President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the partial closure of Nigeria’s borders was not caused exclusively because food products, particularly rice, which were being smuggled into Nigeria, but also because arms and ammunition, as well as hard drugs being conveyed into the country.

President Buhari revealed this while holding a bilateral meeting in London at the sidelines of UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020 with President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana.

The President, in a statement issued by his media aide, Femi Adesina, said he could not keep his eyes open, and watch youths being destroyed through cheap hard drugs, and compromised security caused by unbridled influx of small arms.

“When most of the vehicles carrying rice and other food products through our land borders are intercepted, you find cheap hard drugs, and small arms, under the food products. This has terrible consequences for any country,” President Buhari said.

He said it was regrettable that the partial border closure was having “negative economic impact on our neighbours,” but added that “we cannot leave our country, particularly the youths, endangered.”

The President said the Sahel region was awash with small arms, which accounts for severe security challenges in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. “We are in fact the biggest victims,” he lamented.

President Buhari, who spoke on time frame for reopening the borders, said it would not happen till the final report of a committee set up on the matter was submitted and considered. “We will get things sorted out.

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Our farmers, especially those who grow rice, now have a market, and are happy, and we are also concerned about hard drugs and weapons. Once the committee comes up with its recommendations, we will sit and consider them,” the President said.

While showing understanding of the need for Nigeria to protect her citizens, President Akufo-Addo pleaded for “an expedited process, because the Nigerian market is significant for certain categories of business people in Ghana.”