₦airaland Forum

DTC2:

They are simply doing the right thing, but the wrong way.

They could have mass produced local rice before closing the border

If there's a mass production of food before the border is closed, It couldn't have affected Nigerians negatively

No one is against them closing the border, because in as much as I don't want to admit this, I believe they meant well. But if they must do the right thing, they should at least do it the right way

FemiMaduka:
It depends on how we manage it. If we don't aggressively police our borders, even as we have slammed them shut, we would soon be back in square one as smugglers would simply become more ingenious and find alternative routes to bring these same things into our country.

Aside this closing, we have to start an aggressive campaign towards the patronage of locally made goods. This our counter-intuitive slant towards ANYTHING foreign has to be stopped! It should be a wholistic push; our music and cultural perceptions should take a shift towards giving primacy to Nigeria-born ideas and goods. Enough of the self-hate.

We have a big population, though our spending power is still abysmal, but we can start investing in EDUCATION, power, technology and metallurgy. We need to give our industriousness a big boost. This is the time.

We have saved a daily eight [8] million litres of 'scarce' petrol already. Imagine the billions of dollars that we literally throw over our borders, in subsidy, that has no commensurate [if any at all] benefit on our lumbering economy. What do we get from these same Anglophone and Francophone neighbours: Insurgency, banditry, cross-border conflicts, economic theft...and a lot of disrespect and hate! It is about time we tidied up our acts.

We can do it. We once did it; we successfully weaned ourselves off foreign music. We replaced the Sisqos, Puff Daddies, Tupacs and Craig Davids of then with our own: Dbanj, TuFace and Co. And now we are the music and entertainment powerhouse of Africa! We can.

It is time to EDUCATE and EMPOWER [literally] our people.

spokesboy:
Let's keep a list of those people bragging here that it's a good policy. By December, they will all start crying like canary bird when the thing bite their pockets well well.
Why on earth will you support a policy that puts the deadweight loss on the citizens.
If truly we are self sufficient and efficient in producing rice locally, it will be in abundance and the price will crash naturally without any border closure but in this case, the price of local and imported rice have skyrocketed and hovering around 25k - 30k from 15k level.
This shows there is a deliberate policy to strangle the masses and they are ignorantly coming here to sing praises of a bizarre policy.
Can someone tell me who banned foreign music in the 90s before the local music and artists took over and flooded the entertainment industry. Today, Nigerians don't even keep track of what P.diddy or Beyonce is singing. That's the natural painless way things should go.
By Christmas, I hope Nigerians won't swallow their pride and go to Benin and Ghana govt. On bended knees to apologize for closing the border.
For those people too young here, please ask your uncles or aunts about the previous failures of ban on the importation of rice in the 80s - it only created wealth for the smugglers and poverty for the masses.
Let's pray these countries don't gang up and retaliate against Nigeria because we will be the biggest loser - starting from the banning of Dangote Sugar and Cement exports to the west coast which outweighs alot of our imports from the same region.

Dozzywest:
primarily those worst hit are local farmers and traders within other sub saharan Africa. As long as we remain independent in the literally sense of it and producing what we consume here. The main objective is to encourage domestic production, and I think that the agricultural sector and SMEs are key areas to be looked into. Buhari and his economic advisers should be religious enough to carry us all along with these plans.

princemillla:
You need help. Your lot will seat at ur comfort zone shouting Nigeria Is bad. Closing be border will only promote Nigeria products, and lead it to being better. Those foreign rice u were talking bout didn't just appear good, they worked towards it. So please think deep befor u leap

martyns303:
Probably one of the best policies this government has implemented.

Let me educate someone as to why.

Nigeria is trying to be self sufficient especially in the area of rice, Nigerians consume a lot of rice, a whole lot of it and it will be best if this rice is produced locally. Not only will it boost our economy it will also reduce the strain on forex.

Now most of the rice we consume come from Asian countries like Indonesia etc, to discourage foreign rice from coming into Nigeria, the Nigerian government choose to either increase the import duty (tax) on the product or outrightly ban rice importation.

To bypass the above condition, smugglers now import the rice into Benin republic, from there they take advantage of the free trade zone thing to bring the rice into Nigeria. Now, this has become a loss/loss situation for Nigeria, because, not only is the rice still coming to Nigeria, we are not even generating tax on the imported rice because the tax has been paid to Benin republic and brought into Nigeria free.

