Obadiah Mailafia
British wartime Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, famously noted that, “You do not negotiate borders – you defend them”. Borders are the hallmarks of a sovereign state. Any country that cannot control hers is not worthy of her own statehood. The current system of territorial states that we operate today began in continental Europe with the Treaty of Westphalia 1648 that ended the devastating Thirty Years’ religious wars.
Before then, much of Europe was organised in terms of ill-defined feudal monarchies, royal kingdoms and dukedoms loosely under the Holy Roman Empire that was, in reality, neither holy nor Roman. The sovereign territorial state provided the constitutional framework for a new system of power politics in Europe. And much of it was enshrined under the emerging Law of Nations as developed by great jurists such as Hugo Grotius and Emmerich de Vattel.
The internecine strife that afflicted 19th century Europe had very much to do with borders, notably between France and Germany and between Germany and her neighbours. They also constituted the defining relationship between Mexico and big Uncle Sam next door. In post-Independence Africa, borders were the casus belli in the conflicts between Somalia and Ethiopia; Kenya and Somalia; and between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Back home in Nigeria, the decade-long border conflict between us and neighbouring Cameroon over the Bakassi Peninsula was largely resolved only through adjudication by the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
One of the ways that countries have tried to control their borders is by building walls. One of these is the 8,000 km long Great Wall of China, built some 2,300 years ago. It was ostensibly built to protect the Middle Kingdom from barbarian invaders. However, the Mongol warriors did not attempt to scale the wall. They simply bribed the gatekeepers; paving the way to a successful occupation of China.
A few years ago, Israel built a wall across the West Bank ostensibly to protect its citizens against Palestinian terrorists. Upon completion, it will be a 438 km barrier separating Israel from the Palestinians. The UN General Assembly has condemned while the ICJ has given an advisory to the effect that the project is a violation of international law. The wall has increased the suffering of the Palestinian people while its effectiveness in controlling terrorist seems, at best, mixed.
American president Donald Trump pitched his campaign for election in 2016 on the promise that he would build a wall across the Mexican border to stop the relentless sea of illegal immigrants from across the border. He also insisted that Mexico would pay for it. That project has hit a brick wall, both legal and political. Congress has not been forthcoming with regard to the US$5.6bn required for the project. The Mexicans have also made it plain that under no circumstances would they ever contemplate paying for such a project.
Nigeria’s borders are among the most porous in the world. With the exception of the Atlantic Ocean, all our borders have separated many of our communities at the very seams. This is one of the great evils that colonialism has done to the African continent. When the Organisation of African Unity was created in 1963, one of its constitutive principles is the sanctity of colonial borders. This was done to prevent chaos and to ensure an orderly system of interstate relations. I have always proudly reminded my African brethren that Nigeria has never invaded any of our neighbours or any other sister African country. Instead, we have expended so much in terms of people and treasure trying to restore peace in war-torn countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Our porous borders and our own incompetence and lack of vision have made us the dumping ground of the world. In the 70s, so much cement was imported into our country that would have required 10 years to off-load ordinarily. It was one of the factors that led to the fall of the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon. Today, we are the world’s biggest importer of generators. The Lebanese and other cartels that control generator importation have contributed to killing the power sector. We are also the biggest importer of rice in the world. We have also become the world’s biggest dumping ground for useless Chinese goods.
We are also a major global destination for arms smuggling, particularly since the fall of Muammar Gadaffi in Libya. Smuggled arms have fed into the decade-long insurgency in the North-East. They have also fallen into the hands of murderous herdsmen, most of them from neighbouring countries. Heavy arms have been intercepted from countries as diverse as Turkey and Iran. A few months ago, our armed forces intercepted several armoured tanks from the Cameroon border. We understand that one of the world powers ordered our authorities to release the tanks, claiming that they were destined for Mali. Somebody somewhere has obviously declared a war on our country.
What is most irritating is that the whole world expects us to buy into the fraud. An official from a major European country recently accosted me over lunch at a posh restaurant in Abuja. He wanted to know why we are so dumb enough to practise “autarky” in this 21st century age of globalisation. An economist from the Washington-based Brookings Institution was recently writing that Benin Republic had repositioned herself as an “entreport economy”, while we have become the stumbling block to “free trade” in ECOWAS. The Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Prof. Vuong Hue, visited Abuja several weeks ago to pressure our government to re-open the borders. The Ghanaians have protested loudly and I understand we are reaching some sort of agreement with them. Meanwhile, in Accra and other cities, Nigerian shops have been closed down and our nationals have been roughened up.
One theory being touted is that the border closure was actually instigated by one or two of big industrialists that stand opposed to the African Continental Free Trade Area which takes off in July 2020. The same groups, allegedly through the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria, forced our government not to sign up to the AfCFTA in Kigali in 2018. Our late-coming meant that we have not only lost credibility, Accra has also won the right to host the headquarters of the AfCFTA.
Building a wall will not be feasible for the foreseeable future. Keeping the borders closed in perpetuity is also not sustainable. It would in fact be illegal under international economic law and the WTO protocols. But we must negotiate tough terms with our neighbours. We must also re-launch our industrial revolution while reversing our status as the dumping ground of the world.
But we must be honest with ourselves. The whole world knows that Apapa and Lagos ports have reached their absolute upper limits in terms of capacity. And yet, there are political forces that believe it must be Lagos or nothing else. The same forces believe that what Lagos cannot take should be hived off to Cotonou at the expense of Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Onne. We have behaved wickedly against our own vital national interests for ethnic and jingoistic reasons.
There are many things wrong with this regime. But I support the border closure. The only reservation I have is that they should have made adequate arrangements in terms of stockpiles of staples such as rice before embarking on the decision. The consequence is that the price of rice in this festive season has gone beyond the reach of the poor. Inflation is biting hard and people are suffering.
Going forward, we should extend the closure to July 2020, when AfCFTA will take effect. Between now and then, we should double the recruitment of customs staff and provide more training and logistics in controlling our borders. We must also secure iron-cast guarantees from our neighbours that they will not be the conduits for smuggling and other illegal trade activities against our country, causing us to lose billions of dollars in revenues while undermining our industrial capacity.
