₦airaland Forum

kahal29:
Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has told Nigeria’s west coast neighbour, Benin Republic, to mend its ways for a harmonious bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Obasanjo gave the charge during a news briefing on the margins of Policy Dialogue of African Business Associations on Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreements in Addis Ababa, yesterday.

He explained that Benin’s notoriety was not new, as Nigeria had for long been enduring the practice which undermined its economic well being.

“It happened when I was president of Nigeria. I called the then Benin President, Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, to let us meet at any of our border posts over the issue.

“We eventually met at Badagry (in Nigeria), where we agreed that Nigerian Customs would be stationed in Benin.

“They (the Nigerian Customs) are still there. We don’t have issues with goods manufactured in Benin; they are welcome.

“But as long as Benin allow dumping of goods, there will always be problem with Nigeria,” Obasanjo said.

He noted that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was not created to allow one country to turn itself to a dumping ground.

The two-day policy dialogue was co-organised by the African Union (AU) African Development Bank (AfDB), African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), the AfroChampion Initiative and the Coalition of Dialogue Africa (CoDA).

On AfCFTA, Obasanjo, who is the Chair of the CoDA Board of Directors, said the execution of the agreements was crucial to its success and sustainability.

“The intense support AfCFTA has received from various member states is a clear indication of its importance.

“CoDA is highly engaged to seeking success of AfCFTA and other multilateral agreements. CoDA work is informed and guided by the notion that no one has monopoly of ideas,” he said.

He urged for more actions, beyond words, adding that with fragmented 55 markets, Africa would remain small player in global market place.

In his welcome address, AU Commissioner, Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Albert Muranga, called for a change of attitude on the continent if the goals of AfCFTA was to be attained.

“A new mindset is necessary. One country should not be going west and the other going east. All of us should be going in one direction.

“For AfCFTA and our dreams of African integration to meet with success, it requires cooperation from all stakeholders,” he said.

Muranga also restated the fears as espoused by members of the organised private sector on the dangers ahead of AfCFTA, assuring that such fears also enjoy the attention of the framers of the AfCFTA initiaive.

According to him, such fears include stability, predictability, fairness, corruption and enabling environment.

Other participants included the Co-chair of the Executive Committee, AfroChampion Initiative, Dr Edem Adzogenu, and Chief Economist/Director, Research and International Cooperation, AFREXIMBANK, Dr Hippolyte Fofack.


https://www.sunnewsonline.com/border-closure-benin-must-mend-its-ways-with-nigeria-says-obasanjo/

bigtt76:
I don't understand all these Bénin this Bénin that.... Bénin are not that rich enough to just import goods and export to Nigeria to make money? Rather we the Nigerians are the ones using Bénin as the launchpad to import and send to Nigeria. The reason is simple faster ort clearing, improve on this and see if anyone would use Bénin ports again. I taya sef

adecz:




Since Buhari govt talk say dem
wan investigate the $$15bn spent
on power by Obj govt, e be like say
Baba Iyabo dey fear to criticize
the government..

in fact, Obj has stopped writing letters.with all due respect to your view of this ,magic is not capable of thinking to near obj let alone persecuting him trust me my brother obj and some few people are untouchable to magu or anybody at it in efcc not even bihari ,magu has not even gain admission when obasanjo started his carrier






The fear of Magu & EFCC is the
beginning of sense!!


After his prison experience during
Abacha regime, Baba no wan risk going
back again!!

anonimi:
What was the result of the closure back then
Increased farming and manufacturing in Nigeria or what did he achieve?

Okoroawusa:
Benin government handed over a notorious car snatcher n armed robber to Nigeria n the idiot died in Nigerian prison after languishing in our prison for many years...

I bet you were a toddler in 2003

bigtt76:
I don't understand all these Bénin this Bénin that.... Bénin are not that rich enough to just import goods and export to Nigeria to make money? Rather we the Nigerians are the ones using Bénin as the launchpad to import and send to Nigeria. The reason is simple faster ort clearing, improve on this and see if anyone would use Bénin ports again. I taya sef

kahal29:
Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has told Nigeria’s west coast neighbour, Benin Republic, to mend its ways for a harmonious bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Obasanjo gave the charge during a news briefing on the margins of Policy Dialogue of African Business Associations on Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreements in Addis Ababa, yesterday.

