Border closure opened our eyes to Nigeria’s potentials – Buhari

Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has said the partial closure of Nigeria’s land borders with neigbouring countries was an eye-opener to the potentials of the country.

He said this on Tuesday when he had audience with the outgoing President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and his successor, Dr George Nana Donkor, at the State House in Abuja.

Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, in a statement said, Buhari explained the decision to close the borders had given Nigeria a number of insights.

Recall that the authority of Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government in Addis Abba, Ethiopia last month constituted a committee, headed by President Kabore, to study and make a full report on Nigeria’s land border closure with her neighbours.

The decision to set up the committee was agreed at an extraordinary session of ECOWAS leaders convened on the margins of the just concluded 33rd African Union (AU) Summit.

President Buhari, however, promised that Nigeria would be ready to abide by the decision of the committee as soon as its report is made available.

‘‘We have saved millions of dollars. We have realised that we don’t have to import rice. We have achieved food security.

‘‘We have curtailed the importation of drugs and proliferation of small arms which threaten our country,’’ he said.

President Buhari thanked the outgoing ECOWAS Bank President for the improvements recorded in his eight-year tenure and urged his successor to build on those achievements.

The outgoing bank chief informed President Buhari that the bank had been transformed from loss-making to profit-making, with commitments from ECOWAS member-states doubling to 1.4 billion dollars.

The incoming president thanked the Nigerian leader and the Nigerian people for their support for his emergence.

‘‘Without Nigeria, I could not have emerged,” he said.

He gave credit to President Buhari’s economic strategies captured under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), noting that it has brought about economic recovery, stability and food security in the country.

He pledged total commitment to partnering Nigeria towards achieving rapid development in the country and the rest of West Africa.