Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has said the Republic of Benin had been exploiting Nigeria through “big brother” concession.

The service also said the closure will prepare the grounds for the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA) next July.

Speaking on Radio Nigeria, NCS Public Relations Officer (PRO), Joseph Attah, noted that with the continental free trade, “what is going on is what will prepare a fertile ground for that one to take off”.

The NCS spokesman said Nigeria is not subservient to any other country and that as a sovereign nation, the country has the right to take legitimate actions to protect its national interest.

He added:

“Nigeria has to, first of all, be a country before being a member of any organisation.”

Attah said signing the AfCFTA agreement does not mean that Nigeria has signed off its right to protect its nationhood.

The NCS spokesman recalled that the breach of the ECOWAS Protocol on transit by the Republic of Benin had been compounding Nigeria’s security challenges, hence the insistence on the border closure.

“Whenever Nigeria complains about the breach of the protocol, they (Republic of Benin) will sign an agreement with us that they will not do it again. They will go back and repeat it. We will sign another one, they will break it. As far back as 2003, a number of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed and broken,” he said.

Attah said at a point, the Republic of Benin complained to Nigeria that “you are a big brother; we are not as rich as you. We don’t have vehicles to escort goods from Cotonou to your border stations”.

He said:

“In the spirit of ‘big brotherhood’, we still gave them brand new vehicles because it is to our advantage. But within only two weeks, they reneged. Don’t even ask me whether they returned the vehicles. The question is: how long do you want us to continue this big brotherliness that has brought us security and economic consequences? So, the closure is to lay a very smooth ground for that trade to take off.”