He explained that Benin’s notoriety was not new, as Nigeria had for long been enduring the practice which undermined its economic well being.

“It happened when I was president of Nigeria. I called the then Benin President, Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, to let us meet at any of our border posts over the issue.

“We eventually met at Badagry (in Nigeria), where we agreed that Nigerian Customs would be stationed in Benin.

“They (the Nigerian Customs) are still there. We don’t have issues with goods manufactured in Benin; they are welcome.

“But as long as Benin allow dumping of goods, there will always be problem with Nigeria,” Obasanjo said.

He noted that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was not created to allow one country to turn itself to a dumping ground.

The two-day policy dialogue was co-organised by the African Union (AU) African Development Bank (AfDB), African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), the AfroChampion Initiative and the Coalition of Dialogue Africa (CoDA).

On AfCFTA, Obasanjo, who is the Chair of the CoDA Board of Directors, said the execution of the agreements was crucial to its success and sustainability.

“The intense support AfCFTA has received from various member states is a clear indication of its importance.

“CoDA is highly engaged to seeking success of AfCFTA and other multilateral agreements. CoDA work is informed and guided by the notion that no one has monopoly of ideas,” he said.

He urged for more actions, beyond words, adding that with fragmented 55 markets, Africa would remain small player in global market place.

In his welcome address, AU Commissioner, Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Albert Muranga, called for a change of attitude on the continent if the goals of AfCFTA was to be attained.

“A new mindset is necessary. One country should not be going west and the other going east. All of us should be going in one direction.

“For AfCFTA and our dreams of African integration to meet with success, it requires cooperation from all stakeholders,” he said.

Muranga also restated the fears as espoused by members of the organised private sector on the dangers ahead of AfCFTA, assuring that such fears also enjoy the attention of the framers of the AfCFTA initiaive.

According to him, such fears include stability, predictability, fairness, corruption and enabling environment.

Other participants included the Co-chair of the Executive Committee, AfroChampion Initiative, Dr Edem Adzogenu, and Chief Economist/Director, Research and International Cooperation, AFREXIMBANK, Dr Hippolyte Fofack.


https://www.sunnewsonline.com/border-closure-benin-must-mend-its-ways-with-nigeria-says-obasanjo/

Debaiz:
Result?

Dangote cement
Indomie noodles
Flour mills and dangote spaghetti
Chi vita, lacasera, bigi cola etc
Ajanla farms, chi farms and many more
Nigerian fashion industry(locally made cloths by tailors)
Eggs
GP plastics and tanks etc
Made in nigeria shoes
British American tobacco company
Nigerian made beers and alcoholic drinks
Nigerian made vegetable oils
Sugar made in nigeria(recently BUA group just completed and commissioned its $300m sugar factory in Kwara state)

If you were too young when nigeria was importing all those, then you should be asking those who were not rather than speaking on border closure.

seunfly:
100% cement self sufficient, reduction in sugar importation, 90% reduction in pasta importation, reduction in plastic importation, emcouragment of local poultry farmer etc.

You need to understand Obj's border closure had particular product in focus and it was 80% successful otherwise we will still be major cement importer, pasta, sugar, poultry importer by now. This administration also has a focus which is rice, I believe if we stick to it just like Obj's it will be successful like cement.

The most annoying things about Nigerian youth is that they are ready to wail, complain about policy that could benefit them and at the end somebody else or foreigner will finally take advantage of such.

Nigeria youth don't recognize opportunities when they see one especially if it is not free money, white collar's job, fraud, corruption etc, they always want food directly on their table but it is not so all over the world.

naptu2:
This was major reason why Obasanjo closed the border. This guy hired lots of criminal gangs to launch armed robbery raids into Lagos and steal cars which they brought back to Benin. The cars were then stripped, repainted, etc. and then resold to Nigerians.

There was a notorious part of Lagos that witnessed violent armed robberies at the end of every year. That place was quiet during Christmas/New Year 2003 and it was because of that border closure.

Nigerian crime kingpin held

2003-10-19 12:08

Lagos - A suspected head of a cross-border criminal empire detained in Nigeria has been making some startling revelations that could help tackle crimes along Nigeria-Benin border, President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Saturday.

Amani Tidjani, a national of Niger, the alleged mastermind of a smuggling and robbery ring that operates between the two neighbouring countries has been making some "fantastic and unbelievable revelations" about cross-border crimes, Obasanjo said during a live interview on Radio Nigeria in Abuja.

