ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has promised to reopen Nigeria’s land borders if he wins the 2027 presidential election, saying the ongoing restrictions have crippled transborder trade and thrown many young Nigerians out of work.
Atiku made the pledge while addressing supporters in a video shared on Friday by ADC chieftain Dele Momodu.
He noted that Nigeria’s northern states share borders with Cameroon, Chad, Niger Republic and Benin Republic, making cross-border trade a major economic activity in the region. Closing the borders, he argued, pushed many young traders out of business entirely.
“The Northern states is bordering Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin Republic. And you close all those borders. All our young men who are doing trading between these countries… all what we call transborder trade is a legitimate business,” he said.
According to him, young entrepreneurs who once ran businesses worth ₦10 million to ₦20 million in capital, and employed two to three other people, were wiped out by the closures — with implications for security.
“How can there be security?” he asked, linking the loss of jobs and livelihoods to rising insecurity among young people.
Atiku said reopening the borders would be one of his first priorities in office.
Beyond the borders, Atiku said his administration would prioritise upgrading port infrastructure in the South. He recalled engaging European shippers and port development firms during his last campaign on plans to develop ports in the South and South-East, arguing this would ease the flow of imported goods to the North and cut costs nationwide.
He cited his own experience running a factory in Yola, Adamawa State, to illustrate the problem: a container dropped at Calabar, Uyo or Port Harcourt could reach Yola in 24 hours, he said, but the same container currently takes over two months to reach Yola from Lagos due to poor road networks linking the South-West to the North-East.
Atiku said fixing southern ports and roads would ease pressure on businesses and improve the movement of goods across the country.
Nigeria’s land borders were largely shut in August 2019 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, with the government citing smuggling of rice, poultry, petroleum products and other goods, as well as concerns over arms and drug trafficking. Buhari reopened four border posts — Seme (Lagos), Illela (Sokoto), Maigatari (Jigawa) and Mfun (Cross River) — in December 2020. The Tinubu administration has since reopened the Tsamiya border in Kebbi State and the Kamba corridor with Niger Republic in February 2026, though several other land borders remain restricted.
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