Senator were on Wednesday divided over the closure of Nigeria’s borders by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The division among the senators started after Senator Adamu Ailero presented a motion entitled: “The impact of border closure on the Nigerian economy.”
Aliero said the closure of borders have significantly reduced the consumption of fuel in the country daily.
According to him: “Fuel smuggling has significantly reduced, thereby saving the country billions of scarce foreign exchange spent by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to import fuel into Nigeria.
But Senators across party lines kicked the motion, particularly Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who said that some students schooling in Ghana are not able to go to schools because of closure of borders by the Federal Government.
Amosun added that some peasant farmers in border towns cannot take their goods to anywhere because of the border closure.
Also kicking against the border closure, Senator Gabriel Suswan said it will not solve the problem of smuggling, adding that some areas in the border are not manned by anybody.
Suswan advised the Federal Government to engage the countries that share borders with Nigeria to find lasting solution to smuggling.
In addition, Senator Abba Moro, who was former Minister of Interior, revealed that there are illegal 1,097 routes to Nigeria, adding that the borders are only closed to those who are doing legitimate business.
However, Senators such as Sam Egwu, Chukwuka Utazi and Adeola Olamilekan supported the Federal Government’s decision yo close the borders.
After exhaustive deliberation, the Senate commended the recent decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to temporarily close all land borders to address smuggling and its impact on the Nigerian economy.
The Senate urged the Nigerian Customs Service and other security services to intensify the curbing of smuggling across the borders, and assured them of the upper chamber’s support in their onerous task of ridding Nigeria of smuggled goods and services.
