The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Wale Adeniyi on his working visit to SEME border on Friday has assured all the legitimate trade border nations that Federal Government of Nigeria will reopening the border only if all the stakeholders are ready to comply with the trade rules.
The CGC has also called upon all the security agencies on the axis to come together for a meeting towards the reduction of the multiple checkpoints along the border communities to boost bilateral trade and good diplomatic relationships between borders nations for improved national security.
Speaking during a working visit to the Seme Command of the NCS and Seme-Krake Border communities on Friday, the Customs CG noted that national security is the responsibility of everyone and should not be left for government agencies alone.
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The Customs boss said that the borders were closed but not all of them were reopened, we have already started discussions along this line. Policies that are aimed at enhancing national security are supposed to be dynamic policies, at different times we would be reviewing them.
He said that the Service is working together with other government agencies bearing in mind their peculiarities, to rationalise the multiple checkpoints inhibiting free trade and movement of legitimate goods at the border posts.
He noted that there are numerous trade and economic benefits for Nigeria within the ECOWAS socioeconomic bloc. He however noted that the Service in collaboration with foreign counterparts will work on improving and developing better bilateral trade relations driven by technology.
Adeniyi added that the service seeks to achieve these through the implementation of ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
While appreciating the traditional rulers and residents of the border communities for their warm carnival- like reception, Adeniyi however sought for the support of all government agencies by desisting from illegal and illegitimate business and most importantly providing credible information and intelligence on illegal activities in and around the border post to appropriate government security agencies.
Speaking at a meeting with the business community, Adeniyi said that reopening of the borders fully, depends on the readiness of the local communities to corporate with the customs and other law enforcement agents in combating insecurity and smuggling.
According to him, the security agencies need intelligence from the communities on the nefarious activities of smugglers, and to properly protect the border areas against illicit importations.
“It is going to be a symbiotic relationship that would be beneficial to all of us. By the time this is done, we can now start discussing about allowing vehicles to come in through the borders.
We can now start considering allowing food to also come in through the borders if we cannot have enough capacity to feed ourselves.
“These are conversations that would happen within us when we have gotten assurances from the communities that they would be ready to assist the agencies in doing their job” .
His words:, “Before I came here, I have received communications from the Area Controller, he had reflected a number of the burning issues which is the source of concern for the communities here.
“The list is very long, but the most important is that we want to enhance our National security, we want to do it with fewer number of checkpoints. We get your message and we would be doing it with other security agencies to see how we can rationalize the checkpoints
“I also want to challenge you that National Security is not the responsibility of these government agencies alone, this is the difference between us and our counterparts in West Africa, National Security is the business of every citizen, and all strata of the society treat it as a priority.
“So, it should not be the business of only the security agencies. So, as we make life easier for business, I want to charge you also to make life and the work of our security agents easier
“The criminals live among us, those importing arms and ammunition live among us, they operate within our precinct, what you can do to help our national security is to help us with information and intelligence for us to catch these criminals visiting mayhem on our communities.
“If the security agencies can do the job with accurate intelligence from you, then, we might not need these checkpoints again.
Like I promised, I will engage other agencies when I get back to Abuja to see how we can streamline these checkpoints.
“However, everything depend on the kind of report that gets to the government about the capacity of the local community to support law enforcement Agents so that criminals don’t infiltrate through these border areas” he said