21102019 - BORDER CLOSURE:‘How neighbouring countries worked against Nigeria’

Sense and nonsense: Thesis
on governance in Nigeria
A
trite is that there is nothing
new under the sun. However,
governance in Nigeria demonstrates
that a lot of things can be
new under the sun. For instance,
there were widespread announcements
mainly in the
ubiquitous social media that 77-
year-old President Muhammadu
Buhari was getting married to a
newly appointed minister. I am
sure we all knew it was a joke
because it is no joke running a
complex country like Nigeria. So,
adding another woman to a matrimonial
home with a strong matriarch
can be quite combustible.
As I wondered if there are people
who can beat these Nigerian
fakers, a video surfaced of a lady
purported to be the wife of
President Buhari and First Lady
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Mrs. Aisha Buhari, shouting
and creating a scene allegedly in
the Presidential Villa. I laughed
heartily at such imaginative video
following on the steps of the
fake wedding. But I was shocked
when this proved authentic. It confirms
my thesis that there are
new things under the sun, at least
in Nigeria.
I felt quite sad that a lady,
claiming to be Fatimah Daura,
would release a video that presents
the First Lady of a country
90
in unflattering light and claim to
be justified. In the process, Fatimah
unwittingly, portrayed her
family as homeless and must be
accommodated as if the Presidential
Villa is an internally displaced
peoples camp.
My thesis is that domestic policy
feeds foreign policy; that the
domestic situation in the Presidential
Villa could prevent the
President from running a clearheaded
foreign policy as being
reflected in the current closure of
our land borders.
Thirty five years ago, then
General Muhammadu Buhari as
Military Head of State, in January
and April 1984, shut our
land borders with Benin Republic.
During the closure, I visited a
friend teaching not far from the
border. A mutual friend ordered
for drinks to welcome me. At a
point I noted that the drinks were
taking too long. The latter apologised
and said it was taking that
long because it was cheaper in
Benin Republic. Astonished, I
asked if he sent for the drinks from
the neigbouring country. He affirmed
he did. I asked how it
was possible when our borders
were shut. He laughed heartily
and asked rhetorically: “Which
borders?” He said if I want, he
could help me wheel a three-storey
building across the shut border.
I recall that statement in realisation
of the fact that as at today,
we have over 1,000 illegal crossing
routes on our borders, not
counting those with homes and
property straddling our country
and neigbouring countries. If
such a move, 35 years ago, did not
yield positive results, why do we
think repeating it now will? Of
course there are those who claim
the closure is effective as there are
over 1,000 trucks lined up on the
Benin Republic border waiting to
cross into Nigeria. I do not understand
the logic: these are
trucks intending to pass through
the official Seme, Owode and Idiroko
crossing points and are
ECOWAS says the
total trade of the
region averages
$208.1 billion with
Nigeria accounting
for 76 percent of total
trade, followed by
Ghana with 9.2 percent
and Côte
d’Ivoire, 8.64
percent; so, in closing
the borders,
Nigerians are the net
losers
Lagos, the rains and road infrastructure
BY ADESEGUN OGUNDEJI
OF late in Lagos, the rains have
been torrential with attendant
effects on the state of the roads,
resulting in traffic gridlocks. The roads
under construction are worse hit, as
they are heavily flooded. Understandably,
the ever mobile Lagosians are not
pleased with the mostly rain-induced
traffic situation.
When flash flooding occurs, one of
the negative effects is that it washes
away the surface of the roads, thereby
making them almost impassable. This
often results in avoidable gridlocks that
make commuting a dreadful experience.
Flash flooding, which is mostly
a consequence of the peculiar topography
of Lagos, is, therefore, one of
the factors responsible for frequent
damages of roads in the state.
Fortunately, the state governor, Mr.
Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, has responded
by directing that palliative
measures should be carried out to alleviate
the sufferings of the people. In
the event, over 150 failed portions of
roads across the state have been
worked upon. But then, the torrential
rains won’t let the respite last.
It was on account of this, that the
Governor has promised mass rehabilitation
of roads immediately after the
rainy season. He pleaded for time to
ensure that the intervention would
stand the test of time, as not much
could be achieved while the rains still
persist.
Towards this end, two critical agencies
of the state government, the Ministry
of Works and Infrastructure as well
as the Lagos State Public Works Corporation,
have been working round the
clock to make real the pronouncement
of the governor.
It will be recalled that in order to underscore
the importance of free flow of
traffic on the socio-economic development
of the state, the Sanwo-Olu administration
made traffic management
and transportation the first pillar of its
development agenda termed
“THEMES”.
Thus, one of the earliest tasks of the
Governor was to issue the very first
Executive Order on Indiscriminate
Refuse Dumping, Traffic Management
and Public Works. This is quite
germane to the issue at hand. Granted
that the government has the
responsibility to ensure that the roads
are motorable round the year, the people
also owe responsibility of taking
ownership of public infrastructure in
their domain. This will ensure that
development is extended to all parts
of the state, since less is spent on
avoidable repairs.
Therefore, the appropriate question
to ask is: After government has
achieved the rehabilitation of bad portions
of the roads, what next? Are we
going to take deliberate measures as
a people and government to say never
again shall we leave our roads to this
level of deterioration? That, indeed, is
the crux of the matter.
By topography, Lagos State has a
very high water level, as the Ogun
River and its estuaries empty into the
Lagos Lagoon to further increase the
volume of water the smallest state in
the country could cope with.
The state’s largely swampy parcel of
land makes road construction and rehabilitation
a little more challenging
and costly. The ever-increasing population
of the State leads to increasing
demand for property development for
residential and commercial purposes.
