Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed the reason behind the border closure as he urged Nigerians to endure the high cost of living that came with the decision.
Speaking at the ongoing National Festival for Arts and Culture in Benin, the Vice President said the aim of the border closure was to make farmers prosperous.
Osinbajo who stated that smuggling discourages local production, added that prosperous nations always grow what they eat. He insisted that allowing the Chinese and others to smuggle in goods into the country will completely destroy farming.
“Part of the reasons for shutting the border is the smuggling that has been going on. If we continue to allow the Chinese and others to continue to bring in all those things, we will kill farming completely and most of our people will not be employed.
“There may be some pain in other to gain. The countries of the world that are prosperous didn’t allow anybody to bring in anything to their country.
“They made sure they grew what they eat. I can assure you that very soon you will see a great deal of progress, you will see a more of our own commodity coming into the market. If we allow our own people grow these things, our people will prosper. The only way our people can prosper is if we let them use the opportunity that they have such as farming, fishing and others.
“We are going to make sure that commodity are cheaper. We must bare in mind that the reason today some commodity are more expensive is because we stopped smuggling. We have to encourage our local farmers so that our local farmers can prosper" he said.
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