By Zik Gbemre
Without a doubt, border security has come to assume heightened importance in the world today as the rate of criminal activities has also increased in scale, especially since the end of the Cold War and in the wake of globalization. In fact, one of the problems facing us today as a nation, which urgently needs to be given more attention to, is the challenge of the influx of illegal immigrants into the country. Many of these aliens come through illegal routes (be it land, sea or air), while some who gained entrance through any channel of the designated border posts possibly bribed their way in. With the recent terrorist activities that left many dead and property lost in France, Belgium and Kenya, there is need for the present administration and relevant government agencies to tighten their belts and re-examine the integrity of Nigerian Borders.
As it is today, it has become easy for transitional crimes to be conducted such as the moving of money, people and goods across the world because of advancement in telecommunications, transportation and technology in general. The world has turned into a ‘global village’ with its own peculiarities as well as problems. Globalization to a large extent, has allowed criminals to move across the borders unhindered and even continue with illicit business with impunity as this affects the socio-economic development and security of lives and property. However, it should be noted that Nigeria is of no exception of this growing phenomenon, hence this brings about the increasing need for security and protection at our borders.
In any country of the world, developed and developing, security has been a major concern. Perhaps, it is the belief that socio-economic and political developments are the function of peace and security. To this end, all governments take the issue of security as primary objectives. Nigeria has been battling with transnational crimes which pose a serious threat to national security ranging from drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal arms trafficking, smuggling of all kinds,(contraband, stolen cars, firearms) theft, Advance fee fraud known as 419, kidnapping and many more. These activities constitute a threat to global and national security as they affect the socio-economic development and tarnishing the image of the country as Nigeria is daily embarrassed based on financial scams and other related trans-border crimes. Security is very paramount at the border and also the first assignment of any government as nothing could be done under insecurity of lives and property.! If the borders are insecure, the social and economic development of such country will be a Herculean task. Hence, poverty, diseases, hunger and fear will dominate the society. For instance, the increasing number of transnational crimes as well as the prevalent terrorist groups that pervaded the country disturbed the socio-economic and research efforts in advancement. The reoccurring security challenges at the borders that spread to the internal insecurity of lives and property has made it necessary for us as a nation to reexamine this issue. It is on this basis that security issues will be questioned in spite of the huge money and human resources expended on security, people still remain unprotected and apprehensive of the activities of the terrorist group known as Boko Haram and others such as increasing circulation of fake drugs, banditry, prohibited items in the market and many more. All these calls to question the security at our borders, especially with the involvemen! t of security agencies in our national borders.
Some few years back, the United States of America (USA), expressed its concern at the rate crime is spreading in Nigeria. The American government back then, through its US Ambassador to Nigeria, lamented the worsening crime rate in coastal areas and the free movement of Islamic extremists between Mali and Nigeria. The US Ambassador said as extremists’ shootings, bombings and kidnappings of foreigners continued unstopped across Nigeria, halting the violence remained a top priority of the Washington government. It was noted that officials have seen reports for years about fighters from the radical Islamic extremist network, Boko Haram, travelling to Mali to receive training there. Boko Haram, the main force behind the continuing guerilla attacks against The Federal Government, is believed by analysts and officials to have ties to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in Mali, and likely received training and weapons from them. The said US Ambassador expresse! d that Nigeria needed to attack the group on “multiple fronts,” both military and by alleviating northern Nigeria’s crushing poverty and lack of opportunities for its growing, young population.
When we first saw this report a few years ago, we considered it rather unfortunate that other countries are now the ones giving us Security Intel about the happenings and loopholes around our nation’s borders and security operations. It was as if the then Nigerian Government and relevant Security Operatives/Authorities were not proactively doing enough to curtail and address the disturbing trend of insecurity orchestrated by the terrorist sects, which is obviously threatening the national unity of the country. and even at the moment, though there has been recorded successes in the fight against terror, but it appears the war has not been won neither are we out of the woods yet because if countries like France and Belgium could be so readily attacked, as was witnessed recently, then we are not safe at all.
A lot of issues and challenges have put to risk the integrity of Nigerian borders as it stands today. Topmost on the list of these issues and challenges is the ‘porosity of our borders’. The porous borders contributed and continue to encourage the cross border crimes and instability in the region. Also, promotes the increasing number of illegal trade such as smuggling of contraband goods- adulterated drugs, stolen cars including cars that have exceeded the permissible age limit prescribed for use in Nigeria and other goods like shoes, poultry products and many more. The porous borders could also be indicated with the use of dried tree, oil drums as well as rims of tyres to demarcate the national borders, this makes the border to be disorganized, poorly managed and in secured. This promotes the unrestrained influx of illegal migrants and cross border activities. Most of these illegal immigrants find their way into Nigeria for one thing only; to cause serious ha! voc. However, there are indefinable corridors or regions that served as a route to these illegal migrants, thereby posing a serious threat to the country and the national borders. For instance, it has been discovered that Nigeria has 1497 irregular and 84 regular routes as movements were done through the illegal routes.(Nigeria Immigration Service).
