ATIKU’S BORDERS RE-OPENING WILL WORSEN INSECURITY — FG

The Federal Government on Thursday said the pledge by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to reopen all Nigerian borders, if elected president, would cause food crisis and worsen insecurity in the country.

Atiku had, during his campaign in Katsina on Tuesday, promised to tackle the insecurity in the country and reopen all Nigerian borders if elected president in 2023.

But the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who spoke in Abuja on Thursday at the 15th edition of the PMB Administration’s Scorecard Series (2015-2023), said Atiku’s pledge was a red flag to Nigerians who, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s admonition, had been striving to produce what they eat and eat what they produce.

He said out of desperation, and quote “he (Atiku) is ready to worsen the security situation in Nigeria by throwing open all the borders and allowing a massive inflow of small arms and light weapons into the country. Only an inordinately-ambitious candidate will wish to return Nigeria to an era of massive importation of food, to the detriment of local farmers, and an era of unbridled inflow of weapons. End Quote.

The minister said while Nigeria was the number one export destination for rice in 2014, the country had now moved to number 79 according to Thai authorities.

He said opening the borders indiscriminately would return Nigeria to the number one importer of Thai rice in 2023.