Babatunde Gbadamosi, governorship candidate for the Action Democratic Party (ADP), in Lagos has said the continued border closure by the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, would undermine the nation’s economy.
Gbadamosi stated this while speaking with newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos.
On November 1st, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the extension of operation code named exercise swift response.
But, Gbadamosi stressed that the closure will cause adverse effect both within and neighbouring countries.
In his words, (NAN quoted him) “It is clear that the agenda behind it is completely not for economic growth, because it will affect the earning capacity of people. If that happens, many people will not be able to meet their needs.
“Consequently, many sectors of the nation’s economy will be affected within and in the neighbouring countries that have built large doses of subscriptions on us.
“The closure will more or less affect the economy, instead of improving it. Government needs to open the economy in such a way to attract more trade and industries.
“If the government is acting against smuggling with the closure, there are ways of doing it without affecting our people.
“During the era of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, borders were shut for a period of time because of cross border bandits who ran to Benin Republic.
“But between a few days, they were arrested and handed over to the authorities and the borders were reopened.
“Smuggling is still going on during that period, but it did not affect our economy, because it was well checked.
“In fact that was the period we experienced the greatest rate of sustainable growth, because the country allowed trade to continue and the custom officials were also doing their jobs effectively”.