The Nigerian government has pleaded with the neighboring countries to please help us checkmate these items from being dumped into Nigeria, but they refused, they refused because of the huge profit they are making at the expenses of Nigerians. Well, the Nigerian government has responded, we can not tell you not to allow these items come into your country, no wahala, but we will make sure it doesn’t come into Nigeria by closing our borders.

Now, they have load sh%t of rice sitting in their country and no way of moving it to Nigeria, more so business is no longer moving for them and they are now feeling the pressure.

The unfortunate thing is that, products that are locally produced in those countries can not come into Nigeria also, now it’s a loss/loss situation for them. Countries like Ghana unfortunately got caught in the cross fire, this is because Ghana do not share a land border with Nigeria and have to pass their products via one of the countries we share land border with and since we have closed the border, their products can not come in too. The government is talking with the Ghanaians to see how to resolve this problem.

Secondly, fuel in Nigeria is probably one of cheapest in Africa, this is because the Nigerian government is paying subsidy on fuel. If you don’t know what subsidy is, let me educate u. It means, if fuel is supposed to be sold for N300, the government will pay N150, and then you the citizen will pay N150. Now, after the government pay for subsidy, some wicked Nigerians will move the fuel to other countries like Benin republic and sell it off there at the rate of say N250 and make extra profit. Hope u catch the drift?

See that border ehn? Make then no open am at all. I Dey chop normal Nigerian rice now, na local chicken we dey kill chop now, no more imported frozen chicken wey dem use chemical preserve.

tooth4tooth:
You sound like a smuggler

Tolumiide:
Best decision ever from any civilian government in Nigeria. A smart Nigerian should look at how to take advantage of this opportunity and grow.

spokesboy:
Let's keep a list of those people bragging here that it's a good policy. By December, they will all start crying like canary bird when the thing bite their pockets well well.
Why on earth will you support a policy that puts the deadweight loss on the citizens.
If truly we are self sufficient and efficient in producing rice locally, it will be in abundance and the price will crash naturally without any border closure but in this case, the price of local and imported rice have skyrocketed and hovering around 25k - 30k from 15k level.
This shows there is a deliberate policy to strangle the masses and they are ignorantly coming here to sing praises of a bizarre policy.
Can someone tell me who banned foreign music in the 90s before the local music and artists took over and flooded the entertainment industry. Today, Nigerians don't even keep track of what P.diddy or Beyonce is singing. That's the natural painless way things should go.
By Christmas, I hope Nigerians won't swallow their pride and go to Benin and Ghana govt. On bended knees to apologize for closing the border.
For those people too young here, please ask your uncles or aunts about the previous failures of ban on the importation of rice in the 80s - it only created wealth for the smugglers and poverty for the masses.
Let's pray these countries don't gang up and retaliate against Nigeria because we will be the biggest loser - starting from the banning of Dangote Sugar and Cement exports to the west coast which outweighs alot of our imports from the same region.

mrvitalis:
I look at sustainability of any policy and this is not sustainable ...can we close our borders for 5 years or 10 years or 25 years

Buhari like most Nigerians like treating the symptoms not root cause

The problem is we import foreign rice

Root cuase
1) our local grains are short Nigerians prefer longer grain
2) our yield are small average 1 ton per hectare while Thailand is 10ton per hectare
3) we have evil birds that can eat up ur farm in few days ...eat everything

Closing border is like forcing ur child to listen to radio because he goes to the next compound to watch TV which he love .

My solutions
1) we need to develop our seeds ...Jonathan government did a lot on this regard don't know why they were not continued ...we need to develop long grains

2) develop grains that yeild between 6 to 10 tons per hectare ...n can be planted 2 to 3 times a year

3) give loans to major rice farmers already to expand

4 ) develop ways to handle those evil birds ...we can learn from iseral

Create rice farming villages

Place 50% import duty on rice imported use the money to fund the above

In 5 years we can achieve full sufficiency then u can ban import

mrvitalis:
I look at sustainability of any policy and this is not sustainable ...can we close our borders for 5 years or 10 years or 25 years

Buhari like most Nigerians like treating the symptoms not root cause

The problem is we import foreign rice

Root cuase
1) our local grains are short Nigerians prefer longer grain
2) our yield are small average 1 ton per hectare while Thailand is 10ton per hectare
3) we have evil birds that can eat up ur farm in few days ...eat everything

Closing border is like forcing ur child to listen to radio because he goes to the next compound to watch TV which he love .

