this guy seem to dont understand how lucrative smugglin is to this smaller nations....

they practicaly produce nathing....

they import,take tax,but for them to send those items to nigerian customs for taxation too,they smuggle it into nigeria....

anybody that thinks this smaller nations have any interest to fight smugglin is a dreamer....
pan africana is a hoax....

kayjegs:


One of the few sense-making posts here. To add to it, I don't know how closing the border is helping internal development with the stupid budget being passed. No plan to develop science and technology, no power to drive the economy. Even without closing the border, if power can be improved, one will be surprised at how Nigerians will create jobs (because we are smart), small and medium scale enterprise will increase, agricultural processing will rise, goods and services produced by Nigerians will compete to an extent with imported goods based on pricing. I am more than 35 years old and we have had stony rice (olokuta rice) in Nigeria since I was less than 10 years old and more than 25 years later, people are still celebrating this as if it means economic development. When Japan and the Asian tigers were closing their borders, they did it with strategy, making sure all things are in place to support internal development. Their budget for science and research, as well as education, was very high. Moreover, Nigeria is breaching the ECOWAS contract that the country is a part of and we are here shouting.

That is the key word. as far as i am concerned they are not serious.

We know you Oga Falana and l don't trust you.
Go and sit down.

A lot of items were being smuggled illegally apart from rice (fake vegetable oil, fake medications, tomato etc). It is in habit of the people to ship fake items from China to neighbouring country like Benin rep, Togo, Cameroon and Ghana and then move it in through our porus border. With this how do you expect investors to invest in this sector? Dangote that invested in tomato paste later close up because of smuggling at border. If the prices of item Jump up in December, the price will later come down after December. And l know in the next one year, a lot of rich will invest in this sector

Osiomole as an activist did all those stuff and he used us as stepping stone. Oga Falana go and sit down.

The madness of Falana has entered 4g.
How can someone in his right state of mind say such a thing.
Well, they are all feeding from Nigeria woes. If nigeria become good, some of this people will be poor more than anything.
Idiot. Charge & bail lawyer. Can someone tell me any case that he won recently? No. He is only feeding on the smuggling biz.

wristbangle:
Not a smart move if you ask me. The border closure is a blessing in disguise if Nigeria government can support subsistence and commercial farmers in Nigeria via loan and access to good seedlings.

Also, tax incurred from imported goods if well utilized can boost power, industries and other critical sector growth.

My own worries is that of the porous border up north as greedy politicians and co will exploit this avenue to accumulate overnight wealth.

Dude no man is an island on its own. Falana is right. Nigerian farmers can't feed a nation of 200million. We need to trade. Border closure is definitely not the way and its adverse effect in the long run can be disastrous for all countries involved.

yemex04:
These so called human right activists like Femi Falana might just be saboteurs afterall..I do not see any reason why a patrotric citizen would go to a country who is at the receiving end of his country's policies and condemn same publicly in solidarity with another nation..Even though the policy may be harsh on some Nigerians right now, but no doubt , it's in the overall interest of all Nigerians.So even if Falana is talking about the law,(I have my reservation anyway)he has to be loyal to his country first..His statement seems to be protecting the interest of other countries first ahead of his country but people like him would still come and condemn the Government for massive unemployment in the country..I lost my respect for Mr Falana on this..because the truth is, Whatever the situation of things are in Nigeria, economic strength of folks like him would never be affected badly...He is a billionare by all standard!

But that was Ecowas Court of Justice conference... It was only held in Ghana...

Nigeria is the biggest market for Africa. 1 in every 6 Africans is a nigerian.

Every ECOWAS free trade agreement will always favour our neighbours more than us. Nigeria is barely able to produce enough of anything for our 200million population, talkless of exportation.

Our major export is oil.....and these poor west african countries dont buy unrefined oil. So we dont need them too much in trade.

We cant be playing the big brother while our economy and people continue to suffer. Thats fooloshness...

