{"id":59386,"date":"2025-01-11T07:14:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T07:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=59386"},"modified":"2025-01-11T07:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T07:14:59","slug":"nigerias-border-closure-a-costly-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/01\/11\/nigerias-border-closure-a-costly-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s Border Closure: A Costly Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s border closure policy is a self-deception, the National Assembly\u2019s Joint Committee on Industry, Trade, and Investment declared on January 11, 2025, warning that insecurity and smuggling persist despite the supposed restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>At a budget defense session, Senator Francis Fadaunsi (PDP, Osun East) criticized the policy, arguing that Niger and Chad\u2019s ECOWAS exit has worsened border security, fueling economic woes. He revealed that while Nigeria consumes 7 million tons of rice annually, local production lags at 3 million, with 4 million tons smuggled in.<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Fatima Talba (Nangere\/Potiskum, Yobe) dismissed the closure as a mere fa\u00e7ade, citing unhindered movement of people and criminals.<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Paul Kalejaiye (Ajeromi\/Ifelodun, Lagos) questioned whether the closure applied uniformly or selectively.<\/p>\n<p>The committee chair, Senator Suleiman Umar (APC, Kwara North), urged Trade Minister Dr. Jumoke Oduwole to engage the Presidency on the issue. Meanwhile, the committee flagged discrepancies in her N3.8 billion capital budget proposal, demanding revisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Nigeria\u2019s border closure policy is a self-deception, the National Assembly\u2019s Joint Committee on Industry, Trade, and Investment declared on January 11, 2025, warning that insecurity and smuggling persist despite the supposed restrictions. At a budget defense session, Senator Francis Fadaunsi (PDP, Osun East) criticized the policy, arguing that Niger and Chad\u2019s ECOWAS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":59387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,186],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-59386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59388,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59386\/revisions\/59388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}