2027 BORDER PROMISE IS EMPTY: FG BLASTS ATIKU — ‘YOU CAN’T REOPEN WHAT’S ’ ALREADY OPEN ’
GREATRIBUNETVNEWS–THE Federal Government has punctured former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s 2027 campaign promise, declaring that there are no closed land borders left to reopen in Nigeria.
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in a blistering response on Saturday, said Atiku’s pledge to reopen the borders if elected president is hollow and misleading.
“Nigeria’s borders are not closed and so cannot be reopened,” Tunji-Ojo declared.
The Minister recalled that the previous administration had reopened Seme, Illela, Maigatari and Mfum borders on December 16, 2020, while Idiroko and Ikom were reopened for goods and services on April 20, 2022.
He added that under the current administration, Kamba and Tsamiya borders in Kebbi State linking Nigeria with Niger Republic and Benin Republic were also reopened in February 2026.
Tunji-Ojo further clarified that the closure of Nigeria’s borders with Cameroon at Banki and Amchidé had nothing to do with the 2019 trade policy, noting they were shut in 2014 due to Boko Haram insurgency, reopened in 2019, while Fotokol and Gambaru were reopened in 2021 after joint stabilisation efforts by Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
He warned that lumping all border closures as part of the 2019 shutdown is a distortion of facts, mixing trade regulation with national security issues, even as he admitted that some northern crossings remain under tighter controls due to banditry and residual insurgency.
The minister said such restrictions were deliberate security measures designed to protect traders and border communities, stressing that modern border management required a balance between security, documentation, customs compliance and trade facilitation.
He urged Atiku to present details of any new border policy rather than portraying separate trade, security and infrastructure issues as one.
“Political competition should not become a competition to rewrite recent history,” the minister said.
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