How can anyone be crying for the struggles of benin traders and economy. Haba! Nigerians have been suffering in poverty for many years now. Lets cry about that first before thinking of ECOWAS

crazygod:

Dude no man is an island on its own. Falana is right. Nigerian farmers can't feed a nation of 200million. We need to trade. Border closure is definitely not the way and its adverse effect in the long run can be disastrous for all countries involved.

When hunger beats us wella ehn......we will all begin to farm......

Then suddenly there will be so much jobs. Ppl will be offering you 100k just to farm....and white collar shell n NNPC jobs will be looking for workers.

Things may be hard now.....but trade isnt helping our economy.....for our economy to grow MONEY MUST COME INSIDE......and our trade with west africa only takes money outside. No purely consumer nation can grow economically

If we must continue to buy and buy from west africa then we shoud kiss our economy good bye. It will only get worse

kunleweb:
Two faced, two tongued charlatan

a patriotic citizen does not allow ethnic or political sentiment to cover his sense of reasoning but only sensible people understand that

NimrodEndOfDays:
That is the key word. as far as i am concerned they are not serious.

We dont care about an ecowas contract that destroys our economy and favours other countries.

Infact lets dissolve that contract that enriches benin republic while Nigerians are crying of hardship and unemployment for many years.

Which kain ECOWAS we dey do wey don make our neighbours open ATM for our head. Nigeria don turn MAGA. breach ke

ridbell01:
a patriotic citizen does not allow ethnic or political sentiment to cover his sense of reasoning but only sensible people understand that

He is a pan African.....and his statements should be applauded by other west africans but not nigerians.

But that truth will only continue to RUIN NIGERIA!!! A patrotic nigerian will not say that

We havent been able to stop kidnapping and boko haram and one person just believes that we can stop smuggling if we dialogue. Haba!

We are incompetent, we cant stop insecurity and smuggling....our health and education is in shambles. Yes we know. We have accepted our fate.

But our economy and people should not continue to suffer for our incompetence. Let benin and niger and ghana suffer for our incompetence for a change

karo93:


We dont care about an ecowas contract that destroys our economy and favours other countries.

Infact lets dissolve that contract that enriches benin republic while Nigerians are crying of hardship and unemployment for many years.

Which kain ECOWAS we dey do wey don make our neighbours open ATM for our head. Nigeria don turn MAGA. breach ke

Ecowas has nothing to do with the dearth of the Nigerian Economy. We destroyed it ourselves with vision-less myopic and useless leaders.

NimrodEndOfDays:
Ecowas has nothing to do with the dearth of the Nigerian Economy. We destroyed it ourselves with vision-less myopic and useless leaders.

We are incompetent and myopic. YES! Maybe one day we will have good leaders. But right now the nigerian people should not continue to suffer for our incompetence alone. Lets share the burden with Benin Niger and Ghana.

Nigeria is bad! Nigeria is bad! Nigerians are poor and suffering but ecowas is feeding fat and growing rich from trading in Nigeria. Because Nigeria is the biggest market in Africa.

I think we should start making huge gains from our "market".

This guys talking sense, unfortunately Nairaland is filled with people who refuse to think!

Think about it, if someone wants to smuggle goods to Nigeria they will use one of two ways. Either they take it through they use the border and pay bribe to custom officials or they will use undesignated routes to bring goods to Nigeria. Neither of these two issues can be solve by solved by closing the border.

Here's the thing that most African countries don't get, YOU CANNOT PRODUCE EVERYTHING!. This is something that Europeans learnt long time ago. Every EU country has a specialty (Germany - cars and machinery, Netherlands - dairy products, France - wine, cheese, fashion etc) They focus on what they're good at and over time they're about to become better and efficient at that.

But in Africa no! Nigeria got the whiff that Benin is important rice, so the close their border to "punish". Now he's the thing, imagine Nigeria is able to produce more rice in the next few years, are they going to export it to Benin and other countries?