By far the greatest challenge facing the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) today is the porous Nigerian borders which a former Comptroller General preferred to call “extensive and expansive boundaries.” Policing the stated huge number of entry points when the NIS service is said to have only 22,000 workforces as at 2013, many of whom are doing other duties apart from border patrols, is Herculean. Unfortunately, twice now, attempts to recruit new members of staff into the organization had ended in a fiasco. First was in July 2008 when 17 persons reportedly died during the nationwide recruitment to the NIS and Nigeria Prisons Service. The second and more recent tragedy occurred on March 15, 2014 when another 15 applicants were also confirmed dead in stampedes during the Service recruitment exercise. Scores were also injured. While there are obvious attributes that had contributed to these unfortunate incidents, we all would agree with the fact that the nation&r! squo;s Immigration Service sure has a lot on their plate to do to address these problems without turning it into a fiasco. Sadly, despite the shortfall in the workforce of the NIS in manning the nation’s borders, we still see them being used as ‘body guards’ and ‘escorts’ by some elites and government officials in our society, especially around social events. This practice seriously needs to be stopped.
In other words, another problem related to border security in Nigeria is the inadequate manpower or personnel which have a negative impact on the security of our national borders. It makes it difficult for the security operatives to adequately maim the national boundaries and effectively patrol these several corridors that lead to the country. The inadequate manpower does not allow for adequate patrolling of these illegal routes as criminals use the illegal routes as a means of entry into the country. Also the criminals sometimes outsmart the security operatives at the borders due to inadequate personnel and logistics problems. Another problem related to this is the issue of corruption. That is, corrupt practices of the security operatives at the borders pose a serious challenge to the border security. The corrupt and inept attitudes of border officials resulting in the numerous check points of ‘bamboo suspended by oil drums’ also contributed negatively to the! border security. It is important to note that these checkpoints are not meant to check Passports but to extort money from people. Hence, the criminals easily infiltrate the borders as smugglers bribe their way into the country. It also explains why we have many criminals involving in trans-border activities and terrorists in the country as criminals move in arms and ammunition and thousands of innocent Nigerians have been killed and many more die in the hands of Islamic sects with the influx of weapons in the country as smugglers continue with their business without being punished.
The issue at stake here is the need for the NIS to come to terms in addressing its duties of “aliens control and border patrol management; and the issuance of all Nigerian travel documents.” We find appalling and rather a disturbing trend that every now and then, there are reports of repatriated illegal immigrants, not to mention the fact that there are still countless unknown illegal immigrants in the country that either are here to cause havoc to the national security or are here to do whatever pleases them since no one is checking their activities. Nigeria has become a destination point where foreigners of all colour and race can’ conveniently’ come into the country without any restrictions and do whatever they please. This makes one to wonder if we actually have an immigration service. Just early last year, there were reports that the Akwa Ibom State Command of the NIS has repatriated 460 illegal migrants as well as r! escued six human trafficking victims. There were reports also that the NIS arrested and repatriated 430 illegal illegal immigrants in Jigawa between January and November 2014. The comptroller of the NIS in the State, Mr. Isa Jere, made the announcement in Dutse, the State capital, while parading seven Nigerians and one Malian illegal immigrant. Jere said that 90 percent of the arrested immigrants were from Niger Republic while others were from Cameroun, Chad and Mali. This is just few out of many instances of reported repatriated illegal migrants cases in the country. And these are the ones that the NIS are aware of and made known to the public. What about those other unaccounted illegal aliens in the country? Only God knows the huge number. The fact is that the way illegal migrants enter into Nigeria undisturbed, seriously calls for concern.
The past Comptroller General (CG) of the MIS, Mrs. Rose Chinyere Uzoma, once mentioned the challenge posed by the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) Free Movement protocol. However, much as ECOWAS guarantees free movement of persons and free trade within the sub-region, the protocol does not say such persons should not have genuine travel documents. The onus lies on the NIS to be very mindful of who and how traveling documents/visas are issued and checked on our borders, especially borders running across the Northern parts of Nigeria where the terrorist sects are said to easily find entrance into the country. The Nation Immigration Service seriously has a lot of jobs to do in addressing these challenges being posed by our borders integrity. There is need for the NIS to brace to the challenge. There job is not to be in Offices or the various Airports across the country looking for who and how to extort money from people or allow themselves to be used! like the Police in social events.
