger can't ENTER or LEAVE Nigeria, yet herdsmen and their cattle have unimpeded access into Nigeria. Maybe they are spirits?

We don't have all these years

Nice one

hmmm

.

Bubu, so you want to deploy drones and technology to prevent possible smuggling by small-timers, but...
How come these drones had never been deployed against herdsmen rampaging through the land and slaughtering citizens?
>

ko

Finally.....Bubu don ves!!

Well not a bad idea since they want to close the borders they better make it water tight. Lets see what benefits closing of the borders will give us

It's a very good Idea but it needs quick implementation because the closing of borders is also affecting the citizens especially the common men....

Should I be happy or sad? Well,I am happy for the For the farmers who smiling to bank and I’m sad for importers of rice who are witnessing financial setback.

It's alright...what of the Northeast border? I thought they closed all land borders till i heard on the news that they left only that one...but I guess it's a special one left open for the special peeps

Buhari means well for the country. May the good lord be his strength and shield (Amen)

beresponsible:
Pakistanis and North Koreans.. Mtcheww See they are targeting. Which borders are you monitoring with all kind of contraband coming through the water from Cameroon? Policies just to suffer the masses

Logobenz0 aka Nwanneni

Good one

Simple deployment of Immigration officers and Customs officers to the north will save us this money. The north has the most porous border in Nigeria.

Dude means business this time Mehn!
This is the Buhari I voted for

drones that should be monitoring boko haram

beresponsible:
Pakistanis and North Koreans.. Mtcheww See they are targeting. Which borders are you monitoring with all kind of contraband coming through the water from Cameroon? Policies just to suffer the masses

Hmm Intelligence surveillance image from C.I.A

OUR BORDER WITH NIGER REPUBLIC

I'll be surprised if it's not a hobbyist drone.
When you hear that our government bought a drone for monitoring, it's always a hobbyist drone like the DJI Phantom and not real monitoring drones

Anything that will stop the massive inflow of illegal immigrants is highly welcome.

Starboytwo:
Omo he be like say this thing no be play play...

Probably the economic team's recommendation.

Sirseedorf:
Good move

Buhari gat this

hopeforcharles:
Well not a bad idea since they want to close the borders they better make it water tight. Lets see what benefits closing of the borders will give us

emerged01:
Should I be happy or sad? Well,I am happy for the For the farmers who smiling to bank and I’m sad for importers of rice who are witnessing financial setback.

Abegi, smiling to the bank at whose expense...
The NIGERIAN CONSUMER IN THE WORLD’S CAPITAL OF EXTREME POVERTY.

We have a structural problem....
But we are trying to use a substantively cosmetic approach instead of trying to resolve the REAL issues.

Before we go any further, let’s get one thing clear that most of the comments above fail to grasp...
IMPORTATION OF THESE ITEMS HAVE NOT BEEN BANNED, ONLY CERTAIN LAND BORDERS HAVE BEEN CLOSED!

What this means is that you can still import tomatoes, rice and everything you want to...
But instead of small traders importing these, it will now be the MONOPOLY of rent-seekers who can afford to ship these items!
>

Good move

Buhari gat this

Lucid1:
Probably the economic team's recommendation.

Which economic team?
Abegi members of the recently-constituted Economic Advisory Council are too smart to recommend such NONSENSE!
<

>
Abegi, let’s get one thing clear that many comments on this matter seemingly fail to fully grasp...
THE ONLY THING THAT’S HAPPENED IS THAT SOME LAND BORDERS HAVE BEEN CLOSED. THERE ARE NO NEW IMPORT BANS!

What this means is that you can still import tomatoes, rice and everything you want to...
But instead of small traders importing these, it will now be the MONOPOLY of rent-seekers who can afford to ship these items!