What Nigeria should be doing is focus on doing what it's good at!

realstars:
The border closure will put all of those security men who enriched themselves through that root into financial handicap.

AGREED

karo93:


We are incompetent and myopic. YES! Maybe one day we will have good leaders. But right now the nigerian people should not continue to suffer for our incompetence alone. Lets share the burden with Benin Niger and Ghana.

Nigeria is bad! Nigeria is bad! Nigerians are poor and suffering but ecowas is feeding fat and growing rich from trading in Nigeria. Because Nigeria is the biggest market in Africa.

I think we should start making huge gains from our "market".

dude. we have a group of people required to man these post. they are called the Nigerian CUSTOMS. no matter how you try to paint it, the direction or progress of this country has been articulated in the BUDGET. closing the border for a million years would not change a thing. we have loans that are still accumulating. if we actually have leaders, the first thing to do is a massive cut on the NASS. simple. Border Closure is just a crude way of making people feel that the government is working. i will not be hood winked. moreover what is the impact of these actions on the economy when you have half backed graduates and very poor infrastructure. it doesn't make sense when you starve the masses and still dont provide the basics and think God would miraculously create the environment. we have a vision less and directionless government that takes priority in doing the wrong things at the right time and the right things at the wrong time. The energy this government is using to catch rice smugglers would have been best utilized in funding education and infrastructure. but no, They are busy looking for people who hate them and calling everyone terrorist that oppose their views.

kunleweb:
Two faced, two tongued charlatan

Can you explain yourself? How is he a two faced charlatan?

You half educated dimwits just say rubbish all the time because your brain can never process what the man stands for.

NimrodEndOfDays:
dude. we have a group of people required to man these post. they are called the Nigerian CUSTOMS. no matter how you try to paint it, the direction or progress of this country has been articulated in the BUDGET. closing the border for a million years would not change a thing. we have loans that are still accumulating. if we actually have leaders, the first thing to do is a massive cut on the NASS. simple. Border Closure is just a crude way of making people feel that the government is working. i will not be hood winked. moreover what is the impact of these actions on the economy when you have half backed graduates and very poor infrastructure. it doesn't make sense when you starve the masses and still dont provide the basics and think God would miraculously create the environment. we have a vision less and directionless government that takes priority in doing the wrong things at the right time and the right things at the wrong time. The energy this government is using to catch rice smugglers would have been best utilized in funding education and infrastructure. but no, They are busy looking for people who hate them and calling everyone terrorist that oppose their views.

Thank you my brother! If more Nigerians thought like you, your country will be significantly better off!

MexManuel:


This whole boarder closure stuff will have great effects on ordinary citizens. Now FG are forming boss, disregarding the whole ECOWAS free movement stuff.
When those countries turn against us.
Na still we, common citizen go feel am pass.

Wetin FG suppose do na to collaborate with neighbouring countries to control smuggling and then place embargo or restrict the importation of goods that we can conveniently produce to meet our need.

I am not sure such collaborations have always not been in place..We have been doing the same things with no tangible results..Sometime we have to endure pains to experience comfort

Gforce2015:


The border closure is not "west thing" , it's for the general populace

Na west I dey, the entire Badagry is standstill... No activities. We voted for change so we have massive change that suppress the masses. Buhari till 2058

NimrodEndOfDays:
2019 and the best policy our affidavit president is to close borders and be chasing people with bags of rice. Many Nigerians are outrightly dvmb and can be manipulated easily. The budget was passed and education was not considered as a project that is worth upgrading and people are here debating smuggling and rice ban Our senators spend more than half of our budget through reccurent expenditure an people are clapping that Buhari closed border. No one is talking about the debts that this government is piling up. But what we have to show much concern is to close borders. Everyday there is something in the news that makes one wish that Nigeria is destroyed like the cows that were struck by lightning.

I tell you.