Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, spoke in favour of Nigeria’s partial border closure with neighbours, asking Benin Republic to change its ways for a harmonious bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Obasanjo spoke on a day former Director of Kenyan Anti-Corruption Commission, Prof. PLO Lumumba, said in Lagos that Nigeria was too big to be threatened by smaller neighbouring countries to resort to closure of its land borders.
The former President made the remark at a briefing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sideline of the two-day Policy Dialogue of African Business Associations on Implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Agreements, co-organized by the African Union (AU), African Development Bank, AfDB, the African Export – Import Bank, AFREXIMBANK, among others.
Obasanjo, who is the chairman of Afro-Champion Initiative and Coalition of Dialogue Africa, CoDA, Board of Directors, explained that Benin’s notoriety was not new, noting Nigeria had for long been enduring the practice which undermined its economic well being.
He said: “It happened when I was President of Nigeria. I called the then Benin President, Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, to let us meet at any of our border posts over the issue.
