₦airaland Forum

Ewedegubbler:
We shall see.. We all know that Football in Nigeria is generally played by southerners. lumping up northerners in a Nigerian soccer team is like trying to export crude oil from sokoto.. Can a man give what he does not have ?

Honesty007:
maybe just like set 07,but with correct age grade,they would score little and win big.

SpatialKing:
Are you sure you are watching the match on a colored TV?

Bbsharon:
Hello Nairalanders . I finally toured somewhere down south, southern Nigeria and I'm excited to share.

Currently I'm undergoing my compulsory youth service year in Cross River State. I was posted to calabar from camp.

But then let's start from the very beginning.

So, I met an online travel buddy some days back here in calabar, who told me he would be going across the calabar river to inspect some site along the creek side.

As a geographer, that's his work. But, for me it was going to be an adventure .

Without hesitating I jumped on it . Trust me

Few tips about the river generally...

It is not particularly a tourist centre, which means if you coming here you should or it probably means you have something to do around here.

Or, you just want to have a view of the river itself.

To get a canoe to take you around, if you want to. Simply talk to the locals around, they would help out.

Nothing exceptional happening at the place.

The people are friendly and the environment is pretty safe.

xxolisexx:
Story, someone in europe will jst sit down and be writing what he does not knw, which ease of doing business, did they take into account that our electricity production has remained the same or even reduced despite rising population, yu goto start a bizness, agbero will disturb, govt will tax the shit out of yu, this buhari govt that tax even hawkers they even wanted to start taking money for ussd, ease of doing bizness is worse now, so many obstacles, if yu are not rich yu cant do business in nigeria, im not talking about small scale business to feed your family, thats not business thats survival...

Skyfornia:
Okay...atleast make we hear good news for once. Kudos for the citizens and not the government cause the didn't make this happen.

Steve28:
Please how much did Buhari paid to achieve this because we all know this information is false.

MUMUdom:
Fuckeduppedness are you a comedian? Where is the evidence a Ghana exported drugs, computers and weapons to Nigeria? By the way, you claimed you closed your border yet nigerians are still arriving in Ghana in their thousands every day. How is that possible? You forgot to also lock the borders against your people from leaving your country? Tell your people to stay in their country,huh? Fuckeduppedness

MUMUdom:
Pure crap! Foolish talk! I expected something more sensible and intelligent you claimed Ghaba relies on Nigeria for survival. Tell me how Ghaba relies on Nigeria for survival and spewing crap. I expected you to name the goods and services you export to Ghana, without which Ghana will collapse. Very simple. Why is soo difficult to give us simple statistics? For example, Nigeria exports rice worth $500 million to Ghana a year. Nigeria exports cars worth $1 billion to Ghana etc etc. that is what I want to hear

MUMUdom:
Do you have proof that Ghanaians smuggle stuff into nigeria? Don’t nigerians smuggle stuff abroad?

Ironi:
Understand , Ghanaians don’t smuggle anything into Nigeria !!!!!

Ghana has to go across two countries to Nigeria ,how would smuggling even work for them.

Ironi:
You didn’t answer his question.

Yes, Nigeria with its huge uncontrolled population is a potential market but that does not translate into ‘Ghana relies on Nigeria ‘ .

Fact is , currently not much trade is going on between Ghana and Nigeria and Nigeria does not give Ghana free oil so your statement has no head or tail.

The trading potential between African countries has been realized hence the formation of the African free trade zone which would be meaningless when countries begin to close borders rather than finding other means of solving their problems.

For instance Nigerian immigrants are currently a huge nuisance in Ghana and we would like to throw them out in a second but we are trying to find other alternatives of dealing with them.