My solutions
1) we need to develop our seeds ...Jonathan government did a lot on this regard don't know why they were not continued ...we need to develop long grains

2) develop grains that yeild between 6 to 10 tons per hectare ...n can be planted 2 to 3 times a year

3) give loans to major rice farmers already to expand

4 ) develop ways to handle those evil birds ...we can learn from iseral

Create rice farming villages

Place 50% import duty on rice imported use the money to fund the above

In 5 years we can achieve full sufficiency then u can ban import

NimrodEndOfDays:
guess you graduated with an affidavit. . That's if you did.

Topmaike007:
God forbid we're not trying it for only 4 years but for 10-15 years in Jesus name

mekaboy:
Border closure enriches the government at the expense of the people. Whose fault is it that rice us smuggled into the country ? Why do we have and pay customs. Rice is now on the high side and Nigerians are paying more for it with more taxes the government is imposing.

Creating scarcity to sell rice at a higher price is just a false reality. After the rice that have been harvested is sold at a high price, they will still open the border.

It is just like the exchange rate and the fuel subsidy. The government has to constantly pump money into the force market to maintain at a false rate. Has to subsidize petrol with billions to maintain a fake price.

Most foreign investors will hardly invest in a country whose exchange rate is not governed by supply and demand.

If we want agriculture to do well. Government should allow importation of foreign rice, by sea and land. Increase duty to make it expensive. Invest the difference in Agriculture. Given loans to farmers and processors etc.

Same with fuel, remove subsidy and invest in infrastructure.

But this government of old men without a vision can't get anything right. They just love power for the sake of it.

deepwater:
Open the goddam border

tooth4tooth:
No!
Birth Certificate. I nor try?

mrvitalis:
I look at sustainability of any policy and this is not sustainable ...can we close our borders for 5 years or 10 years or 25 years

Buhari like most Nigerians like treating the symptoms not root cause

The problem is we import foreign rice

Root cuase
1) our local grains are short Nigerians prefer longer grain
2) our yield are small average 1 ton per hectare while Thailand is 10ton per hectare
3) we have evil birds that can eat up ur farm in few days ...eat everything

Closing border is like forcing ur child to listen to radio because he goes to the next compound to watch TV which he love .

My solutions
1) we need to develop our seeds ...Jonathan government did a lot on this regard don't know why they were not continued ...we need to develop long grains

2) develop grains that yeild between 6 to 10 tons per hectare ...n can be planted 2 to 3 times a year

3) give loans to major rice farmers already to expand

4 ) develop ways to handle those evil birds ...we can learn from iseral

Create rice farming villages

Place 50% import duty on rice imported use the money to fund the above

In 5 years we can achieve full sufficiency then u can ban import

princemillla:
Amen amen amen.....if possible fire!!!

yahussaini:
*Benin Republic has a population of 12 million people. But it is the worlds 5th importer of rice. In 2018, it imported rice worth US$996m.*

*Benin is also world's largest importer of _used_ _cars_ and __second_ - _hand_ _clothing_ . All with a population of 12m people.*
*DO YOU WONDER HOW?.........*
*Don't!*

*98.2% of these imports into Benin are only on transit; their final destination is _NIGERIA_ !*
*Nigeria is world's largest consumer of used cars and second hand clothing, and is also Africa's largest consumer of Asian grown rice.*

*The problem here is that all these imported goods attract appropriate import duty and trade tax, which are paid to the Beninoise Government while the goods are thence SMUGGLED into Nigeria WITHOUT ANY PAYMENT to the Nigerian Government and, thereby, adding zero value to the Nigerian economy!*
*Sadly, THIS IS ALL DONE BY NIGERIANS!*


*Granted, ECOWAS/CEDEAO charter allows for free trade between member states, but _on_ _goods_ _produced_ _in_ _member_ _countries_ , and NOT on imports from other economic blocs.*

*Where foreign goods are transiting through a member country, and ending up in another member country, the ECOWAS charter stipulates that the country of transit MAY collect a token trade tax, and its Customs officials should then escort the goods to the border of the importing country and hand it over to the Customs officials of the importing country!*
*But what we see in the case of Benin Republic is that it collects _CUSTOMS_ _DUTY_ plus _TRADE_ _TAX_ , and then allows the goods to pass through its hinterland for onward smuggle into Nigeria!*

