On our porous borders

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, while briefing the media on the activities of his ministry last week, remarked that many of Nigeria’s borders are artificial and thus difficult to manage.

“Let me be clear and remind us of the fact that our boundaries are artificial.

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“I know of a particular village in Ogun where the boundary between Nigeria and Benin Republic cuts the palace of the traditional ruler of that town into two.’’

Mr. Aregbesola further remarked that in this regard, there was nothing known to law that prevents cross border movements in a situation where some communities are located in two different countries.

The minister was responding to reports of infiltration into the country by armed herders and bandits from neighbouring countries as well as the activities of smugglers despite the closure of the borders before and in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

In coping with these challenges, the minister stated that his ministry had ramped up its border management efforts through a variety of measures.

These range from engaging stakeholders in the border communities to identify potentially dangerous undesirable aliens breaching our borders, to the deployment of technical surveillance devices in our air, land and sea borders.

The main thrust in this direction is the activation of 14 forward operating bases located at strategic positions in identified land border areas and the development of an e-land border management surveillance system, which enables the close monitoring of activities at the border from Abuja.

While lauding the ministry of interior on these robust steps taken to improve the management of our borders, we however find Mr. Aregbesola’s remarks about the difficulty in managing our borders curious.

More curious is his statement that because the borders were artificially created, which resulted in some communities located in two different countries, nothing could be done to regulate cross border movements.

This statement by implication means that despite all the best efforts of the ministry as enunciated above in tackling the challenges at our borders, we will have little choice as a country but to continue to live with the negative effects of our border situation.

We agree with the minister that nothing prevents cross border movements between communities located in two different countries.

This is common all over Africa being the result and unfortunate legacy of the arbitrary partition of African communities by colonising European powers.

At a certain level in the spirit of African brotherhood and unity we should not exacerbate the pains felt by people of the same heritage who found themselves forcibly separated as a result of the competing interests of foreign powers.

All along Nigeria’s land borders, this is indeed the case.

But where such cross border movements constitute a danger to both countries, then it is imperative that some efforts be made to review the situation.

Today, it is no news that Nigeria has been facing existential internal security challenges as well as economic sabotage all emanating from our porous borders.

In this regard, Nigeria cannot afford to sacrifice its well-being on the altar of sentimental considerations of shared heritage with communities on the other side of our borders.

Having come this far in our journey as a nation, we must begin to find ways by which we can secure our borders and prevent the kind of infiltration that has constituted serious internal security problems while maintaining the time honoured historical and cultural links that the minister refers to.

We therefore, commend the steps taken by the ministry to robustly engage stakeholders in the communities on our side of the border on the issue of complementing government efforts on surveillance and vigilance.

We further recommend that such engagements be ramped up with governments of neighbouring countries as well as existing regional institutions tasked with handling border issues.

Going forward, what is needed out of this dialogue is a well-defined protocol that takes into consideration all the issues regarding cross border cultural links, trade and joint security.