The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has taken issue with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s recent campaign promise to reopen Nigeria’s land borders if elected in 2027, arguing that the former vice president’s claim is built on a flawed understanding of the country’s border management history.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Saturday, Tunji-Ojo said Atiku’s narrative incorrectly lumps together two entirely different situations — a temporary trade restriction imposed in 2019 and long-standing security closures along the Cameroon border that predate that policy by five years.
The minister, who oversees the Nigeria Immigration Service, pointed out that Nigeria’s borders are currently open and operational, making Atiku’s “reopening” pledge both redundant and misinformed. He detailed a timeline of border reopenings stretching from December 2020, when Seme, Illela, Maigatari and Mfum were restored for activities, through April 2022 when Idiroko and Ikom followed suit. More recently, in February 2026, Kamba and Tsamiya in Kebbi State were also reopened, connecting Nigeria to Niger and Benin Republics respectively.
Tunji-Ojo took particular issue with Atiku’s grouping of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic into a single narrative of border closure. He explained that the extended shutdown at Banki and Amchidé along the Cameroon border was never part of the 2019 trade policy. Instead, those crossings were shut down in 2014 as a direct response to the Boko Haram insurgency and were eventually reopened in 2019, with Fotokol and Gambaru following in 2021 after coordinated military efforts involving Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
The minister cautioned that conflating these separate episodes into one continuous closure misrepresents two fundamentally different challenges — trade regulation and counter-insurgency — as a single policy failure.
Addressing the current state of northern border crossings, Tunji-Ojo acknowledged that some remain under tighter control. However, he insisted this is a deliberate security measure rather than an oversight, warning that reopening areas still plagued by banditry or insurgent remnants would endanger traders and border communities rather than help them.
He stressed that modern border management is not a binary choice between total closure and unrestricted movement, but rather a careful balancing act involving security screening, documentation, customs compliance and controlled trade facilitation.
The minister concluded by challenging Atiku to present a concrete border proposal that clearly distinguishes itself from the current approach, rather than recycling a narrative that mixes unrelated trade, security and infrastructure issues into one misleading claim. He urged political actors to avoid rewriting recent history for campaign purposes.
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