WILL NIGERIA’S BORDERS BE OPENED IN JANUARY 2020?

A cartoon impression of President Muhammadu Buhari at the border. 

When the Nigerian government declared late this year that it wants to close the land borders against the importation of certain staple foods and other products, the whole country when agog with cries of protest. Different organizations and individuals screamed and shouted against the policy yet the government went ahead and sealed the borders against the importation of such goods. The major opposition party in Nigeria (PDP) was spitting venom and calling on international communities to come to the aid and rescue of average Nigerians that were about to be starved to death.

I also expressed the same opinion. Closing the Nigerian borders is a positive step in the right direction but the timing is very WRONG. China once did the same. The people of China paid the price with their blood and the blood of their relatives. Millions of Chinese reportedly died from hunger and diseases. But today, China owes most of its developments and technological advancement to that unilateral decision. China paid a very costly price for that decision.

Despite all the protests and opinions, this government went ahead and closed the land borders against the importation of the goods listed then. Immediately the borders were closed, the little imported rice that remains in circulation quickly went into hiding. People began to hoard them and a rubber of rice price was almost competing with the price of gold. People abandoned rice and began eating alternatives like beans, yam and other locally produced foods.

Immediately, young and visionary entrepreneurs began to invest heavily in the production of rice and livestock. Many of these people borrowed money from different commercial institutions to plant rice so that in a few months’ time, they will begin harvesting and selling the rice to the people. This will eventually reduce the price of the commodity.

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In the meantime, the dirty and unpalatable local rice began reigning. Of course, our rich and affluent elites don’t eat this from this grub, but an average Nigerian who could not afford to pay exorbitant price for the little available imported rice has no choice than to embrace the available local rice. The truth is, even the local rice is a novelty to many families despite the fact that one quarter of rubber of local rice contains stones and other useless natural resources. Nigerian rice must be washed as many as ten times and even parboiled before it could be consumed. And most often than not, most of this locally made rice have not palatable taste but in a bid to quench hunger, an average Nigeria must eat the rice. A friend of mine said last week “I didn’t eat yesterday evening because the rice that mum cooked was not palatable. I think the soup was wrong for the rice or the rice was wrong for the soup or both of them were wrong for each other”. The guy said and I laughed endlessly.

Few weeks after the borders were closed, Nigerians began getting used to the fact that imported rice is gone and it’s not coming back into the country, therefore, we accepted our fate. The smart ones among us are already farming, planting rice in order to be able to meet the people’s needs for Christmas and the New Year. Everyone became hopeful and quite happy and ready to endure a few months of hunger for a promising abundance. For the first time in a very long time, Nigerian government had taken a decision that will eventually benefit majority of the people.

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Suddenly, the same government came out to announce that it may abolish the border closure policy!

Reasons for this are sketchy but part of the things I could garner from this is that the neighboring countries like Benin Republic and Ivory Coast are calling on Nigerian government to reopen its borders so that they could be able to sell their goods to us. What an insult on our intelligence!

 Opening the border is not in the best interest of Nigeria, so why should we keep it open to under-develop our economy in order to develop theirs? I was expecting the Nigerian government to laugh in their faces and tell them to go to hell (please pardon me for using that word) but Nigerian government too came back to tell us that it may be reopened “in order not to offend our nosy neighbours”.

These are some of the negative effects that the reopening of the borders will have on Nigeria:

1. Nigerians will once again heavily depend on imported goods at the determent of the locally made goods.
2. Our economy will retrogress further.
3. Naira value in the world market will further depreciate.
4. Farmers who have heavily invested in the production of local rice will eventually run at inestimable loss and this will lead to mass unemployment.
5. Insecurity and terrorism may increase and  so on.

In conclusion, reopening the borders is not in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. It would be the greatest mistake of this administration if after failing to listen to the people’s cry not close it in the first place, they suddenly reopen it. This shows leadership without principle and discipline. Let the borders remain close, let the young and visionary farmers start making money from their sweat and with time, Nigerians would get used to it and rice, like other commodities would no longer be one of the food s that this country would be importing from other country.

 It is high time we started thinking of being a producing nation instead of a consuming nation. If we keep importing everything, we will keep getting poorer. Instead, we should start producing things- simple things at first and bigger things with time- to make life easier for all the citizens of this country.

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