This motive behind this controversial decision has always been evil, vindictive, senseless and reeks of poor judgment.
The day buhari unilaterally woke up one day and shut down all land borders into Nigeria. That singular action created a roller-coaster of unfortunate events, for citizens and economy both in Nigeria and outside.
Nigerians in Ghana were victimized over that, their shops and businesses locked up and still are, in a seeming gesture of reciprocacy dealt them by the Ghanaian authorities. Jobs were lost and people were thrown into more poverty, especially border communities. There were conspiracy theories, of business going on as usual at Northern Nigerian borders, whilst that of the south was vigorously enforced and patrolled.
Lives have been lost to this, both civilian and officers, Idikoro being the major epicenter of such unfortunate events, when unruly overzealous custom officers go shooting at people with claims of fighting “rice smugglers”. Till date, I wonder when rice became weapons of mass destruction, to be fought with deadly force even without conscience and regards for collateral damage and adherence to the rules of engagement. Pitiable!
During this border black out, buhari and his retinue of media aides, have inundated us with how rice production has increased in Nigeria(audio of course)- even showed us a rice pyramid (I still wonder the rationale behind it), when a 50kg bag of rice costs more than the minimum wage. Conveniently anchoring on rice, totally leaving other products and services that came with functional borders.
Then yesterday, news filtered in of buhari, approving re-opening of these shut down land borders. So I wonder what changed? Was it worth it? Over a thoughtless whim, he shut down the lives of people in a whole sector, lives and properties damaged, loans acquired for business lost, sundry linked industries suffered terribly and now he just wakes up and says he’s satisfied?
Perhaps I’m too critical of the man and will never see his less of the disaster he is, hence I’m bringing it out to this forum… What did the border closure do for us the Nigerian people and economy?
Please don’t tell me about rice production and sufficiency, because that’s a white lie. It’s been proven we still import rice, and there’s no way we would have attained sufficiency in rice consumption, when a bag of rice costs same as our minimum wage. Thanks
