Daily Trust Editorial, Monday June 23, 2025
On Tuesday, June 3, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, said at a forum in Abuja that Nigeria’s deepening security crisis demands the construction of fences along the country’s borders with its four neighbours – Cameroon, Niger, Benin and Chad.
Citing Pakistan with its 2,611 kilometres of border with Afghanistan fenced and Saudi Arabia and Iraq’s 1,400 km border fully fenced, Gen Musa said: “Because of the level of insecurity they have, they had to fence their borders… That is why we need to secure fully and take control of our borders. It is critical for our survival and sovereignty.”
This is not the first time the CDS is floating the idea. On March 4, 2025, Gen Musa, represented by Defence Headquarters Chief of Policy, AVM Sayo Olatunde, told members of the House Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons that the porousness of Nigeria’s borders calls for their fencing as a way of curbing small arms and light weapons proliferation. “Yes, we have to fence our borders. Porous borders are one of the critical drivers of insecurity in Nigeria. We have neighbours and countries that are not stable around Nigeria,” he said.
Yet, Nigerians living across borders with neighbouring countries share strong cultural, ethnic, and linguistic affinities, often sharing traits beyond the artificial colonial boundaries, which underlines the frequent cross-border interactions and a sense of solidarity among communities. And this is what criminals have taken advantage of by turning the borders into routes for trafficking arms and ammunition to terrorists, bandits and other armed groups.
On November 2, 2016, then Chief Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, stated that 60 per cent of Boko Haram members terrorising the North East are foreigners who crossed into Nigeria through the porous border points. And this has been the reason for the call to fence the borders.
But we at Daily Trust believe that at this moment, this call is a distraction as constructing fences alone is not a cure all against the influx of terrorists and other criminals into the country. While the proposition may be bold and well-intentioned, we have to be careful so as not to be led into a blind alley because building such a gigantic project seems impractical or even extreme. The financial cost of constructing approximately 4,047 km of Nigeria’s total land border length with its four neighbours would be humongous, considering the country’s socio-economic challenges.
The breakdown includes Benin Republic (773 km), Niger Republic (1,497 km), Chad (87 km), and Cameroon (1,690 km). And these consist of vast stretches of land and dense vegetation, which has made it difficult to establish effective physical barriers and patrol routes, especially along the northern frontiers, which run through the Sahara Desert and the Lake Chad basin.
It must be noted that over the years, the federal government has made feeble attempts to stop illegal migration, considering that Nigeria has only 84 approved land border control posts, whereas there are over 1,400 illegal unmanned border routes across over 4,047-kilometre kilometres.
Moreover, fencing the borders is hasty as the nation’s defence and security forces have not exhausted their capacities to deal with the existential challenges of terrorism and banditry. And they have not thrown in the towel yet.
Therefore, Daily Trust believes that more than fencing, what Nigeria needs urgently are committed and patriotic security and border operatives who would shun the lure of turning the borders into a means of livelihood without bothering about the criminal activities going on there.
The defence and security agencies should deploy their drones and other technologies, such as border surveillance systems, electronic sensors, and smart surveillance equipment, to help effectively monitor and secure the borders. There should also be sustained and improved intelligence gathering along the border communities. There should be a replacement of outdated and insufficient border infrastructure while recruiting additional personnel.
We should also revive and deepen diplomatic and military collaboration with neighbouring countries, regional bodies such as ECOWAS, Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and African Union (AU) towards improving intelligence sharing and joint border patrols that would help to effectively stem the infiltration of terrorists, criminals, and illegal migrants.
Additionally, there should be deliberate involvement of local border populations in surveillance and early warning efforts. And the issue of good governance and security-focused programmes should not be glossed over in the border communities as their absence is a sure structural driver of insecurity, which can be traced to poverty, unemployment, and lack of government presence. In this direction, the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), has not fulfilled its mandate in this direction as it is yet to serve as “The vehicle for the provision of people oriented, sustainable and equitable development projects in the border communities, thereby ensuring their full integration, commitment, patriotism and loyalty to Nigeria.”
In the long term, fencing parts of the borders would be considered for high-risk zones, especially for targeted security purposes. But as an immediate solution, this would be overly simplistic to the resolution of a complex, multidimensional security crisis. It may simply turn out as just a symbolic, costly venture that would be operationally ineffective, with limited impact on envisaged goals.
Far from fencing, what Nigeria requires urgently is the urgent transformation of our border protection strategy that upholds the integrity of our territorial boundaries through the implementation of international standards and good practices of sound, modern, integrated and cooperative border management.
This should be accompanied by an effective deployment of Nigeria’s military and security assets towards dealing a decisive blow to terrorists, bandits and other non-state actors, which would put a stop to the insecurity plaguing the nation. This is the way to preserve our nation’s sovereignty, public safety, and economic security, not a push for a gargantuan fence project that has no guarantee of being completed.