Land Borders Closure: Senator Commends President Buhari for not Bowing to Pressure

Chairman of Senate committee on Agriculture Adamu Abdullahi has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for not bowing to pressures from any angle to open the land border.

Commending President Buhari stance on the border closure while speaking on Wednesday, Senator representing Nasarawa West senatorial district Senator Adamu Abdullahi urged President Buhari to ignore all forms of pressure to open the nation’s land border for now

Abdullahi who is also the Chairman of Senate committee on Agriculture further commended President Buhari for standing despite challenges of insecurity, failing economy and corruption menace in the country adding that the border closure is indeed curing many ills afflicting the nation.

Alleging that opposition to border closure were coming from two main quarters, Abudllahi identified pressure from the neighbouring nations and thunderous noises from the smugglers and profiteers of the border closure as the two major parties crying for reopening of the borders.

He said Nigeria has to first think of her survival before considering the impact of the closure on neighbours as the nation must lay the foundation for its growth to prop her industrialists to reason and grow.

Recommending that the border closure continues until the time when the unbridled appetite for foreign consumption is brought to perpetual control, Abdullahi added that Nigerians must be made to emulate other countries’ nationals consuming what they produce.

He said ‘’Our neigbouring countries have become gateways and transit route for all manners of commodities ranging from automobiles to foodstuffs such as rice, corns, sorghum, palm oil, tomatoes, eggs and dairy products. Republic of Benin became one of the world’s top importers of rice because of its Nigerian market. Almost all of the rice it imported from Thailand, Indonesia etc found its way to Nigeria through the Seme border.

‘’We therefore stand with this government shoulder to shoulder in support of this policy for border closure, and we are urging further that the border closure should continue. We have a duty to protect our own, if you don’t want to eat Nigerian grown rice, that’s your own problem.

Abdullahi who advised that the government should ensure that the borders remain closed until neighbouring countries comply with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocols on transit of goods, pointed that the nation cannot allow economy of other nations to flourish or thrive at the expense of its own.

He warned that “if we don’t do that we are going to be in deep problem. By the time we begin to operate the African Continental Free Trade, Nigeria will be a dumping ground for every product from African countries”.