Two neighbouring farmers in Robert Frost's classic poem, Mending Wall had a discussion on why they must rebuild the wall between their farms. While the writer sees no need and even feels nature dislikes it, his neighbour emphasized its importance twice insisting that 'Good fences make great neighbours'. This adage reigned in most of Europe in the 17th century. In India till today, there is an adage that says 'Love your neighbour but do not throw down the dividing wall’.
A country without borders will always be at war within and without. Anything goes in an uncontrolled environment. Any country without borders must be ready to face the war of decay and insufficiency. And I mean limitless insufficiency of space, safety, food, clothing, shelter, raw materials, opportunities and purposeful living. Research has showed clearly that sufficiency projected by evident data and physical abundance may not really translate into wealth. In fact, in Africa, this exactly is the case! Let me explain.
Nigeria is a country of 183 million people and a border length of about 4900 kilometres with 853 kilometres of it being the coast line. Till today, there are fewer of the borderlines where serious invasion or intrusion is not going on. On the major borders, various shades of smuggling are thriving varying from Forex, gold, solid minerals, agro products, PMS to cattle. I'm sure you wondered when you saw cattle.
While the south-western borders are the entry points for smuggling cars and agro produce, the coastal line and high seas is the hub for oil theft as the smugglers move fast to hit the high seas with several illegal trading activities also going on at the northern borders. Most of the borders are unguarded, allowing free walk in and walk out.
Nigeria does not have wealthier neighbours and most of her neighbours have citizens who in one way or the other depends on Nigeria strongly for survival. In fact in some parts of northern Nigeria where same languages are spoken across the walls, the Nigerians can help ship the alien across the border and perhaps help him confront immigration officials.
It was this same uncontrolled borderlines that made several aliens from neighbouring Niger and Chad keep invading Maiduguri until it became what we have today. It is this same uncontrolled borders that made so many West African herdsmen consider Nigeria as the best place for grazing. It is this same uncontrolled borders that is responsible for the visa-less entries of those non-Nigerians that Senator Marafa was complaining about in Zamfara state recently. We never knew that heinous killings will follow that complaint much sooner. Except something is done, we may painfully have to expect more of these invasions as the elections come closer. This is besides the fact that uncontrolled borders are even a major entry point for diseases!
If we truly want to be successful and enforce the rule of law, security of lives and economic policies efficiently, we must take care of our borderlines. Such unwanted invasions is one of the major reasons why till today, China prefers the diplomatic sanctions against North Korea. If war breaks out in North Korea today, China will be the first recipient of unstoppable invasion of the North Korean war victims who will turn in as refugees. Safety of lives is one of the reasons why Israel watches her borders day and night via the Israeli Defence Forces. Every day, The USA is worried about what it will do about the Mexican border.
All these tells us is that Nigeria is grossly overdue to have a Nigerian Borderline Surveillance and Defence Force. This special force made up of national guards will go through hard core military training with strong ethics where a northern border guard will never watch a northern border. There are several surveillance technologies today that can protect our border perfectly while well trained Surveillance coast guards will protect our coast lines and high seas. This function is getting extremely heavier for the 124000 active military personnel in the Nigerian armed forces as insurgency and killings takes a new dimension.
As we do this, we may end up finding out that the firm control of our borders will first lead to scarcity and then a resurrection of companies, Made in Nigeria products, safety of lives and full control of the country’s economic and socio-political landscape. It will frustrate the penetration of foreign assassins with no identity, make budget planning easier, check our very assorted taste, strengthen agriculture, and leave a more positive impact of economic policies on the citizens. Invasion of herdsmen might decline and we can fight our enemies better in terms of terrorism. A firmly protected border will trigger a compulsory need for identity and identification. This besides will assist to determine how much power, portable water, housing, school, clinics we need as we will be able to determine how many people sleep in Nigeria per night like developed nations. By doing this, jobs will naturally sprout and the revenue of Nigerian Customs Service might in fact triple.
Ronald Reagan did state that a nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.Control is key to the life and prosperity of a nation. The only countries that prospers in the world are the countries with sound economic policies, strengthened by good governance and the rule of law in a controlled environment. Nigeria needs a controlled environment to succeed amidst her neighbours.
