After a year’s long debate between those who agreed and disagreed with the decision of the government to close the country’s borders with its neighbours, this week, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the reopening of four of the land borders.
The federal government, last year, announced borders closure as part of an effort to curb smuggling of rice and other goods, which government said can be produced locally, and weapons which are believed to aid criminal activities.
The news of the borders reopening was made by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed. She said the borders opened are: Seme, in the South-west; Ilela and Maigatari, in the North-west; and Mfun, in the South-west.
However, if some people thought that reopening of the borders could result into making Nigeria a dumping ground, their hope got dashed quickly as the minister said restriction on the importation of some commodities like rice, poultry and other products remain.
Although it was not the first time that Nigeria moved to check the activities of smugglers at its borders, this time the federal government acted in order to boost local production of food items and manufactured goods.
Thus, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) drew up a list of 41 items, whose importation would no longer be welcomed in the country. Rice and other food items featured prominently on the list.
Many Nigerians, of course, have commended the closure of the borders, while some have expressed some reservations.
peaking on the advantages of the closure of the borders, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Niyi Adebayo, said there are many advantages to the border closure, including given the security agencies an opportunity to access the problems at the borders particularly with regard to smuggling.
He said before the borders closure, petroleum products were smuggled out from the borders to West African countries but closing of the borders has stopped that.
He said issue of smuggling of rice and poultry products into the country has reduced drastically. “Also very important is the issue of importation of small arms and weapons into the country, that also has stopped,” the minister said.
He said the federal government hopes that security agencies will now stop the influx of illegal weapons that are believed to be used for kidnappings, insurgencies, banditry and other crimes.
However, as expected, the closure of borders, despite its advantages, has made life especially difficult for poor Nigerians.
The prices of common foods consumed by Nigerians have hit the roof. Items, such as frozen foods, have gone up by about 70 per cent. The price of foreign parboiled rice also went up by more than 100 per cent, from N17,000 to about N40,000.
The demand for local rice in the absence of foreign rice drove the price of local rice up from N15,000 to N25,000. The situation has left many people questioning the wisdom in shutting the borders against rice imports, whereas Nigeria has not been able to produce enough to meet its local demands.
The volume of local rice production in the country is put at 3.7 million tonnes per annum, while consumption is seven million tonnes.
In the end, though the government meant well, closure of borders which led to demand and supply chains disruptions, made businesses and individuals to suffer.
Jobs have been lost, prices have skyrocketed, legitimate exports to the sub-region have been halted, intermediate products for some manufacturers have been cut off, some multinational companies have been de-linked from their sister companies in the sub-region.
It should be noted that about 90 per cent of Nigeria’s trade with the West African sub region is done by road. Many formal and informal sectors players and individuals doing legitimate businesses across the borders became victims of borders closure.
However, while Nigeria has now reopened its borders, apparently in view of the shortcomings of the closure, more needs to be done to protect the economy against the effects of smuggling.
Nigeria needs to fix the structural, institutional and policy shortcomings that perpetuate the phenomenon of smuggling and increased economic vulnerabilities.
Thus, government should address the issues of weak institutional capacity to police the country’s vast and porous borders, mainly through the utilisation of technology to achieve that objective.
As Nigeria expects COVID-19 vaccine…
The Minister of Health, Mr Osagie Ehanire, said Nigerians should expect to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of January 2021.
He said technical working group in the Ministry of Health is working on which vaccine would best suit Nigerians, considering that the country has no -80 degrees freezers.
The minister said Nigeria has signed up with the World Health Organisation and the GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) for access to vaccines immediately they are available.
Unfortunately, he adds, “these vaccines are new and are in packets and the producers are not giving any indemnity. These countries where these vaccines are manufactured have, of course, given themselves the priority to serve themselves, serve their own citizens first and we hope that the pressure from the World Health Organisation and GAVI will be able to get reserves for other countries that are not manufacturing.”
He said Nigeria has signed up for advanced market participation in COVAX. The minister also revealed that there are two types of vaccines – the type that has to be in the deep freezer of -20 degree and another type that can be in minus two degree refrigerators.
For now, all that matter to the people is for the country to access the vaccines. Wearing masks and social distancing help reduce the chance of someone’s getting exposed to the virus or spreading it to others, but these measures are not enough.
Vaccines will work with peoples’ immune system so it will be ready to fight the virus if they are exposed. Thus, combination of getting vaccinated and following NCDC’s recommendations to protect oneself and others will offer the best protection from COVID-19.
Stopping a pandemic requires using all the tools that there are available. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the challenges of not only developing a vaccine, but also making sure everyone who should get it does.
High hopes have been placed on the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine, but to be successful it must overcome many hurdles such as those of the limited availability.
In the same vein, public mistrust and dosage and storage requirements can all jeopardise vaccine coverage. A look at previous vaccine distribution efforts showcases some of the main challenges.
Public health experts consider vaccines to be among medicine’s most important achievements, helping to reduce the prevalence of some diseases such as polio to near zero worldwide.
Yet, even for diseases with vaccines, achieving and maintaining high coverage can be difficult. For example, the race for a COVID-19 vaccine has so far been a show of vaccine nationalism as countries are securing prospective vaccines for their populations and prioritising access for their domestic markets.
This has left Africa in a disadvantaged position as none of the vaccines being developed are in the continent and a majority of African countries lack the power and or funds to secure vaccines for their citizens.
There have also been concerns that since the vaccines were developed mostly with data from non-African populations, they may result in a low vaccine efficacy for Africans.
Again, if, for example, Nigeria loses in its bid to get the -20 refrigeration vaccines which it can afford without difficulties, it must be forced to go for the one that will be in ultra-cold freezers, but we hardly have ultra-cold freezers in this country.
Therefore, Nigeria needs to buy ultra-cold freezers before it could purchase the vaccines.
Thus, ultimately, the way out for Nigeria and the rest of Africa is for their scientists to develop new, local vaccines to cater for their ever growing populations.
