THERE are growing concerns that several states in Nigeria bordering the Republic of Niger are at a high risk of hunger due to distortions in regional trade and border businesses.
The Senator Representing Kebbi Central Senatorial District, Adamu Aliero, who raised this concern, argued that “there is no sense in ECOWAS’ trade ban of Nigeria-Niger border, communities are hungry.”
He spoke on Tuesday, January 16, on the ‘Arise Morning Show’ on the Arise News Channel monitored by our correspondent.
The Republic of Niger has been under the sanctions of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), as a result of a coup d’etat in the country that resulted in a Military takeover.
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) announced the border closure in August last year.
The border states affected include Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Borno, Yola, and some parts of Kaduna.
Already, this development is taking its toll negatively on border states and $3.4 billion intra-African trade.
According to the data on Multidimensional poverty of 2022 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Katsina has 6.92 million people in different categories of poverty, Kano has 10.51 million, Sokoto has 5.81 and Jigawa has 5.76 million persons in this net also.
The figures, Aliero said, are worsening with the distortion of economic activities at the border states.
“Currently, if you go to the border, you’ll see close to about 4500 trucks of goods that were prevented from coming into Nigeria.
“Some of these trucks are not coming from Niger alone. Some are coming from Mali, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso and Cameroon,” he added.
He questioned the rationale of stopping intra-African trade links to the country despite having trade routes with Mali, Burkina Faso, and other African countries.
“Our domestic policy is to take care of the interest of Nigeria. The closure of the border has caused enormous hardships between Niger and people in Nigeria.
It should be noted that last year, the legislators from the border states called on the federal government to open the border without any delay. They argued that many economic distortions have put several people into acute hunger, poverty, unemployment, and economic hardships.
Aliero also suggested that the colonial demarcation of countries should not cause diplomatic and trade relations issues among them, noting that the Republic of Niger and Nigeria have a common heritage.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.