MUMUdom:
So tell me, can you tell me how “Ghana relies on Nigeria so much for survival?” Can you explain your statement. What is that Ghana imports from Nigeria that Makes Ghana “relies so much on Nigeria for survival?” I want to know. I am sure the rest of the world wants to know

Since Nigerians No Longer Come, Our Businesses Threatened Benin Republic Traders

https://331746-1018445-raikfcquaxqncofqfm.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Border-closure-rice.jpg

Following the Federal Government’s border closure to smuggling, ADEKUNLE SULAIMON who visited adjoining Benin Republic communities along Seme border, reports the frustrations of the traders who had once benefited from the cycle of legal and illegal importation of contraband items into Nigeria.



Smuggling, believed to be the bane of the economy in a number of unlimited ways, simply because it is an avenue for the evasion of tax and other levies, endangers government policies by slowing down the development projects meant to be carried out with the revenue ought to be generated for the country.

Smuggled goods destabilise market prices since they are often cheaper than the ones supplied to markets through legal routes thereby exposing genuine traders to unsportsmanlike competition. It undermines the local industry not least because it under-cuts prices of goods manufactured in Nigeria thus crowding out the market for local products. The unfortunate result is the breakdown of neighbourhood businesses joined by loss of employment and the high pace of joblessness. There is similarly the low profitability related to wellbeing and security risks with respect to buyers who disparage unsatisfactory, lapsed and counterfeit items.



It has been over two months since President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the closure of borders and also placed an embargo on the importation of rice, groundnut oil, frozen foods, drugs, and other commodities considered to be contraband. Among the aforementioned, rice is believed to be the most preferred staple food for Nigerians.

Border closure
A rice trader at the other side of the border in Benin Republic
The major food markets where parboiled rice is sold are dominated by around 70 percent of foreign rice, leaving no place for locally produced variant which has no place in the market because of Nigerians low patronage to it.

On June 13, 2019, the Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Services (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) represented at an event by the Assistant Comptroller General and Customs Coordinator in charge of Zone A, Mr. Kaycee Ekekezie as reported by several media organisations said that the NCS is making huge returns daily claiming it to be as a result of border closures which now enables for proper importation of goods/items into the country.

Nigerian Tribune visited some of the borders including Seme and other smuggling routes in Badagry, Yardi, Gbetromeh, Gbaji communities. Findings reveal that foreign parboiled rice produced in Thailand and India, vegetable oil and cars maintain the lead in the list of smuggled items into Nigeria.

The tale of Badagry-Seme routes

From Badagry roundabout to Gbaji Bridge, there are five checkpoints consisting of the Nigerian Police, Customs, Immigration officers. After the Gbaji Bridge, there is just one checkpoint manned by Mobiile police officers. In Yardi, there are two Customs checkpoints assisted by police officers. Sultan beach houses one custom checkpoint, meanwhile, at Kolington filling station, there is just one Customs checkpoint. At Akoro, there are two checkpoints, each manned by Immigration officers and Customs officers respectively. Gbetrome houses one. After Gbetrome are two checkpoints managed by the immigration officers. Asipa has two Customs checkpoints and immediately after Asipa checkpoints are three more checkpoints before getting to Seme border, totaling twenty checkpoints in all from Badagry to Seme.

The empty Pau market in Benin Republic



On getting to the conventional market popularly called Pau in Benin Republic, the state of the market showed that the closure of the border has caused a negative effect on commercial activities, resulting in poor sales and closure of several shops. In fact, one could barely tell that it is the popular rice market since the streets of the once busy crowded market were near empty.

Border closure
Popular Pau market in Benin Republic after Border closure
Investigations also reveal that many of these items sold at far cheaper prices than in the Nigerian market, thereby boosting smuggling activities with attendant huge profits for the perpetrators. For instance, a 50kg bag of rice sold for between N9,200 and N10,000. After buying the said bags of rice, the smugglers usually paid at least N350 per bag to cross the border. But the bags of rice were sold in Nigeria between N18,000 and N20,000 even N22,000 per bag. For vegetable oil, a 20-litre ‘jerry can’ sells for N9,500, with additional N200 each paid to local truckers to cross the border.

