Border Politics: Tunji-Ojo Faults Atiku’s 2027 Campaign Pledge, Insists Nigeria's Frontiers Are Not Closed

In what marks an early opening salvo for the 2027 presidential contest, the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has strongly rebuked former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar, over his pledge to reopen Nigeria's land borders if elected. The Minister declared that the nation's borders are, in fact, not closed, rendering Atiku’s campaign promise both redundant and disconnected from current administrative realities.

According to reports, Atiku had during a public engagement suggested that reopening the borders would stimulate economic activities, ease the crushing inflation, and foster regional integration. However, in a swift counter-statement on Saturday, Tunji-Ojo clarified that the federal government had since moved past the era of wholesale border closures, emphasizing that legal trade routes across the country's frontiers remain operational under strict regulatory frameworks.

The Minister argued that attempting to "reopen" what is already open betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the country's trade and security architectures. "Our borders are open, but they are secured," Tunji-Ojo noted, adding that the government's focus has transitioned from primitive physical barriers to advanced, intelligence-driven surveillance aimed at balancing economic flow with national security priorities.

This public sparring highlights the highly sensitive nature of border management in Nigeria, a country constantly grappling with the triple threats of arms smuggling, illegal migration, and agricultural product dumping. While opposition figures see border policy as a soft target to win over disgruntled border communities, the incumbent administration is eager to project an image of robust, technologically advanced territorial control.