*This is a clear violation of ECOWAS statutes and no nation can condone such costly infraction.*

*Nigeria has tolerated this nonsense from Benin for far too long and it is time to stop the malpractice if we want Nigeria's economy to grow.*
*(Therefore, whoever cries foul because we have closed our borders to smugglers while we're putting our act together, IS AN ENEMY OF NIGERIA!)*

*Nigeria makes up about 74% of ECOWAS population and about 71% of its economy. It is ECOWAS that needs Nigeria and not the other way round!*

ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEMBER COUNTRIES MUST BE BASED ON EXTANT REGULATIONS!

mekaboy:
Border closure enriches the government at the expense of the people. Whose fault is it that rice us smuggled into the country ? Why do we have and pay customs. Rice is now on the high side and Nigerians are paying more for it with more taxes the government is imposing.

Creating scarcity to sell rice at a higher price is just a false reality. After the rice that have been harvested is sold at a high price, they will still open the border.

It is just like the exchange rate and the fuel subsidy. The government has to constantly pump money into the force market to maintain at a false rate. Has to subsidize petrol with billions to maintain a fake price.

Most foreign investors will hardly invest in a country whose exchange rate is not governed by supply and demand.

If we want agriculture to do well. Government should allow importation of foreign rice, by sea and land. Increase duty to make it expensive. Invest the difference in Agriculture. Given loans to farmers and processors etc.

Same with fuel, remove subsidy and invest in infrastructure.

But this government of old men without a vision can't get anything right. They just love power for the sake of it.

Dozzywest:
I think the land border closures is a right and necessary step to causing an economic implosion that will resonate prosperity in all sectors of the economy, especially Agriculture and Manufacturing.

But the problem remains if our law enforcement agencies can ensure a water tight security around the borders and other porous areas and flashpoints to dissuade smuggling.

This is also the right time to promote the local content initiatives, by bringing in the best hands and heads together.

I personally, always have my reservations about some economic policies coming out from Buhari's 'kitchen'. Maybe years to come would either prove me right or wrong about this move.

martyns303:
Probably one of the best policies this government has implemented.

Let me educate someone as to why.

Nigeria is trying to be self sufficient especially in the area of rice, Nigerians consume a lot of rice, a whole lot of it and it will be best if this rice is produced locally. Not only will it boost our economy it will also reduce the strain on forex.

Now most of the rice we consume come from Asian countries like Indonesia etc, to discourage foreign rice from coming into Nigeria, the Nigerian government choose to either increase the import duty (tax) on the product or outrightly ban rice importation.

To bypass the above condition, smugglers now import the rice into Benin republic, from there they take advantage of the free trade zone thing to bring the rice into Nigeria. Now, this has become a loss/loss situation for Nigeria, because, not only is the rice still coming to Nigeria, we are not even generating tax on the imported rice because the tax has been paid to Benin republic and brought into Nigeria free.

The Nigerian government has pleaded with the neighboring countries to please help us checkmate these items from being dumped into Nigeria, but they refused, they refused because of the huge profit they are making at the expenses of Nigerians. Well, the Nigerian government has responded, we can not tell you not to allow these items come into your country, no wahala, but we will make sure it doesn’t come into Nigeria by closing our borders.

Now, they have load sh%t of rice sitting in their country and no way of moving it to Nigeria, more so business is no longer moving for them and they are now feeling the pressure.

The unfortunate thing is that, products that are locally produced in those countries can not come into Nigeria also, now it’s a loss/loss situation for them. Countries like Ghana unfortunately got caught in the cross fire, this is because Ghana do not share a land border with Nigeria and have to pass their products via one of the countries we share land border with and since we have closed the border, their products can not come in too. The government is talking with the Ghanaians to see how to resolve this problem.

Secondly, fuel in Nigeria is probably one of cheapest in Africa, this is because the Nigerian government is paying subsidy on fuel. If you don’t know what subsidy is, let me educate u. It means, if fuel is supposed to be sold for N300, the government will pay N150, and then you the citizen will pay N150. Now, after the government pay for subsidy, some wicked Nigerians will move the fuel to other countries like Benin republic and sell it off there at the rate of say N250 and make extra profit. Hope u catch the drift?

See that border ehn? Make then no open am at all. I Dey chop normal Nigerian rice now, na local chicken we dey kill chop now, no more imported frozen chicken wey dem use chemical preserve.

martyns303:
Probably one of the best policies this government has implemented.

