President Muhammadu Buhari has attributed the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin Republic to the massive smuggling activities especially of rice, taking place on that corridor.

The Nigerian leader gave the reason during an audience granted his Beninois counterpart, Patrice Talon, on the margins of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD7), in Yokohama, Japan on Wednesday.

Buhari, who expressed great concern over the smuggling of rice, said it threatened the self-sufficiency already attained due to his administration’s agricultural policies.

According to him, “Now that our people in the rural areas are going back to their farms, and the country has saved huge sums of money which would otherwise have been expended on importing rice using our scarce foreign reserves, we cannot allow smuggling of the product at such alarming proportions to continue.”

The Nigerian President said the limited closure of the country’s western border was to allow Nigeria’s security forces to develop a strategy on how to stem the dangerous trend and its wider ramifications.

Responding to the concerns raised by President Talon on the magnitude of suffering caused by the closure, Buhari said he had taken note and would reconsider reopening it in the not too distant future.

He, however, disclosed that a meeting with his counterparts from Benin and Niger Republics would soon be called to determine strict and comprehensive measures to curtail the level of smuggling across their borders.

Earlier, President Talon had said he called on the Nigerian President as a result of the severe impact which the closure of the Nigerian border was having on his people.

Buhari also received in audience, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa during which issues of common bilateral relations especially the killings of Nigerians in South Africa, were discussed. The matter will be further examined during the Nigerian leader’s official visit to Pretoria in October 2019.



See more here https://thickmatch.com/buhari-gives-reasons-closure-nigerias-border-benin-republic/

FG should have explained all this to the public. Imagine how many people caught unaware of the closure of the border.

Baba Buhari am not with you on this. Close the borders close to insurgency, terrorism and not our rice border.

Baba do come back and open our rice border. Christmas is around the corner.

madridguy:
Baba Buhari am not with you on this. Close the borders close to insurgency, terrorism and not our rice border.

Baba do come back and open our rice border. Christmas is around the corner.

Nice talk. The borders leaking insurgents into Nigeria are the ones to be closed.

close Niger/Nigeria, Chad/Nigeria borders .

And now traders have goods stuck in transit over a week now, what a clueless decision!

Akuko! Why not close the border that imports ammunitions secretly to the country

Seriously... Nigeria is lagging behind in all ramifications.

We need self incorruptible Economic experts in order for the economy of the country to revitalized

Hmmmm

Good

DonBenny77:
And now traders have goods stuck in transit over a week now, what a clueless decision!

Contrabands?

madridguy:
Baba Buhari am not with you on this. Close the borders close to insurgency, terrorism and not our rice border.

Baba do come back and open our rice border. Christmas is around the corner.

did you just say our rice? Smh for Nigerians.

What a clueless decision at the the detriment of innocent and hustling Nigerians..

God help this country..

Dullard

More rice comes in thru the northern borders

This dullard again

wellmax:
did you just say our rice? Smh for Nigerians.

So you prefer insurgency to cheap Rice? Smh for you

Why not close our borders with Chad and Niger

oh no...M gonna miss la Plage in Fidjrosse

madridguy:
Baba Buhari am not with you on this. Close the borders close to insurgency, terrorism and not our rice border.

Baba do come back and open our rice border. Christmas is around the corner.

But Buhari is your best president na... na kuku people wey their business depend on this, mostly SWners na him go suffer this one... he did not close border in the North, na South own him dey close... Even people from Niger Republic come down south. Make una let me hear word.

Hope they will also prevent smuggling of aboki

Expect the price to go up... nextlevel

But his brothers are smuggling from the northern borders

A devastating blow to smugglers.