Since the arrest, detention and interrogation of Tidjani, "cases of car-snatching and border crimes have drastically reduced" in Nigeria and along its border with Benin, he said in the interview.

Obasanjo did not give details of Tidjani's "revelations".

But Nigeria's oldest private newspaper, The Nigerian Tribune, reported on its front page on Saturday that the suspected robbery kingpin has implicated a lot of Nigerians and Beninese in his "revelations" during police interrogations.

"Tidjani is making very useful statements. Many people in this country and Benin have been implicated," inspector general of police, Tafa Balogun, told the newspaper.

The interview did not reveal the identities of those implicated by Tidjani.

Benin has returned 100 stolen "exotic" cars stolen from Nigeria, the Nigerian police said Friday in an official statement.

The return of these cars was part of an agreement on cross-border crimes reached at talks last August between Presidents Obasanjo and Mathieu Kerekou.

Tidjani has been at the centre of a recent diplomatic spat between Nigeria and Benin.

He was arrested on September 11 by police in Mali and extradited to Benin from where he was handed over to Nigeria last September 25.

He was arrested in Benin in July but was later released. Infuriated, Nigeria closed the two countries' common border on August 9.

The border was reopened a week later following the meeting between Kerekou and Obasanjo during which the two countries pledged greater co-operation in fighting bandits and smugglers who roam the border area.

https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Nigerian-crime-kingpin-held-20031018

post=84401096:
*They said we are the poverty capital of the world. Our President decided that we should just close our poverty stricken borders to the outside world so that we can manage on our own. Suddenly, scarcity hits Benin republic, Togo, Niger. Demonstration hits Ghana. Vietnam, Thailand and other envoys all came calling.*
*Their economy depends on our poverty. They are begging the most corrupt nation on Earth to do business with them. They have no buyers for their commodity. In our neighbors domain, scarcity have hit them hard.*

It turned out they need us more than we need them. We have all it takes to stand alone as a nation. All we need is a plan and a willing leader.
God bless Nigeria*

��������
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post=84401119:
You are making a lot of sense here sis.

kahal29:
Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has told Nigeria’s west coast neighbour, Benin Republic, to mend its ways for a harmonious bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Obasanjo gave the charge during a news briefing on the margins of Policy Dialogue of African Business Associations on Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreements in Addis Ababa, yesterday.

He explained that Benin’s notoriety was not new, as Nigeria had for long been enduring the practice which undermined its economic well being.

“It happened when I was president of Nigeria. I called the then Benin President, Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, to let us meet at any of our border posts over the issue.

“We eventually met at Badagry (in Nigeria), where we agreed that Nigerian Customs would be stationed in Benin.

“They (the Nigerian Customs) are still there. We don’t have issues with goods manufactured in Benin; they are welcome.

“But as long as Benin allow dumping of goods, there will always be problem with Nigeria,” Obasanjo said.

He noted that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was not created to allow one country to turn itself to a dumping ground.

The two-day policy dialogue was co-organised by the African Union (AU) African Development Bank (AfDB), African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), the AfroChampion Initiative and the Coalition of Dialogue Africa (CoDA).

On AfCFTA, Obasanjo, who is the Chair of the CoDA Board of Directors, said the execution of the agreements was crucial to its success and sustainability.

“The intense support AfCFTA has received from various member states is a clear indication of its importance.

“CoDA is highly engaged to seeking success of AfCFTA and other multilateral agreements. CoDA work is informed and guided by the notion that no one has monopoly of ideas,” he said.

He urged for more actions, beyond words, adding that with fragmented 55 markets, Africa would remain small player in global market place.

In his welcome address, AU Commissioner, Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Albert Muranga, called for a change of attitude on the continent if the goals of AfCFTA was to be attained.

“A new mindset is necessary. One country should not be going west and the other going east. All of us should be going in one direction.

“For AfCFTA and our dreams of African integration to meet with success, it requires cooperation from all stakeholders,” he said.

Muranga also restated the fears as espoused by members of the organised private sector on the dangers ahead of AfCFTA, assuring that such fears also enjoy the attention of the framers of the AfCFTA initiaive.

According to him, such fears include stability, predictability, fairness, corruption and enabling environment.

