Nigeria is in a precarious situation with its neighbours. Arms and ammunition slip in through the western border with the Benin Republic. From Cameroon in the east, militants launch intermittent attacks. But the biggest security threat is from the north where Nigeria shares a notoriously porous 1,698km border with two Lake Chad Basin countries: Niger and Chad, with Burkina Faso and Mali not far away to the northwest.

For decades, weapons have been flowing freely through the Sahel, a region of 12 countries weakened by insurgency, banditry, extremist groups, and organised crime. Nigeria’s internal security rests on water-tight borders, the authorities should, therefore, prioritise the security of its international boundaries.

Reports that there are over 320 unmanned illegal routes through which illicit drugs, other contraband, and weapons are smuggled into Nigeria are a clear challenge to national security and a danger to public safety. Closing these illicit gateways or deploying armed border operatives there would go a long way to restrict the inflow of dangerous weapons into the country.

By 2012, barely a year after the fall of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the fluid movement of arms peaked with more weapons from the country’s fighting groups finding their way southwards down to Nigeria, and ending up in the hands of non-state actors. The result is predictable: instability, killings, human displacement, lack of development, and poverty, not just in the upper reaches of the Sahel but also in Nigeria.

Between 2009 and 2020, more than 35,000 people were killed by Boko Haram, according to the United Nations Development Programme. Between 2010 and 2023, approximately 13,485 deaths were attributed to banditry. Add to that the wounded, the internally displaced and hungry, the kidnapped, schools razed, farms seized, children forced out of school, and people in poor health, and you get a clear picture of the enormity of the disaster.

That is why Nigeria, Niger, and Chad rank high on the Fragile States Index. The FSI scores countries according to their level of weakness and vulnerability. The higher the score, the weaker and more vulnerable the country is. In 2024, Nigeria scored 96.6, higher than Niger at 95.2, and Cameroon at 94.3. Somalia took the top prize at 111.3. This is an unflattering company.

Nigerian troops have been battling the insurgents and terror groups over the years with mixed results. In his October 1 speech, President Bola Tinubu said gains had been made against the non-state actors with many of their commanders taken out but he did not declare victory. And rightly so. The situation is dire. Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province have spawned one of the worst humanitarian crises in Nigeria. It is projected that if things remain the way they are, some 1.1 million people may die by 2030, a mere seven years away. This must not be allowed to happen.

Tinubu’s Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, blames the security situation on the porous borders, saying Nigeria had become vulnerable to the spillover effects of the conflicts in the Sahel. He spoke at a conference organised to examine the Sahelian violence and its impact on Nigeria’s security challenges. Idris lamented that the violence in the Sahel “threatens our security [and] also challenges our capacity to maintain effective control over our borders.” He missed the point. The porous borders do not need a lament; they demand action. The borders should be fixed, and fast.

Apart from the illegal paths through which weapons and contraband are ferried, some borders are also short on personnel. The Nigerian Immigration Service should recruit more hands. And the officials should be adequately equipped to effectively check the influx of illegal immigrants, many of whom currently live on the borders.

The NIS should also massively deploy technology at the borders, providing personnel with helicopters and surveillance equipment such as scanners, night vision cameras, and drones, among others. A country with uncontrolled borders puts itself and its citizens in great danger. The 13-year-long counterinsurgency proves that.

The Federal Government should empower the NIS to respond to the dire situation at the borders. There should also be inter-agency synergy to keep the borders safe. Porous borders have serious implications for the economy.

Non-state actors who slipped into the country have been kidnapping and killing farmers, and preventing them from planting or harvesting. They have forced businesses in the formal and informal sectors to close. Schools have shut and pupils have been left to roam the streets, becoming potential recruits for the informal army that forced them out of school.The government should develop the political will to fix the gaping borders. Everything depends on it. (The PUNCH Editorial)