Illegal immigration in Nigeria is a serious problem and our borders have become quite porous. Let us bear in mind that Nigeria borders are artificial creation from colonialism which continues to pose a serious threat to the country. The demarcation of the borders was done by the colonial masters without considerations to the culture of the people as can be seen in the cultural ties of marriages, celebration of religious festivities, language and many more. It should be noted therefore, that boundary delimitation affects the cultural and ethnic homogeneity of the border communities to the extent that one cannot differentiate a ‘Nigerian’ from ‘Nigerien’ due to culture and linguistics in which communities with homogenous culture and language are found at different sides of the borderline hence makes it difficult to put in place immigration laws when members can just change their identity when they feel like.
Though, the government is said to be investing millions to secure the border, however it appears the needed results are yet to be seen. It was also revealed that people from Niger are the biggest group of illegal immigrants to Nigeria. Lagos state Command of the Nigerian Immigration service said recently that the largest numbers of illegal immigrants in Nigeria are from Niger Republic. This was revealed just as the service deported eight Filipinos working in a multinational company without a valid visa. It was also reported that since the arrest of a Chadian on the grounds of terrorism in area of Lagos, security agencies in the State have increased the clampdown on illegal immigrants. This is just the situation in Lagos alone; we then imagine the statistics and situation in other States across the Federation. It is no longer news that there are so many foreigners who enter the country under the guise of working in one company or the other, after which they end up staying ! back to engage in all manner of illegal activities and unwholesome practices. The worst part is that most of us see these white foreigners and treat them like VIPs whereas; back in their country home they are nobodies’.
Looking at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), one would say it has come a long way since it was carved out of the Nigeria police Force in 1958. The Immigration Department, as it was known then, was entrusted with the core immigration duties under the headship of the chief Federal Immigration officer. During this period, only the visa and Business Sections were set up. However, on August 1, 1963, Immigration Department was formally established by an Act of Parliament (cap 171, Laws of the Federation Nigeria). At that point, its operations and control were moved from the Nigeria Police to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. Since then, the functions and responsibilities of the NIS have been expanded to include introduction of the ECOWAS and African affairs/bilateral division; aliens control and border patrol management; and the issuance of all Nigerian travel documents. Not to sound biased, among the successes the service had recorded in it’s over five decad! es of operations include the introduction of information communication technology applications in its operations. By moving from analogue to digital or manual operations to computerization, the Service introduced the combined Expatriate Residence permit and Aliens card. It also announced online payment for its facilities while also establishing a website to promote its activities. Furthermore, according to the organization: “The introduction of Machine Readable Electronic Passports in 2007 was a landmark achievement by the Service in that Nigeria became the first country in Africa to introduce the e-passport and among the first 40 countries in the world to do so. The embrace of the e-passport has become a major tool in the fight against “trans-border criminality as the e-passport contains the biometric details of holders thus making it easy for detection of persons travelling under false identities or compromised travel documents The Nigeria Immigration Service ! equally claims to have established a well-equipped forensic la! boratory for the examination of travel documents and monetary instruments. However, it is training a special border patrol corps to help fight terrorism and other crimes at the nation’s borders.
With all the above, readers may think one is talking of a saintly organization that is efficient, effective and faultless. Far from it! Instead, the Nigeria Immigration Service is a cesspool of corruption, nepotism, and primordial sentiments. Before the advent of e-passport, incidences of fake passports being churned out by some unscrupulous members of staff of the service in cahoots with some undesirable elements in the society who are master forgers were very alarming. Also, before the advent of e-passport, it was possible for an individual to have multiple passports bearing different names, much as it was easy for non-Nigerians to get the country’s green passport. It is noteworthy that the e-passport has only significantly reduced these fraudulent practices but has not eliminated it.
Corruption still thrives at the NIS. It is practically impossible to get the e-passport at the official rates. Many who want express service still go through touts and middlemen who help to speed up the acquisition process even though one has to go physically to have one’s biometric details captured. Anyone who wants to follow laid down rules and procedures to the letter should be ready to wait indefinitely. The process of getting the e-passport is painfully slow and can take weeks and months unless you’re ready to “play ball”. Even getting ones passport renewed is no less tedious as only about four persons are doing the biometric capturing at the NIS headquarters in Abuja and here you have hundreds of people turning up every day to make requests for the passports.
