The Idiroko Border Re-Opening ‘Saga’ and Desperation of Smugglers, by Abdulsalam Mahmud

Idiroko Border

The Idiroko Border Re-Opening ‘Saga’ and Desperation of Smugglers, by Abdulsalam Mahmud

Smuggling of goods into the country did not start this year, last year or the penultimate year. It has always been perpetrated by criminal elements and economic saboteurs. It is what the aforementioned have illegally carried out for decades, in our beloved country.

The smuggling business is a crime. Every where in the world. But in this part of the universe, it appears to be unending. It has, and continues to defy every practical solution.

Among the commodities and goods imported illegally into the country is rice, a staple carbohydrate food. Rice smuggling into Nigeria has since assumed a frightening proportion. The criminal activity has continued to damage the country’s economy. Domestic production of the agricultural commodity, also, has since been hampered.

Personnel of the Nigeria Customs involved in anti-smuggling operations have lost their lives while engaging armed groups smuggling rice into the country. Reports abound of how the precious lives of some Nigerians have been cut short after consuming unhealthy and toxic rice varieties imported into the country.

Many citizens would not have forgotten about the ‘plastic rice’ brought into the country from China, in 2016. It took the intervention of the Customs to curb the inflow of the adulterated rice into Nigerian markets.

Another incident again happened in 2017, when the Federal Government (then) warned that there were some brands of poisonous foreign rice in circulation. Reacting then, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), the Comptroller-General of Customs, described rice imported into Nigeria as poisonous, advising Nigerians to stop consuming it.

He had said: “A chemical must have been added to sustain its freshness and that chemical is harmful. Also, it has been re-bagged with a new date given as the production and expiry date and that is what we consume here which causes diseases.

“So, I appeal to Nigerians to please patronize our own rice; it is available, more nutritious and if you do that you will assist Customs by making sure these people are put out of business”.

Illegal rice importation, Ali said, remains one of the biggest challenges facing the Nigeria Customs Service. As part of finding a permanent solution to the menace, a worried President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2019 ordered the closure of the country’s border over illegal importation of drugs, arms and agricultural products into Nigeria from neighbouring West African countries.

But in December 2020, the immediate-past Nigerian leader, ordered the reopening of four land borders. For about a year that our land borders were shut local rice production was boosted. According to the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, RIPAN, the Border Restriction Policy implemented by the Buhari government caused the demand for Nigerian home-grown and locally-processed rice to increase quite immensely.

This caused an increase in both the production of paddy rice, as well as rice processing facilities. In 2020, during the COVID era, Nigeria farmers produced as much as 8.2 million tons of paddy rice and another 8.4 million tons in 2021. At the time, all of the paddy produced were taken by the rice processors/millers who processed them and supplied good quality finished rice to Nigerians.

Even as the borders were closed and the COVID pandemic raged on, Nigeria didn’t suffer lack of food, particularly rice. The numbers in metric tons of paddy rice produced by Nigerian farmers began to decline after the borders were reopened in 2021, and smuggling commenced again in earnest, causing a drop in the volume of paddy offtake by the rice processors/millers.

It is on record that upon the reopening of our borders, official rice import to Benin republic from Thailand rose from meagerly monthly average of 5,000 metric tons in 2019, to a monthly average of 26,861 metric tons in 2022. Last month, PRNigeria reported that about 35,749 bags of foreign rice were impounded by the NCS, between January and April this year.

It is however due to the renewed war that personnel of the Customs launched to give rice smugglers a bloody noose, that the quantity of what were seized stopped at the figure given.

The NCS strides in tackling rice smuggling must be sustained. The Nigerian government should however know that some unscrupulous elements are bent on frustrating the anti-smuggling war of the Customs and advocacy of groups such as RIPAN.

About a week or even less, the old video showing how Customs personnel re-opened the Idiroko border in 2021 was everywhere on the social media. The mischievous elements behind the release of the old border re-opening video apparently wanted to denting the early days of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who they claimed ordered the re-opening immediately after taking over power.

But whatever was the goal of those who re-circulated the old video, it failed. First to disprove the authenticity of the video was the spokesperson of the Nigerian Customs, Abubakar Maiwada. Maiwada, in a chat with PRNigeria said Nigeria presently ‘has no closed border.’

According to him, all the borders have been opened months ago to allow exports and imports. “All our major borders are open. The video showing the Idiroko border opening is a very old video that a mischief maker just repackaged to create a wrong narrative,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the Area Controller of NCS in Ogun State, Mr Bamidele Makinde also dismissed the viral video. While addressing the newsmen in Abeokuta, Makinde stated that the Idiroko Border had been reopened for import and export business since 2022.

While lending credence to the statements of the NCS officials, RIPAN accused enemies of the Nigerian economy of circulating the fake video. It said that those behind the video are individuals or groups who seek to undermine the new government and promote illegal activities such as rice smuggling, from Benin Republic, Cameroun and Niger Republic for their personal gain.

Andy Ekwelem, Director General of the organisation, in a statement obtained by PRNigeria, said their RIPAN is dedicated to supporting the efforts of the federal government to improve the food security well-being of Nigerians, and also, remain committed to facilitating communication and collaborations towards this goal.

Ekwelem urged the government and all stakeholders to remain watchful and to avoid falling prey to the machinations of those who seek to sabotage the nation’s economy, and exploit Nigeria’s big brotherly role within the West African sub-region for their narrow interest.

It is imperative for the Nigerian Customs and other sister security agencies to sustain, and perhaps, increase the tempo of dealing with rice smugglers and other economic saboteurs. The damage these criminals have done to the country’s economy is unimaginable. Citizens must not continue to battle all sorts of health challenges occasioned by consuming unhygienic foreign rice.

The circumstances surrounding the circulation of the old video, also needs to be thoroughly investigated. Those behind must be fished out, and made to face the music. That would send a message to their cohorts. Today and now, is the right time to wage another merciless battle against the unending importation of foreign rice in the country. It cannot be tomorrow.

*Mahmud, the Deputy Editor of PRNigeria, wrote in via: [email protected]*