Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, has advised the Federal Government to end the closure of the land borders into the country. He said it would be in the national interest for the government to call off the border closure.
Rather than continue to close the land borders, Falana advised the Federal Government to “urgently dialogue with Nigeria’s neighbouring countries to jointly fight the menace of smuggling, which necessitated the border closure by Nigeria.” The lawyer gave the advice in a statement on Thursday while delivering a paper on “Rule of Law, Good Governance and Economic Development” at the annual conference of the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Accra, Ghana.
He urged the Federal Government to reject the endorsement of its border closure policy by the International Monetary Fund. He described IMF’s endorsement of the border closure policy as “a deliberate design to weaken ECOWAS regional integration agenda.”
Falana said, “Border closure is inconsistent with the letter and spirit of ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. The endorsement of the IMF is a deliberate design to weaken the ECOWAS regional integration agenda.
