Following the Government’s border closure to smuggling, Adekunle Sulaimon who visited adjoining Benin Republic communities along Seme border, reports the frustrations of the traders who had once benefited from the cycle of legal and illegal importation of contraband items into Nigeria.
It has been over two months since President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the closure of borders and also placed an embargo on the importation of rice, groundnut oil, frozen foods, drugs, and other commodities considered to be contraband. Among the aforementioned, rice is believed to be the most preferred staple food for Nigerians.
The major food markets where parboiled rice is sold are dominated by around 70 percent of foreign rice, leaving no place for locally produced variant which has no place in the market because of Nigerians low patronage to it.
On June 13, 2019, the Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Services (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) represented at an event by the Assistant Comptroller General and Customs Coordinator in charge of Zone A, Mr. Kaycee Ekekezie as reported by several media organisations said that the NCS is making huge returns daily claiming it to be as a result of border closures which now enables for proper importation of goods/items into the country.
Nigerian Tribune visited some of the borders including Seme and other smuggling routes in Badagry, Yardi, Gbetromeh, Gbaji communities. Findings reveal that foreign parboiled rice produced in Thailand and India, vegetable oil and cars maintain the lead in the list of smuggled items into Nigeria.
The tale of Badagry-Seme routes
From Badagry roundabout to Gbaji Bridge, there are five checkpoints consisting of the Nigerian Police, Customs, Immigration officers. After the Gbaji Bridge, there is just one checkpoint manned by Mobiile police officers. In Yardi, there are two Customs checkpoints assisted by police officers. Sultan beach houses one custom checkpoint, meanwhile, at Kolington filling station, there is just one Customs checkpoint. At Akoro, there are two checkpoints, each manned by Immigration officers and Customs officers respectively. Gbetrome houses one. After Gbetrome are two checkpoints managed by the immigration officers. Asipa has two Customs checkpoints and immediately after Asipa checkpoints are three more checkpoints before getting to Seme border, totaling twenty checkpoints in all from Badagry to Seme.
The empty Pau market in Benin Republic
On getting to the conventional market popularly called Pau in Benin Republic, the state of the market showed that the closure of the border has caused a negative effect on commercial activities, resulting in poor sales and closure of several shops. In fact, one could barely tell that it is the popular rice market since the streets of the once busy crowded market were near empty.
Investigations also reveal that many of these items sold at far cheaper prices than in the Nigerian market, thereby boosting smuggling activities with attendant huge profits for the perpetrators. For instance, a 50kg bag of rice sold for between N9,200 and N10,000. After buying the said bags of rice, the smugglers usually paid at least N350 per bag to cross the border. But the bags of rice were sold in Nigeria between N18,000 and N20,000 even N22,000 per bag. For vegetable oil, a 20-litre ‘jerry can’ sells for N9,500, with additional N200 each paid to local truckers to cross the border.
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Before the closure, I sold 100 bags per day; now I barely sell five bags”
A trader at the rice market, Mr. Francis Abimbola, spoke with Nigerian Tribune on his ordeal since the beginning of the closure. According to him, “Before this time, I sold between 80 and 100 bags of rice in a day, although the Marigold parboiled rice is the most ordered, now I barely sell 5 bags before the day passes by. In fact, sometimes I don’t get anybody to patronise me, I close the shop earlier than expected.
“The little sales are even made by our own people here, who buy only in retail price to sell to their customers believed to be the final consumers.”
Mr. David Conde, another trader, recalled how Nigerians regularly flooded Seme market where they bought variety of items, which they transported back to Nigeria. He added that Nigerians were the heartbeat of Seme market, hence the hardship being faced by the ban placed on their patronage of the market.
An official of the Nigeria Customs Service inspecting a vehicle at the border
“In no time, I will be relocating to my village to look for alternative means of survival since the market is becoming unfavourable daily,” Conde said.
According to a frozen foods seller, Mr. Femi Abdurraji with “Dieu fait tout” (God does all things) Frozen Limited, “The sales of frozen foods weren’t this bad even when they were declared contrabands by the Nigeria government under Jonathan’s administration.
“Last week, about four shops that dealt in the sales of frozen foods were forcefully locked up by the owners who have gone to borrow loans to get their shops stocked up, only to be unable to pay up as and when due,” he said.
He further appealed that the government should reverse the decision on the border closure as the economy was growing down the drain daily. “People are really suffering here, our customers who manage to buy even small quantities to take to Nigeria are waylaid by the customs and deprived of the little bought for either consumption or sales.”