Other participants included the Co-chair of the Executive Committee, AfroChampion Initiative, Dr Edem Adzogenu, and Chief Economist/Director, Research and International Cooperation, AFREXIMBANK, Dr Hippolyte Fofack.


https://www.sunnewsonline.com/border-closure-benin-must-mend-its-ways-with-nigeria-says-obasanjo/

SamuelAnyawu:
Close that Border till 2050. My Taraba brothers don dey cashout

Luiz1:
How come d finished building has palm trees behind it and the construction didn't.

AsomArchitectNG:
Lol.. bro the one with palm trees on it is the "3D computer work" while the other one is the on-going construction

anonimi:
Both of you formed knowledgeable when you in fact did not know anything.
Nothing. Zero.

anonimi:
What was the result of the closure back then
Increased farming and manufacturing in Nigeria or what did he achieve?

naptu2:
This was major reason why Obasanjo closed the border. This guy hired lots of criminal gangs to launch armed robbery raids into Lagos and steal cars which they brought back to Benin. The cars were then stripped, repainted, etc. and then resold to Nigerians.

There was a notorious part of Lagos that witnessed violent armed robberies at the end of every year. That place was quiet during Christmas/New Year 2003 and it was because of that border closure.




https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Nigerian-crime-kingpin-held-20031018

Luiz1:
O boy See how e come real like say na picture o.

Slawormir:
Damnnnnn niggarrr

Damnnnnn

I don't do politics

But i like this man for that border closure

I love him for treasury single account( although Jonathan's idea)

And integrated payroll system( also Jonathan's idea)
But as a real niggarrr i understand government is a continuum

Which means buhari is a real niggarrr

Common Nigerians. Lets show these Africa nations that we are the real niggarrrs especially our noisy neighbor called Ghana.
Whether ASUU like it or not they will key into Ipps

Uniben wants to be a real niggarrr. They are about to join Ipps if not no salary for them in December

Okoroawusa:
Have you been to Benin Republic?...there are billionaire beninoise who are importers coupled with Indians n Lebanese... Nigerians there are merely traders

Thegoodone13:
Every body know that border closure is good things.

post=84401119:
You are making a lot of sense here sis.

bigtt76:
I mean ...its a simpu sturv

Same thing with tax payments in Nigeria, make it easy for people to self assess themselves online, pay online and generate their tax clearance certificate online but no ....they must come to your office and you to theirs to pay and struggle to collect tax clearance certificate ....why won't people shun paying

RichDad1:
And they’re not bold enough to commend the FG ?

naptu2:
He also closed the border when he was president.

http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/45407/nigeriabenin-border-closed-curb-banditry-and-smuggling

naptu2:
Another major reason for the closure of the border was smuggling and the unethical practices of the Beninoise.

Convoys of tankers laden with petroleum products were often smuggled across the border at that time. Many Asian countries and companies avoided paying import tax in Nigeria by exporting their product to Benin and Togo and repackaging them as if they were made in those countries. Benin and Togo are Ecowas countries and therefore, goods from those countries do not attract import tax. Furthermore, lots of cars, including Amani Tidjani's cars, were often smuggled into Nigeria.


President Obasanjo closed the border and President Kereku quickly rushed to Abuja to find a way to reopen the border. President Obasanjo gave him his conditions:

1) The arrest and extradition of Amani Tidjani (Tafa Balogun had sent detectives into Benin to find out who was stealing cars from Nigeria and smuggling them back to Nigeria. They identified Amani Tidjani as the brains behind the operation).

2) The creation of a joint border force to tackle smuggling.

3) Goods imported into Benin should not be unsealed and repackaged.


Presidents Obasanjo and Kereku later met at Seme Border to inaugurate the joint border force, The force was commanded by former world champion athlete, Sunday Bada.


Benin and Togo have always been a problem for Nigeria. Their economies rely on the transhipment of goods to Nigeria and they protect that business aggressively. Whenever Nigeria reduces its port charges, Togo and Benin will immediately reduce their to match the reduction in Nigeria.

Sanchez01:
Expect Ghana to lock another 5,000 shops tomorrow and cry more than the bereaved

Durchmann:
Very explicit.


Bigtt76 , the highlighted is actually for you.

I wanted to respond to your suggestion on reformed port operations but Naptu2 did it faster. Here lies the reason why we have serial border closures from time to time.

Luiz1:
How come d finished building has palm trees behind it and the construction didn't.