Insecurity and calls for border fence in Nigeria: an appraisal, by Olakunle Osisanya

Introduction
At a security conference organized by the Nigerian National Assembly on Tuesday, 3rd June 2025, the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, highlighted the imperatives of patriotism, good governance, local government autonomy, a comprehensive identity database, and border management, emphasizing fencing Nigeria’s land borders to curb insecurity.

Due to frustrations with the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency and banditry across parts of Nigeria, the idea of a border fence resonated with the public. A short video of the CDS promoting the idea circulated widely on social media, citing examples from the Pakistan-Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia-Iraq borders. The proposal has since attracted contrasting opinions and remains a public debate.

Statement of the Problem
Nigeria covers an area of 923,768 km², comprising densely and sparsely populated areas. Large portions of the hinterland, including national parks and forests, lack government presence, policing, and basic infrastructure, creating conducive environments for violent non-state actors.

A BBC Hausa report (19th July 2021) categorized Nigeria’s security crises as jihadism, herders-farmers clashes, banditry, kidnapping, separatist insurgency, and oil militancy. Acts leading to insecurity include illegal appropriation of territory, market control, tax levies, illicit mining, disruption of schooling, kidnappings, cultism, sit-at-home enforcement, farm destruction, livestock rustling, vandalism, oil bunkering, drug abuse, smuggling, and human trafficking.

Policing in Nigeria is exclusive to the federal government. The Nigeria police-citizen ratio stands at 1:650 against the recommended UN ratio of 1:460. Police deployment favors urban areas, with many officers engaged in VIP protection. Nigeria faces myriad issues threatening national security.

Objectives
This write-up reviews the history and examples of international borders, examines the peculiarities of Nigeria’s land borders from geographical, political, socio-cultural, and economic perspectives, and appraises the costs of erecting a border fence versus opportunity costs, concluding with observations and recommendations.

Historical Context
Fencing settlements is as old as human civilization, originating from the need for protection. Examples include the Trojan horse myth, the Great Wall of China, the biblical wall of Jericho, the Berlin Wall, the America-Mexico border wall, the Israel-Gaza wall, and the Kenya-Somalia wall. Nigerian towns historically had defensive walls such as the ‘kofars’ of the north, the Benin city moat, and the Yoruba “asobode” border guards. Thus, fencing Nigeria’s land borders is not unusual.

Peculiarities of Nigeria’s Land Borders

• Geography: Nigeria’s climate and vegetation extend from the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf of Guinea through coastal swamps and rainforests to the Sahel savanna.
• Borders:
  • West: 809 km with Benin Republic, cutting across all vegetation zones.
  • North: 1,608 km with Niger Republic, across the Sahel, ending at the 85 km border with Lake Chad in Chad Republic.
  • East: 1,975 km with Cameroon Republic, from coastal swamps to Sahel, affected by Mandara mountains and Mambila plateau.
    Nigeria’s 4,400 km land borders lack natural physical barriers, making them porous.
• Political: European colonial partition ignored preexisting ethnic groups and kingdoms, slicing communities into separate countries with different colonial heritages (British for Nigeria, German/French for neighbors). This created divided loyalties and feelings of marginalization due to distance from administrative capitals and lack of amenities.
• Social: Despite colonial divisions, indigenous people maintain strong cross-border cultural and social ties, including intermarriages and shared ceremonies. Ethnic groups like the Egun, Yoruba, Batonu, Zabarma, Hausa, Fulani, and Kanuri have cross-border affinities.
• Economic: Historical trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic trade evolved into formal and informal trade across borders, including grains, spices, livestock, and cash crops. Nigeria leads in ECOWAS and AfCFTA initiatives promoting African trade integration. However, economic disparities and currency differences incentivize illegal trade such as smuggling of fuel, arms, migrants, narcotics, and minerals.
• Environmental and Security Challenges: Climate change has damaged Sahel agriculture, causing resource conflicts and migration southwards into Nigeria. Mismanagement of migrant integration has led to increased criminality.
• Border Security Management: Agencies at land border posts include Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Port Health Services, and Agricultural Quarantine Service. There are 114 land border control posts and 72 patrol bases, but over 1,000 illegal routes exist. The average distance between control posts is about 39 km, making effective coverage difficult with current manpower and logistics. Inter-agency rivalry further compromises border security.

Cost Implications of Erecting a Border Fence
The Lagos-Calabar highway costs about N4 billion per km. Using this as a template, erecting a solid fence around Nigeria’s 4,400 km land border could cost over N17 trillion and take several years to complete.

Observations

• Despite some criminality, normal human activities dominate border areas; no empirical evidence links border fencing to ending insecurity.
• The projected N17 trillion cost is likely too expensive and time-consuming, unlikely to attract private sector participation.
• A border fence could further divide border communities, causing socio-cultural and diplomatic resentment and vandalism.
• It is doubtful a border fence would significantly reduce insecurity in Nigeria.

Recommendations

• Prioritize funding for socio-economic infrastructure in border communities.
• Increase recruitment, training, technology, and logistics for border agencies and improve inter-agency collaboration.
• Approve realistic remuneration for border security officers reflecting risks and government commitment.
• Consider reviewing or decentralizing border security architecture, following models like the USA’s separation of Customs, Immigration, and Border Patrol.
• Increase government presence in hinterlands by providing basic amenities to discourage rural-urban migration.
• Decentralize policing to all governance levels with recruitment and capacity development.
• Reform and decentralize the National Parks Service with increased budget and staffing for forest and park rangers.

Olakunle Osisanya, fdc
[email protected]