Meanwhile, let’s address the underlying structural issues that this cosmetic border closing does absolutely NOTHING to resolve, and why NIGERIA has some of the world’s HIGHEST costs of production and why we still rely on imports for even some of the products that we produce in relative abundance. Let’s start, for example, with tomatoes (since it’s what has kick-started this discourse). Nigeria is actually Africa’s leading producer (and among the world’s leading producers) of tomatoes, but we lose at least 40% of our harvests (some estimates put our losses as high as 60+%) before it gets to market on account of a lack of storage and preservation infrastructure and terrible roads and poor logistics. Closing the border does NOTHING to resolve this. It merely results in POOR NIGERIAN CONSUMERS IN THE WORLD’S CAPITAL OF EXTREME POVERTY having to pay HIGHER prices since without the Benin Republic imports, there’ll now be FEWER tomatoes in the market.

Now, let’s look at rice. It may surprise some to learn that Nigeria is actually Africa’s leading producer of rice, having overtaken Egypt in 2017 or thereabouts, but we are still short of meeting local market demand from entirely domestic production (either because our population keeps growing or our taste keeps changing, not surprisingly in tandem with increased urbanization). Accordingly, without importation, we merely replicate the situation with tomatoes - that is, POOR NIGERIAN CONSUMERS IN THE WORLD’S CAPITAL OF EXTREME POVERTY having to pay HIGHER prices because without supplementing local production with imports, we are left with FEWER rice in the same local market. Meanwhile, we have to HONESTLY ask ourselves how rice produced on the other side of the world (often with relatively more expensive labor) and then shipped halfway across the globe still manages to cost SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER than locally-produced rice (stone and all).

REALITY (and as my moniker indicates, I’m a hard-nosed realist) is closing land borders does absolutely NOTHING to redress why we have some of the world’s HIGHEST costs of production, not only in respect of rice but with many other products. Our farmers still rely on mostly poor seedlings and poor farming methods, and thus we have probably the LOWEST yield per hectare in most of the developing world. In addition, we are lacking in irrigation infrastructure, and thus not only are we still compelled to rely on the somewhat unpredictable fortunes of “the rains” but are also stuck with seasonal farming instead of year-round farming (which is why we are Africa’s largest producer of maize, and among the world’s leading producers but PARADOXICALLY also one of the world’s leading importers of maize - because for more than half of the calendar year, we neither plant nor harvest corn). Of course, already discussed the issue of poor/non-available storage facilities as well as poor roads and other transportation/logistic infrastructure, that constrains getting products to the market TIMELY AND COST-EFFECTIVELY.

Accordingly, if this government was really serious about sound economic policy and development, it would help farmers with improved seedlings for better yields, with irrigation infrastructure to drive year-round farming, proper storage facilities including cold storage for perishables (such as these tomatoes), much better road transportation and logistics infrastructure, necessary market and pricing intelligence/information, in addition of course to better agricultural financing and insurance, among others. Even if some misguided policy makers in Abuja erroneously believe that the border closure is an optimal means to encourage local production (not sure why, but the cluelessness and incompetence in Abuja can never be overestimated), there would still be a LAG TIME for local producers to cultivate, harvest and mill (in the case of rice) their products before even getting to market, so why a SUDDEN closure which simply results in FEWER products in the market.

Sadly, Nigeria has become like the proverbial farmer whose farm is on fire and instead of fighting the fire, he busies himself with chasing bush rats fleeing said fire. Thus, instead of addressing structural issues that impede local production and productivity, we merely place an additional layer of effective ‘taxation’ (an Incompetence Tax, if you will) on POOR NIGERIAN CONSUMERS IN THE WORLD’S CAPITAL OF EXTREME POVERTY by DECREASING the quantity (perhaps even quality) of goods available to them and thus invariably condemn them to HIGHER PRICES for fewer goods (and choices). So, let’s be clear about this - the closure of the land borders is an ill-advised resort to cheap cosmetic POPULISM (in derogation of sound economic policy) that bedazzles the gullible but which does absolutely NOTHING to address/redress our structural issues! After Mr. Buhari drives even more Nigerians quicker into POVERTY, we’ll still be at Square One!
>