The NIS has also on several occasions been rocked with “job-for-sale” scandals where prospective applicants are made to illegally pay hundreds of thousands of naira to a syndicate in exchange for limited job vacancies. But like we have said before, by far the greatest challenge facing the NIS today is the porous Nigerian borders which have led to the influx of illegal immigrants into the country. Why can’t we have the NIS engage in the usual rigorous process of allowing immigrants into the country like we see in other advanced countries? For instance, foreigners coming into the country through the Airports should be made to go through a rigorous process before they are allowed into Nigeria. At the point of entry, there is need to ask foreigners what business do they have to do in Nigeria; how long will they be staying in the country and where; can they convince us that they will not abscond or overstay their welcome in the coun! try, and so on and so forth.
These are some of the standard questions Nigerians especially, are made to go through abroad before they are given visas or allowed entry into foreign lands. Our immigration service officials should ask foreigners some of these questions at the points of entry in all Nigerian Airports; just the same way we see it in Heathrow Airport, J.F Kennedy Airport, Manchester Airport, London City Airport, Amsterdam (Schiphol) Airport, George Bush Airport, etc. Even children are asked questions like if the adults with them are really their parents or family members as the case may be. All of which, is to ensure the sanctity and integrity of its borders of entry in controlling the influx of ‘illegal/legal’ immigrants. What is also interesting is the fact that in these stated foreign Airports above, immigrants are always asked what have they come to do in their country? Though you must have filled all the necessary documents (including the landing one is still asked the sam! e questions no matter who you are or how many times you are traveling through that same Airport within a week. The only people immune to such rigorous questioning are Presidents of the countries and Diplomats, who says we cannot do same in Nigerian Airports? Why should we allow every dick and harry, especially Foreigners, to enter the country as they see please and do whatever they like? It is sad to note that many foreigners today in the country are without genuine papers to justify their stay and business in Nigeria. This seriously has to be checked and addressed. Some of them come into the country on visits, or to attend a business meeting, conference or workshop, but after which, they practically chose to remain in the country to do God knows what.
It is also worthy to note that most of the so called expatriates working in oil and gas offshore Platforms of International Oil companies (lOCS) like shell, chevron, Mobil, Texaco, Agip, etc, do not have Resident Permits and proper papers to live and work in Nigeria. But they hide under the guise of the companies to create the impression that their stay here is legal. These are prevailing circumstances that are never tolerated in other foreign countries where Nigerians are seeking to live and work. We have also observed that most of the people today that are doing Security Guards (aka ‘Maigard’) either for residences or business outfits in the country are not Nigerians but are foreigners mostly from neighbouring African countries. All of these pose as security threats that need to be checked.
We understand that the porous and chaotic nature of our borders poses severe security challenges for the nation and in particular, the Nigeria Immigration service in the arduous task of border control and management. The difficult terrain in most of these border locations, existence of settlements along border lines without regard for buffer zones and the contiguous nature of our borders make effective migration management a quite herculean task. However, the NIS can initiate ‘proactive measures’ and copy some of the practices observed in other countries that have recorded success stories in border management and alien control. As noted by the former Comptroller General above, “the situation with Nigerian borders will improve remarkably if land border settlers are relocated to distant locations from the buffer zones to give statutory security agencies at the borders the latitude to operate within clearly d! efined border territories. Under a scenario like this, it will be very clear to any person entering or leaving the country that he or she is crossing international boundaries. The current experience where houses are built along border lines makes strict control impossible. I know that clearing buffer zones of settlements has huge cost implications as border settlers will have to be provided with new accommodation and other basic facilities.” This is a step in the right direction that the Nigerian Government seriously needs to come in and make happen. Still proffering solutions to secure the nation’s porous borders, the former CG of the NIS further posited that “we can also remedy the present situation with the construction of border plazas or auto-gates, equipped with all necessary modern migration management facilities as obtained in most international borders.
Again, border operatives need to be adequately provided with office and residential accommodation as well as other necessary operational logistics. A situation where Immigration officers stay under trees with rope tied across the road without adequate arms and ammunition does not create proper atmosphere to discharge their duties effectively. In many cases, you find border security operatives residing in houses owned by suspected human traffickers and smugglers. Under such situation do you expect these people to live up to desired expectations? This is why it is very necessary to make necessary provisions for security operatives in border locations.” We strongly believe these are areas and challenges that the Nigerian Government seriously needs to come in and assist to make happen in ensuring the integrity of Nigerian borders.
Zik Gbemre,JP.
National Coordinator
Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)
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