President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria and her neighbors will enjoy maximum peace if they must place higher premium on the effective policing of borders.
The President made the observation in Abuja, while playing host to the Secretary General, World Customs Organization, WCO, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, who is in Nigeria for a Global Conference on Fragile Borders
President Buhari noted that the fragile nature of entry points into various countries was enhancing terrorism, economic sabotage, and illicit flow of arms.
Commending Mikuriya for his 4th visit to the country, President Buhari said Dr. Mikuriya had come again at time Nigeria was preparing for her general elections, stressing that he has made it a cardinal commitment to ensure each Nigerian is able to exercise their franchise by participating in a free and fair election, in true practice of Nigeria’s relatively nascent democracy.
Theme of the conference is ‘Enabling Customs in Fragile and and Conflict-Affected Situations,’ which the President said was of critical importance, as the country was preparing for the polls, noting that the theme was equally important to the entire world.
President Buhari said he was happy that the WCO had dedicated an entire conference to the subject and theme, thus recognizing not only its importance, but dedicating working sessions and brainstorming around it, and inviting great thought leadership to dissect the issues and explore how nations in Africa could address this problem, given their unique set of circumstances, while also pursuing their joint and collective idea of an interconnected continent via trade and movement of goods and services.
President Buhari hoped that the conference would seek to understand the operating environment existing around countries struggling with fragile borders, and see how comprehensive and exhaustive solutions could be proposed to deal with the multi-faceted nature of the issues.
Dr. Mikuriya had described WCO as a 184-member worldwide organisation, in which Nigeria plays an active and vibrant role.
He said customs services must now go beyond mere revenue generation, and delve into security, noting that without security at the borders, nations could not effectively collect revenue.
He lamented that customs officials were often targets of terrorists and armed groups, and emphasised the need to have collaboration with other security agencies, share intelligence, and deploy technology.
He thanked Nigeria for hosting the three days conference.
Bello Wakili