According to him, the border closure will protect Nigeria’s productive industry from being destroyed.

Sanusi disclosed this at the launch of the maiden foreign policy journal by the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria.

“If we have an industrial policy that is aimed at protecting the productive sector of Nigeria against unfair competition, we cannot allow our neighbours to open their door to this unfair competition and through the backdoor undermine our industry, this is extremely important,” the Emir said.

He added that the decision was meant to stop neighbouring countries from violating the ECOWAS protocol, given that Nigeria was fast becoming a dumping ground.

The border closure, he concluded, will not only address the problem of smuggling petroleum products and rice but also prevent a situation where Nigeria is turned into a dumpsite for dangerous drugs.