Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has pledged to reopen Nigeria’s land borders with neighbouring countries if elected president in 2027.
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate made the pledge in a video circulating online and shared by party chieftain Dele Momodu on Friday.
Atiku said the border closure policy had crippled transborder trade and worsened unemployment among young people in Northern Nigeria and across the country.
“Transborder Trade is Legitimate Business”
“The Northern states are bordering Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin Republic.
“And you close all those borders. All our young men who are doing trading between these countries, they carry goods across, they do this and that, all what we call transborder trade is a legitimate business,” Atiku said.
He said many young entrepreneurs who once operated with capital running into millions of naira have been ruined.
“All the upcoming young men and women who used to have a capital of 10 million, 20 million, and they were employing two, three other people, and then all of them went bankrupt and unemployed. How can there be security?” he asked.
“So I said I am going to reopen the borders and I will,” he added.
Atiku also outlined plans to improve the movement of goods through ports in the South and South-East to ease pressure on Lagos ports and cut logistics costs to the North.
“During the last campaign, I went across to Europe to discuss with shippers and ship development companies how we can together develop South and South-Eastern ports so that there is balance as far as importation of goods and transportation of goods are concerned,” he said.
He cited his personal experience moving containers to his factory in Yola, Adamawa State.
“So when, if I drop my container in Calabar or in Uyo or in Port Harcourt, it will just take me 24 hours to take the container to Yola.
“But right now, it takes me not less than two months to take my container from Lagos because you have to cross over from South-West, you go to North-East, and then there is even no road,” Atiku said.
He said developing southern ports aligns with public demand for faster movement of goods and regional balance in trade infrastructure.
The Daily Crucible reports that Nigeria’s land borders were first closed in August 2019 under then-President Muhammadu Buhari to curb smuggling of rice, poultry, petroleum, weapons and drugs, and to boost local agricultural production.
In December 2020, Buhari ordered the reopening of four borders: Seme in Lagos, Illela in Sokoto, Maigatari in Jigawa and Mfun in Cross River.
Under President Bola Tinubu, the Federal Government further reopened the Tsamiya land border with Benin Republic in Kebbi State and the *Kamba corridor* linking Nigeria with Niger Republic in February 2026.
The Nigeria Customs Service said the reopening would be accompanied by measures to prevent smuggling and other illegal activities.
However, several strategic border posts remain under restriction or tight control.