Let me educate someone as to why.

Nigeria is trying to be self sufficient especially in the area of rice, Nigerians consume a lot of rice, a whole lot of it and it will be best if this rice is produced locally. Not only will it boost our economy it will also reduce the strain on forex.

Now most of the rice we consume come from Asian countries like Indonesia etc, to discourage foreign rice from coming into Nigeria, the Nigerian government choose to either increase the import duty (tax) on the product or outrightly ban rice importation.

To bypass the above condition, smugglers now import the rice into Benin republic, from there they take advantage of the free trade zone thing to bring the rice into Nigeria. Now, this has become a loss/loss situation for Nigeria, because, not only is the rice still coming to Nigeria, we are not even generating tax on the imported rice because the tax has been paid to Benin republic and brought into Nigeria free.

The Nigerian government has pleaded with the neighboring countries to please help us checkmate these items from being dumped into Nigeria, but they refused, they refused because of the huge profit they are making at the expenses of Nigerians. Well, the Nigerian government has responded, we can not tell you not to allow these items come into your country, no wahala, but we will make sure it doesn’t come into Nigeria by closing our borders.

Now, they have load sh%t of rice sitting in their country and no way of moving it to Nigeria, more so business is no longer moving for them and they are now feeling the pressure.

The unfortunate thing is that, products that are locally produced in those countries can not come into Nigeria also, now it’s a loss/loss situation for them. Countries like Ghana unfortunately got caught in the cross fire, this is because Ghana do not share a land border with Nigeria and have to pass their products via one of the countries we share land border with and since we have closed the border, their products can not come in too. The government is talking with the Ghanaians to see how to resolve this problem.

Secondly, fuel in Nigeria is probably one of cheapest in Africa, this is because the Nigerian government is paying subsidy on fuel. If you don’t know what subsidy is, let me educate u. It means, if fuel is supposed to be sold for N300, the government will pay N150, and then you the citizen will pay N150. Now, after the government pay for subsidy, some wicked Nigerians will move the fuel to other countries like Benin republic and sell it off there at the rate of say N250 and make extra profit. Hope u catch the drift?

See that border ehn? Make then no open am at all. I Dey chop normal Nigerian rice now, na local chicken we dey kill chop now, no more imported frozen chicken wey dem use chemical preserve.

mrvitalis:
I look at sustainability of any policy and this is not sustainable ...can we close our borders for 5 years or 10 years or 25 years

Buhari like most Nigerians like treating the symptoms not root cause

The problem is we import foreign rice

Root cuase
1) our local grains are short Nigerians prefer longer grain
2) our yield are small average 1 ton per hectare while Thailand is 10ton per hectare
3) we have evil birds that can eat up ur farm in few days ...eat everything

Closing border is like forcing ur child to listen to radio because he goes to the next compound to watch TV which he love .

My solutions
1) we need to develop our seeds ...Jonathan government did a lot on this regard don't know why they were not continued ...we need to develop long grains

2) develop grains that yeild between 6 to 10 tons per hectare ...n can be planted 2 to 3 times a year

3) give loans to major rice farmers already to expand

4 ) develop ways to handle those evil birds ...we can learn from iseral

Create rice farming villages

Place 50% import duty on rice imported use the money to fund the above

In 5 years we can achieve full sufficiency then u can ban import

Dozzywest:
I think the land border closures is a right and necessary step to causing an economic implosion that will resonate prosperity in all sectors of the economy, especially Agriculture and Manufacturing.

But the problem remains if our law enforcement agencies can ensure a water tight security around the borders and other porous areas and flashpoints to dissuade smuggling.

This is also the right time to promote the local content initiatives, by bringing in the best hands and heads together.

I personally, always have my reservations about some economic policies coming out from Buhari's 'kitchen'. Maybe years to come would either prove me right or wrong about this move.

Dozzywest:
I think the land border closures is a right and necessary step to causing an economic implosion that will resonate prosperity in all sectors of the economy, especially Agriculture and Manufacturing.

But the problem remains if our law enforcement agencies can ensure a water tight security around the borders and other porous areas and flashpoints to dissuade smuggling.

This is also the right time to promote the local content initiatives, by bringing in the best hands and heads together.

I personally, always have my reservations about some economic policies coming out from Buhari's 'kitchen'. Maybe years to come would either prove me right or wrong about this move.