Why we closed Nigeria-Benin border - Buhari explains

- President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, August 28, said the reason why Nigeria border with the Republic of Benin is partially closed is to curb smuggling activities

- The president said illegal import of rice through the border is affecting his agricultural policies that are targeted at self-sufficiency

- Buhari, however, said that to lessen the hardship the closure has caused the Beninese people, he will think about opening it soon

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, August 28, explained the reason for the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with the Benin republic.

Vanguard reports that the president said the closure was based on the fact that there are massive smuggling activities, especially of rice, happening at the border.

Buhari made this known during his side meeting with the president of Benin, Patrice Talon, at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD7) in Japan.

The president expressed great grief over the fact that rice smuggling threatens his administration agricultural policies which have tried to ensure self-sufficiency.

He said: “Now that our people in the rural areas are going back to their farms, and the country has saved huge sums of money which would otherwise have been expended on importing rice using our scarce foreign reserves, we cannot allow smuggling of the product at such alarming proportions to continue.”

The president’s media aide, Femi Adesina, also said that the closure will allow the nation’s security forces to come up with a better plan on how to combat the trend.

In his response to the Beninese president on the great suffering that the closure has caused, Buhari said he would reconsider reopening the border soon.

Recaall that Legit earlier reported that Buhari on Wednesday, August 28, held bilateral talks with the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa

This meeting was one of the sideline meeting with African leaders the president will be having at the ongoing conference.