A Kaduna-based high ranking politician and IT Consultant, Hon. Adamu Ahmad Dattijo, has said the closure of the borders by President Buhari had done nothing for the northern part of the country except bringing economic depression and high cost of living.
Hon. Adamu Dattijo made the remarks during a programme: Dialogue, hosted by LibertyTV, in Kaduna.
The lawmaker said that the border-closure by the administrationwas meant to break the northern part of the country, because according to him, most of the youths in the northern part of the country have lost their jobs without the government providing them with alternative means. At one point the government left the southern coast of the country for higher taxes which in turn made life more expensive in the north.
Recall that President Buhari has said that his administration will reopen the country’s borders following the advice of economists to the government to reopen it to revive the economy which is on the verge of collapse. However, Dattijo queried, If you sit down and count, even as the government says go back to farming, between our farmers and the rice mills, who is more likely to benefit from the border closure?
Because the big owners of these companies are benefiting from the rice imports; because they are the ones who are subsidizing the government and not the poor who are cultivating their fields. Now these companies are coming to our villages from the south of the country to buy food cheaply and then come and sell it to us at a high price. Now the rice grown in the country is beyond the reach of the poor, because even in the market you have 25,000 to 30,000 naira to get local rice”, he lamented.
According to him, “Before the borders were closed, we used to get food easily as it was brought into this country after paying taxes and shipping money from another country. However, it is grown in our country, Nigeria, without any importation, without tax, why is it more expensive than our imports? What is the use of closing the gates to the poor of the north in such a situation?
