Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and culture on Monday commended the effort of the Buhari’s administration in sustaining the border drill ias it has deepened the nations fight against smuggling of rice and other prohibited items into the country, leading to significant seizures with estimated monetary value of over N3.5 billion.
The minister in a press briefing said that the border drill has remained one of the boldest decisions ever taken by any administration in Nigeria as part of measures to secure Nigeria’s land and maritime borders adding that smuggling of petroleum products out of Nigeria has been drastically curtailed, and has led to a 30 percent reduction in domestic fuel consumption.
“Recall that the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), in collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) as well as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and other security and intelligence agencies, commenced a joint border security exercise, code-named EXERCISE SWIFT RESPONSE’, in 4 geopolitical zones of the country, namely; South South, South West, North Central and North West on the 20th August 2019”.
“Because of the drill, terrorists and other criminals are finding it hard to procure arms and ammunition while criminal elements no longer make their way into the country through the land borders”, he said.
The Minister speaking further noted that Nigeria over the years has been confronted with numerous trans-border economic and security challenges which ranged from banditry, kidnapping, smuggling, illegal migrantion and proliferation of light weapons, among others adding that the preference for foreign goods, especially food items like rice, has continuously impoverished our farmers and adversely affected domestic government policies supporting the agricultural sector to enhance food security.
“It is however disturbing that some neighbouring countries circumvent the ECOWAS protocol on transit. For clarity, the ECOWAS protocol on transit demands that when a transit container berths at a seaport, the receiving country is mandated to escort same without tampering with the seal to the border of the destination country”.
“Unfortunately, experience has shown that our neighbours do not comply with this protocol. Rather, they break the seals of containers at their ports and trans-load goods destined for Nigeria. This has resulted in reduced cases of insecurity, whether its kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery or other violent crimes”.
According to the minister, the exercise is being which is coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has provided a unique platform for the various participating agencies to operate jointly, thereby strengthening inter-agency collaboration in reducing animosity, secure the borders as well as strengthen the national economy.
“Before the drill, the Nigeria Customs Service was recording about N4.5 billion daily. Since the drill started, the figure has increased to between N5 billion and N8 billion daily”.
“Today, Nigeria is closer to attaining self sufficiency in rice production than at any time in the country’s history, thanks to the border drill that has drastically reduced rice smuggling into the country and catalyzed rice production by our farmers across the country”.
“We recently visited some of Nigeria’s 34 integrated rice
mills as well as rice clusters in Kano. The rice mills are either operating at full capacity or have doubled their production. Before the drill, there were 12.2 million rice farmers in Nigeria, but now six million people, mostly youths, are venturing into rice production”.
“Before the drill, farmers were cultivating rice twice a year, now that has increased to three times a year, and some rice farmers are now venturing beyond rice cultivation to milling, packaging and marketing. Overall, the integrated mills currently produce 150,000 bags of rice daily and about 35 million bags per annum”.
“This has resulted in reduced cases of insecurity, whether its kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery or other violent crimes”.
Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja.
