The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has dismissed former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s claim that Nigeria’s land borders need to be reopened, insisting that the country’s borders are already open to legitimate trade and movement.
Tunji-Ojo said the Federal Government had reopened several major land borders and that restrictions still in place in some locations were primarily security measures aimed at protecting border communities and traders from terrorism and banditry.
The minister spoke in a statement issued on Saturday in response to Atiku’s recent pledge to reopen Nigeria’s land borders if elected President in 2027.
According to Tunji-Ojo, the claim that Nigeria’s borders remain closed was inaccurate, stressing that “Nigerian borders are not closed and so cannot be reopened.”
He explained that the previous administration reopened Seme, Illela, Maigatari and Mfum borders on December 16, 2020, while Idiroko and Ikom were subsequently reopened for goods and services on April 20, 2022.
The minister added that the current administration reopened Kamba and Tsamiya borders in Kebbi State in February 2026, restoring links with Niger Republic and Benin Republic.
Tunji-Ojo also challenged the presentation of border restrictions involving Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin as a single policy of economic closure.
He said some border closures, particularly those involving Cameroon, were triggered by security threats from Boko Haram and predated the 2019 trade policy.
“The prolonged closures on the Cameroon border, at Banki and Amchidé, did not arise from the 2019 trade policy at all. They date to 2014, when Boko Haram forced their closure for security reasons,” he said.
He noted that some of the affected crossings were later reopened following joint military and stabilisation operations involving Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
According to the minister, Fotokol and Gambaru were reopened in 2021 after security improvements, demonstrating that border management had involved both economic and national security considerations.
He warned that portraying the different phases of border management as one continuous shutdown could distort the history of Nigeria’s border policies.
“Folding this separate, security-driven history into one continuous 2019 shutdown misrepresents two distinct issues, trade regulation and counter-insurgency, as a single failure,” Tunji-Ojo said.
The minister, however, acknowledged that not all border crossings, particularly in some northern areas, were operating without restrictions.
He attributed such restrictions to continuing threats from banditry and insurgency, saying the government would not sacrifice the safety of traders and border communities in the name of unrestricted movement.
“Where banditry or residual insurgent activity persists, tighter control is a deliberate security judgement, not neglect,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo argued that effective border management could not be reduced to a choice between completely shutting borders and allowing unrestricted movement.
He said the government’s approach was based on balancing security, documentation, customs compliance and legitimate cross-border trade.
The minister urged political actors to present concrete alternatives rather than relying on what he described as an inaccurate portrayal of existing border policies.
“Political competition should not become a competition to rewrite recent history,” he said.
“If he has a new border proposal, he should set it out and explain how it differs from the current approach, rather than treating separate trade, security and infrastructure issues as one and the same.”
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