“Before the closure, I sold 100 bags per day; now I barely sell five bags”

A trader at the rice market, Mr. Francis Abimbola, spoke with Nigerian Tribune on his ordeal since the beginning of the closure. According to him, “Before this time, I sold between 80 and 100 bags of rice in a day, although the Marigold parboiled rice is the most ordered, now I barely sell 5 bags before the day passes by. In fact, sometimes I don’t get anybody to patronise me, I close the shop earlier than expected.

“The little sales are even made by our own people here, who buy only in retail price to sell to their customers believed to be the final consumers.”


Mr. David Conde, another trader, recalled how Nigerians regularly flooded Seme market where they bought variety of items, which they transported back to Nigeria. He added that Nigerians were the heartbeat of Seme market, hence the hardship being faced by the ban placed on their patronage of the market.


An official of the Nigeria Customs Service inspecting a vehicle at the border
“In no time, I will be relocating to my village to look for alternative means of survival since the market is becoming unfavourable daily,” Conde said.

According to a frozen foods seller, Mr. Femi Abdurraji with “Dieu fait tout” (God does all things) Frozen Limited, “The sales of frozen foods weren’t this bad even when they were declared contrabands by the Nigeria government under Jonathan’s administration.

“Last week, about four shops that dealt in the sales of frozen foods were forcefully locked up by the owners who have gone to borrow loans to get their shops stocked up, only to be unable to pay up as and when due,” he said.

He further appealed that the government should reverse the decision on the border closure as the economy was growing down the drain daily. “People are really suffering here, our customers who manage to buy even small quantities to take to Nigeria are waylaid by the customs and deprived of the little bought for either consumption or sales.”

However, a business mogul, Musa Kadiri from Okene, Kogi State, lauded President Muhammadu Buhari, describing his action as that which would save the depreciating naira and locally produced items. He described the large-scale smugglers as “night-crawlers” saying that their cargoes were usually smuggled overnight..



‘We will stop smuggling with scanning machine’

It is no gainsaying that the Customs have seized many smuggled goods on various occasions, but such seizures have proven not to be enough to deter smugglers. Apparently, Mr. Fatai Ibrahim, an officer of the Customs insisted that the border command was strategising and conveying a significant level of knowledge and expert abilities, invigorating the whole land outskirt so as to thwart all endeavours of arms smuggling and different trans-outskirt wrongdoings into the country.

In this regard, he said the service has uncovered desperate antics being deployed by smugglers in order to beat customs operatives.


A trader at the market at Pau market in Benin Republic after Border closure
He spoke about a particular instance where a woman had loaded grains of rice in her body and also bought nylons in Seme, loaded them with rice and tied them around her waist, legs and hands, wearing an overall to hide her atrocities. On getting to the checkpoints, she had only a bag on her lap and when instructed to open it, she was pleading, saying it was just a little quantity of spaghetti she intended to eat at home with her children.

“I ordered her to alight from the bus so that I could advise her to desist from the act of smuggling and further bid her farewell. She first complained but finally obeyed. Immediately she stepped down, I noticed a few grains of rice on the ground; I was uninterested until it continued when I beckoned on her to follow me. I mildly hit her leg to know what was going on, only to find out that she had loaded herself with grains of rice. I called the soldier on duty, and we could not help but laugh hysterically at the action,” he recalled.

Ibrahim bragged that no amount of antics formulated by smugglers would go undetected by the officials. He said the dare-devil smugglers, who won’t stop from utilising the Seme course would keep on checking their misfortunes in a correctional facility when captured and indicted to fill in as an impediment to other people.

A customs officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity also underscored the need to amplify security along the fringes considering the security danger of unlawful importation of arms through the country’s seaports. He included that the command’s zero resilience to Nigeria’s security risk (by means of unlawful importation of arms) through fastidious screening of imported products utilising the scanning machine will be supported earnestly.

