The Presidency on Friday criticized the campaign pledge by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to “open the borders,” calling the slogan misleading because Nigeria’s land frontiers are already operational.
Special Adviser on Media and Public. Communication Sunday Dare in a statement said “Most land borders were reopened on March 14, 2024,” noting that the government “has not reversed that position.”
The presidential spokesman said that President Bola Tinubu formally reopened the Kamba border in Kebbi State on February 14, 2026, a move the administration says brought economic and diplomatic benefits.
The statement described the dispute as one of terminology and policy detail rather than access.
“An open border is not an uncontrolled border,” it said, urging Mr. Atiku to specify which border controls he would lift, why he would do so, and what safeguards his administration would deploy against terrorists, arms traffickers and smuggling networks.
The presidency noted security concerns along Nigeria’s northern frontier, where instability in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin has turned porous borders into vectors for transnational crime and violent extremism.
Citing the Global Terrorism Index 2026, Dare said roughly 41% of terrorist attacks occur within 50 kilometres of an international border, and about 64% within 100 kilometres—figures it used to justify continued surveillance and coordinated military deployments in the Northeast and Northwest corridors.
“Border management must balance facilitation of legitimate trade with enforcement to prevent exploitation by criminals and terrorist groups,” he said.
The presidential aide also described modern border governance as a mix of immigration control, customs administration, intelligence-sharing, surveillance and technology—tools, and argued, that would be undermined by blanket promises to “open” borders without details.
Dare questioned the timing and intent of former Vice President Atiku’s rhetoric.
“He would say or announce anything to attract and deceive the politically gullible,” the statement read,
accusing the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of recycling campaign slogans rather than offering a substantive alternative policy platform.
Beyond what the presidency called political barbs, Dare laid out what he said voters should demand from presidential hopefuls: clarity on plans to modernize customs and immigration operations, expand intelligence cooperation with neighbours, protect border communities and deploy technology-driven surveillance—measures necessary to reconcile economic openness with national security.
The Special Adviser urged that public scrutiny be based on measurable outcomes in security, economic recovery and border management, and challenged Atiku to explain what fresh contributions he would make to Nigeria’s development beyond the current administration’s reform agenda.
