Border closure and border governance dialectics in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nigeria has 86 legal access points and over 1400 illicit ones, indicating some of the world's most porous borders. Numerous transnational crimes flourish along Nigeria's borders with other neighbouring countries due to the border's porosity. The government of Nigeria resolved in August 2019 to restrict its roughly 4,500-kilometre land borders with the republics of Niger, Cameroun, Chad, and Benin to reduce cross-border crimes. The government reopened the borders precisely three years later, in August 2022, acknowledging that, despite the benefits of the strategy, Nigeria's borders inherently porous. We investigate Nigeria’s border closure and the debate it has produced in border governance using dominant qualitative method comprising secondary and primary data sources. We contend that the reason Nigeria's border closure strategy has failed is not that the borders are porous but rather that border communities view the borders as merely physical boundaries that do not obstruct cross-border exchanges because these communities cherish their transnational social, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic connections. We recommend the government of Nigeria embrace a liberal rather than a realist stance on borders to address long-time challenges with border security governance between Nigeria and its neighbours.