Kebbi communities task FG on border reopening

An appeal has gone to the federal government to consider full reopening of borders as the recipe to unemployment and poverty reduction among Nigerian youth, especially those leaving around the border areas.

An opinion poll conducted by Blueprint in Kamba and Lolo border areas in Dandi and Bagudo local government areas of Kebbi state, showed that majority of the youth attributed their present predicament to border closure.

A youth leader in Dolekaina village who simply gave his name as Abubakar Maisamari said “Poverty is killing us here because we have not gone to school, we soley rely on trans-border trade and now everything has taken a different dimension.”

He explained further that the border closure has not yielded any positive result on the part of youth development but has rather rendered them useless and a liability to their parents and the larger society.

Also, some youth in Lolo town of Bagudo local government area that share border with Benin Republic, expressed that they have been facing untold hardship as a result of border closure.

Mustafa Munkaila has this to say: “Look at the situation of border gates; no activity is taking place unlike before when vehicular traffic mostly trucks coming in and out was being experienced,” adding that the closure has directly affected them.

According to him, although the federal government promised to establish a dry port in Lolo, that has become history even as the borders are now under lock and key.

The border communities therefore appealed to the federal government to hasten the immediate reopening of borders so as to allow the flow of economic activities in the areas for the betterment of its citizenry.

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