Border closure: Group decries economic hardship faced by traders, masses
Enugu, Sept. 28, 2019
Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF), a pan-Igbo socio-political group, has decried economic hardship being faced by Nigerians, especially traders nationwide, due to the recent border closure.
The President of NUF, Mr Augustine Chukwudum, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Saturday.
Chukwudum, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to consider re-opening the borders for legitimate trade to ease the gradual economic suffocation in the country.
According to him, NUF, disturbed by the plight of traders, went on a fact-finding mission in Lagos, Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi and Nkpor Markets and discovered that traders have lost over N15 billion in sales already.
“According to our findings, 80 per cent of the major customers that trade with Nigeria traders come from Togo, Cameroun, Chad, Gabon, Congo and other African countries.
“It is unfortunate that some people are misleading the president by advising him to engage in blanket closure of our official borders that have all government security agencies that are fully in charge of checkmating unwanted imported goods into the country.
“This situation has thereby created serious and avoidable economic hardship to the suffering masses by stopping the movement of goods from Nigeria to other countries.
“In as much as NUF supports President Buhari’s agriculture agenda, the government must not deprive traders their economic rights with border closure, which has brought untold hardship on them and Nigerian masses,’’ he said.
The NUF boss noted that the group was raising the alarm because the Federal Government got it wrong by stopping movement of goods from Nigeria to other countries.