Many of such developments are on
poorly reclaimed wetlands.
Presently, new communities are
Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2019 — 31
therefore ready to declare their
goods and pay Customs. They are
not those intending to go through
the illegal crossings. Simple logic
dictates that what we need to
do is not deny them entry, but
screen them, confiscate banned or
illegal goods and impose appropriate
charges on the rest.
If the economies of our neigbours
are so dependent on Nigeria,
does it make sense to shut our
borders against them rather than
take advantage of their dependency?
The Comptroller-General of
Customs, Col Hameed Ali (rtd)
who heads a revenue collecting
agency, holds himself out as the
leader of what is essentially a security
operation at our borders
and who acts as if in a Nollywood
film, justified the myopic policy
on the basis that Customs has
been making more money since
the closure began on August 21.
However, common sense dictates
that Nigerians cannot but be
the net losers in this badly scripted
drama. The Economic Community
of West African States,
ECOWAS, says the total trade of
the region averages $208.1 billion
with Nigeria accounting for 76
percent of total trade, followed by
Ghana with 9.2 percent and Côte
d’Ivoire, 8.64 percent. So, in
closing the borders, Nigerians are
the net losers.
Colonel Ali says: “We are
strategising on how best the goods
can be handled when we eventually
get to the point where this
operation will relax for the influx
of goods.” The question is: do you
think first before closing the borders,
or you first close the borders
then start thinking or “strategising”
on what should be done?
Our leaders claim the borders
were closed because of smuggling.
How can we rely on our neigbours
to check smuggling into our country?
Why would they deploy their
resources, including immigration
and security, to check smuggling
into Nigeria when that is our primary
responsibility?
If we claim our petroleum products
are smuggled to neigbouring
countries where they are sold at
far higher prices, does common
sense not dictate that we take advantage
of such a situation by running
fuel stations in such coun-
springing up across the state, especially
in Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry corridors
where land is still available. The
implication of this is that, instead of
infrastructure development coming
before properties are built, infrastructure
come after communities have
been founded mostly with little or no
regards for physical and urban development
plans of the state.
Thus, as pressure mounts on government
to provide infrastructure in the
new communities, the ones in existing
communities are subjected to
abuse, resulting in quick deterioration
The notion that storm
water will wash away refuse
is wrong and misplaced;
irrespective of the velocity
of the flood, it will not
carry the refuse farther than
the downstream
of such facilities and the need to re-fix
them. This is the bane of the Lagos
road infrastructure.
We must, therefore, make concerted
efforts to educate and enlighten our
people on the dangers of turning the
drainage channels into receptacles of
refuse. For instance, the notion that
the storm water will wash away refuse
is wrong and misplaced. Irrespective
of the velocity of the flood, it will not
carry the refuse farther than the downstream.
The moment the drainage channel is
silted or clogged anywhere and inhibits
the free flow of water, it stays on
the roads for unnecessarily long time
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tries?
If we claim arms are being
smuggled in, why don’t we use the
scanning machines installed in a
place like Seme rather than
searching vehicles manually and
causing unnecessary delays?
As for drug smuggling, a sure
way of detecting them all over the
world, is the use of canines. But
has any Nigerian seen our National
Drug Law Enforcement
Agency, NDLEA using canines
whether at our airports, borders
or seaports? Even on the road, all
you see are NDLEA operatives
fretting with guns and manually
checking vehicles. Is there something
wrong with our decision
makers?
As for rice smuggling, if it is
true that we are self-sufficient in
rice production, why have our
local farmers not used this opportunity
to flood the markets?
The fact that with the closure, the
average price of a bag of rice has
increased from N15,000 to
N24,000 is an indication of the
difference between reality and the
propaganda that we are self-sufficient
in rice production.
It is sad that we are endangering
the people-to-people relationship
that has existed from precolonial
times; that we are rubbishing
the ECOWAS protocols
on free trade and endangering
the regional and continental
economic integration our forefathers
fought so hard for. We
should not assume that our brothers
and sisters in the region are
incapable of retaliating. Even if
they do not shut their borders,
they can restrict our goods or traders
as Ghana has tried to do for
six years now.
If we want good neigbourliness,
let us start by treating fellow Africans
with respect not behave
like bullies. Let us put on our
thinking caps
and affects the pavement of the road.
In essence, our indiscriminate waste
disposal is a major threat to the
lifespan of roads. The quest for land
has also led many to compromise
drainage channels and canal bank
ways, thus making drainage cleaning
difficult.
Also worthy of mention is alleged
destruction of the roads by in-traffichawkers
to slow down traffic to enable
them ply their trade. It has been severally
alleged that some hawkers dig
the pavement of the roads at night.
Roads rehabilitated during the dry
season have been found to develop
craters overnight without any rainfall.
This act of sabotage is part of the heavy
price we all are paying with dire consequences
for time and health management.
One only hopes that appropriate security
agencies will be on the look out
to deal with such unlawful acts and
bring the perpetrators to book. Evil triumph
when evil doers are not brought
to justice.
Indiscriminate parking of vehicles on
our roads is another threat to the
lifespan of the roads because apart
from inhibiting free flow of storm water
into the drains, the portions of pavement
that fall under the vehicles take
time to dry, thereby weakening the
asphalt.
Therefore, it has become obvious that
we owe ourselves the responsibility of
helping the government to make life
easier for us by playing our parts in
the management of public infrastructure
and utilities. For now, one hopes
that the rains subside early enough for
comprehensive road repair works to
commence. But then, we all need to
work assiduously towards preserving
public infrastructure across the state.
*Ogundeji is Deputy Director, Public
Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of
Works & Infrastructure
C
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