A Committee has been raised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene in the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with its neighbours.
The Federal Government in mid-October, last year, shut its land borders to importation of goods. It later explained that the closure was partial and targeted at strengthening the economy and guarding against proliferation of dangerous substances like drugs and illegal arms.
But, the closure got ECOWAS attention at the ongoing 33rd African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
At a meeting on the sidelines of the summit, the ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments met and set up mechanisms to intervene.
According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buahari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the committee is headed by President Roch Marc Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso.
Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama was quoted in the statement as telling reporters after the three-hour closed door session that the meeting attended by President Buhari and chaired by the ECOWAS Chairman, President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic, also discussed West Africa’s single currency, the Eco, and the situation in Guinea Bissau after the presidential election.
On border closure, Onyeama was quoted as saying: “The President of Burkina Faso is charged with undertaking a full study of the situation, make a report and then, we take it from there.”
Asked when the report will be presented to ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, the minister replied: “As soon as possible, there are no timelines. But, he is supposed to start very quickly, study the situation from all the affected countries and present his report.”
On the Eco currency, Onyeama said: “Nothing has changed in respect of Nigeria’s position.”
He added that Nigeria’s position was that the convergence criteria have not been met by majority of the countries. Therefore, there has to be an extension of time on the take-off of the single currency.
On Guinea Bissau, the minister said ECOWAS leaders recognised that there was an appeal of the presidential election result and they are waiting for the Supreme Court decision on the matter.
The statement reads: “The Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government has constituted a committee, headed by President Roch Marc Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso, to study and make a full report on Nigeria’s land border closure with her neighbours.
“The decision to set up the committee was agreed Sunday night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at an extraordinary session of ECOWAS leaders convened on the margins of the 33rd AU Summit to discuss the issue and other pressing regional matters.
Also on Monday, the Director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and Research (CEPAR), University of Lagos, Ndubisi Nwokoma urged the Federal Government to revisit the closure of the borders.
Nwokoma, who gave this advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said the opening of the borders was due.
According to the economist, what the Federal Government needs now is to open the borders and address challenges of border control.
He said: “The benefits being experienced from the border closure will be for a short time.
“I expect the Federal Government to open the land borders and focus on addressing the numerous challenges in border control, if it has not started that already.”
Nwokoma also urged the government to look into what he called “unconventional monetary policies”.
According to him, return on capital or savings should be higher than inflation rate, else, savings may dry up and affect the availability of investible funds.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should fine-tune the monetary policies, noting that negative return on capital (low savings rate and high inflation rate) would act as disincentive to savings.
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