By Olakunle Abimbola
Much of the response to Nigeria’s current border closure touch on the tummy. So, it’s little surprise that rumble is well echoed in impassioned belly analyses.
Yet, what is called for is clinical thinking, with clear eyes on the strategic plane.
The border closure is not sustainable — beyond the short run.
But neither, even in the very short run, should the vicious but unprovoked economic hostility towards Nigeria, by these subversive neighbours.
On this score, Benin Republic has, for too long, proved a hung-ho enemy; and Nigeria, for too long, has been meek and long-suffering. The time for turning the other cheek is over.
Of course — and is anyone surprised? — from within Nigeria, partisan bile has weighed in, on the anti-closure front.
On the closure, the political opposition and their media confederates have drawn a line in the sand; and fled the policy plain to spew personal abuses, expletives and even curses.
It would appear the perfect blackmail mix, at least to the obtuse and excitable — rumbling tummies keying into “hunger”, to harvest cheap partisan points! Rice o compatriots! It’s free-wheeling thunder and anger, as price of rice shoots through the roof!
Yet, it’s nothing but sweet mischief. Economic survival is nowhere to play cheap belly politics.
Even then, each passing day, the likes of Benin, Niger Republic and Cameroon, seem to realize the huge cost of sabotaging the Nigerian economy; and undermining the general welfare of the majority of Nigerians, who have done these economic adversaries no harm. The not-so-involved Ghana is also caught in the warp.
But of course, without in-house Judases — Nigerian smugglers that trade with these foreign parasites — that illegal market ring won’t be there.
So, it’s quite an interesting scenario: in-house Judases bad-mouth the closure within; their confederates-in-trade-crime buffet it without, with an eye for international blackmail, to pressure Nigeria, to continue undermining itself. Why, there even appears a muted ECOWAS institutional blackmail, not to see things in Nigeria’s way!
In other words, slay it with “hunger” within; buffet it with “trade” without! Nice try but fond hope — at least, so far! What Nigeria cannot afford is succumb to this blackmail.
What did the bible say about love? Love your neighbour as yourself; not love your neighbour more than yourself. In any case, to love or to hate, you first must stay alive.
Nigerian neighbouring leeches have for too long played the reckless parasite, eyes jammed in sheer delirium, sucking away in sweet comfort. It never occurred to them that should the host die, the leech perishes with it — such self-eradication greed!
If Nigeria therefore rallies not to be sucked to death, it is as much grim redemption for the host, as it is painful wake-up call for the leech. A new, mutually beneficial trade engagement could be win-win for everyone.
Still, should there persist a trace of parasitism, at least the parasite is now much smarter to keep its host alive, vibrant and healthy! In that common sense, lies its own self-preservation.
That about sums up the IMF’s take on the matter: inasmuch as trade is good for the international economy, illegal trade, fired by wanton smuggling, is ruin for all. Still, it wished all the parties would dialogue, iron out the issues and settle the dispute.
Conventional wisdom would have wagered IMF would wax poetic on “trade” and pummel Nigeria for blocking it; so much so when Nigeria just signed the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) protocol.
It was tactical support from the most unexpected of quarters. Still, the key word is “tactical”. On the strategic plane, the IMF would much sooner go back to its gospel of trade, no matter what.
For now, however, the IMF’s take would appear a logical response. Still, no country can sustain a closed border for too long. So, dialogue is it: so all sides can come to party in licit trade.
What then are the core issues, beyond sentiments and emotive grandstanding?
First: food and energy security. On both fronts, Benin has proved reckless and insanely unabashed, in economic hostility.
Nigeria, since 2015, has made a forceful push for food security. Audu Ogbeh, former Agriculture minister, had pushed the new government’s credo of “grow what you eat and eat what you grow” with rare passion. That had produced near-revolutionary results in local rice cultivation (for local consumption) and tuber exportation (for forex, from local excess).
But all Benin has done — its economy being driven by large-scale smuggling into Nigeria, after collecting port duties on rogue imports — is frustrate Nigeria every point of the way.
If rice paints the picture of rotten imports, petroleum products paint the picture of rotten exports. Again, Benin makes hay with petrol and diesel smuggled from Nigeria, so much so that it sits pretty retailing fuel smuggled from Nigeria in peculiar bottles, while the pumps in its fuel stations stay proudly dry. That appeared the most thriving household sales.
Talk of the leech sucking its host to death!
Yeah, Benin deserves all the conking it has earned, to reset its brain, to be less parasitic and be less subversive, to Nigeria’s legitimate trade interests.
Also note: rice and petrol are only twin-metaphors for Benin’s trade crimes against Nigeria. It cuts across many sectors: tyres, automobile, poultry, etc — and even illegal small arms, that have devastating crime and security implications.And yes: the likes of Niger, Chad and Cameroon also savour the illicit gravy, at Nigeria’s expense.
Still, as in the case of Ghana, many involved in legit trade are also caught in this bind. That has led a Ghana trade group to, in anger, call for the boycott of Nigerian goods.
Honest Ghana traders have a right to their ire. But their patriotic anger hardly considers Nigeria’s own bind. Without that, the problem won’t be solved. So, it would pay both sides to be less emotive and be more logical.
Even in Benin, a booming export of vegetables to Nigeria — tomato, lettuce, carrot, etc — is in jeopardy. A sickening picture of these farm produce, perishing by a roadside farm, in Benin’s Grand Popo area, is well and truly sickening.
To stop this bleeding, dialogue is the key. Nigeria must extract tough and firm commitments from Benin and allied saboteurs, now that it is clear the opportunity cost of building their economies on illicit trade is hefty and nasty.
After that, Nigeria must deploy technology to clip the wings of corrupt state troopers that operate at the border. Besides, Nigeria must make stern scapegoats of as many smugglers and colluding Customs troopers as are caught.
After all that, the next logical step is to reopen the border. Though the closure is not sustainable, illicit trade, that mushrooms poverty and kills Nigeria’s dream, is absolutely unacceptable.
After this shock therapy, it shouldn’t be too difficult to navigate a mutually beneficial trade course that makes Nigeria and its neighbours happy.
Leave a Reply