The free trade zone trade policy without the cooperation of neighbouring countries would be an exercise in futility since they provide alternative markets. Therefore, association with Benin Republic, Niger Republic, and Cameroon is essential for the success of any restrictive trade policy that will be made in Nigeria. Such participation ought to be outfitted towards the elimination of cross border price differences which create incentives for smuggling.

Against this setting, Nigeria should support the full usage of the Common External Tariffs understanding marked by the 15-member ECOWAS countries a few years ago. Stakeholders believe that the borders cannot continue to be shut; the necessary things should be done by the Nigerian government on price regulations and the improvement of locally made products for the extrication of the love of foreign products by Nigerians.

spinzagom:
How old are u boy?

spinzagom:
The Government must reopen this boarders ASAP! The saying that no man is an island is real. We might need Ghana and other African countries in the nearest future, only God Knows. The country is not even safe and politically very unstable. Live and lets Live! when its set now they will pack their children and leave the poor ones here. How do u feel your neighbors are suffering because of your action? There are other means to check for Illegal smuggling. What now happens to the illegal routes without security personnel?

ChaosMagus:
Ok i have heard, in effect all you are saying is you take aid, but not as much as Ghana, right... or to put it metaphorically,
All African country's shit smells but Nigerians shit doesnt smell as much Ghanas
Thank you...

Kindly take a look at this link, read it till the end and tell me what you think.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2387359/amp/Nigeria-country-corrupt-better-burn-aid-money.html

Look I am not one of those who will jump onto a public forum, defying all reason, bashing and denigrating another country simply becos he perceives a kind of rivalry between his country and another. Both countries are great. Each country performs better than the other in certain aspects.

What Nigeria is doing at the moment is simply setting bad precedence in the subregion and considering the fact that Nigeria is the leader even makes it more inappropriate.

France has dominated so much for so long in the subregion, Nigeria and Ghana by now should be looking at ways to get the other nations especially the francos to see us as their best friends... But how can we do that when you know these actions of yours are seriously going to cause dissent, erode any kind of friendly feeling towards the English speaking countries and then further drive them towards France their master.

There are Nigerian manufacturers who use Ghanaian raw materials for production in Nigeria and then export, just as there are Ghanaian companies who use Nigerian raw materials in production for export.

What you guys are doing is trying to say Nigeria should produce everything, which is not possible. Go ask America whether they produce everything. 60% of coconut consumed by Nigeria comes from Ghana. Similarly 70% of Ghanas onions comes from Nigeria and Niger. So wat happens to these Nigerian exporters who export onion to Ghana.

No smuggler uses an approved route, what your government should have done was look for ways to close the loopholes, strict punishment for corrupt border officials and it could have solved the issue better.

You rule a nation with both mind and muscle. Not muscle alone.

According to the above article 400 billion dollars has been given to Nigeria in the form of aid since independence. Look, Nigeria is great but dont come around acting like you dont need your neighbors.

Just30:


you need to check the economic growth figures again

Ghana 8%
Nigeria 1% heading back into recession

now who's economy is in limbo

The economy of Nigeria grew 1.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018, up from a 1.5 percent expansion in the prior period, as non-oil rose faster and oil sector shrank less. On a quarterly basis, the economy advanced 9.5 percent, higher than a 2.9 percent growth in the previous quarter.

Ghana's economy grew 7.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018, following a 5.4 percent expansion in the previous period. It was the strongest growth rate since the third quarter of 2017, mostly driven by the industry and services sectors. ... On a quarterly basis, the gross domestic product grew 1.3 percent.

ChaosMagus:
So are you saying that nigeria does not or has never received any form of aid from developed nations before ... Just say yes and i will send you a list of countries and their institutions that have been supporting, financing and aiding your nigeria since independence till date together with proof.. Just try me and see

Area4Area:
You quoted the wrong person here

Just30:
good luck chasing blogs


anyway, this is Ghana 2019 budget statement and breakdown

https://www.pwc.com/gh/en/assets/pdf/2019-budget-highlights.pdf


https://www.mofep.gov.gh/budget-statements/2019