From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Lasun Yusuf, has warned the Federal Government against acceding to the demand of those agitating for the reopening of borders.
He posited that the demand by some Nigerians if granted, will not only affect the economy of the country but will also worsen the security situation of Nigeria.
The former legislator who spoke to Daily Sun during a chat in Osogbo, Osun State, on Tuesday, maintained that the closure of borders was to force Nigerians into producing what they eat and to strengthen the security of the country.
According to him, “It is not good for our borders to just be kept open, for so many reasons. Security is the least of it. One of the major things in a country that is aspiring to develop, particularly economically, is to make sure that you protect your border, to make sure that you don’t just bring in just anything. That will force the economy and the citizenry to make sure they begin to produce what they are going to consume. So, opening the border from an economic point of view is negative.
“Secondly, it is even far lesser than the economic impact that it will have, negatively on the economy. So, I don’t see why people are agitating for that. People are agitating for it because people are no longer able to describe how we are going to transition from the poor state that we are to the developed state. They can’t join it together. And whereas let me refer to India. When India got very poor, Gandhi said that in our lives, we were no longer going to buy food from anybody.
“If you look at Nigeria today, we are not producing what we are consuming. Just anything is brought into the country in the name of border opening. It doesn’t make sense. It impacts negatively on the economy. And once you keep your border open, then the security part of it will now come in.
“If the president sat down and analysed the situation, he would know that it doesn’t make sense to open the border. For what? So that people will just bring in rice, and spaghetti and continue to bring just anything in. So the little money that we have here will now be used to develop another country,” Yusuf said.