Rice traffic at the closed border between Benin and Nigeria

Badagry (Nigeria) (AFP)

On the border of Owode, between Benin and Nigeria, motorcycle taxi drivers have become dangerous criminals in the eyes of the Nigerian authorities: they trade rice from Benin with the ingenuity and daring of cocaine resellers .

They slip some pockets of Basmati under their saddle and zigzag, intrepid, between the dozen dams of customs and the Nigerian army, deployed since late August along the 700 km of closed border.

If they do not get caught, the smugglers will be able to earn a few hundred nairas, or a few cents of euros: a small fortune not to be neglected since the Nigerian government decided, overnight, to close the border with the neighbor of Benin.

Gone are the days when thousands of 50-kilogram bags of smuggled rice were parading one after the other on the motorcycle racks across the bush.

Gone are the bakchichs hurriedly sent to the corrupt agents to buy their silence.

Motorcycle taxi drivers estimate that 3,000 bags of rice were illegally entering Nigeria every day.

"But now the customs officers and the army are shooting at us like rabbits," Adewole assures, stammering with anger and pain. His children could not make their return to school Monday, unable to pay their registration. He does not even have enough money to feed them. "If there was enough rice in Nigeria, we would not need to import it," he says.

- Contraband on a large scale -

Officially, local rice production has increased by 60% since 2013 (4.78 million tonnes in 2018). And even if the numbers are likely to be inflated, this is still insufficient for the 190 million Nigerians, who spend about 10% of their budget on food in this staple food.

But above all, everyone is unanimous: "Nobody likes Nigerian rice, it is not good and it is too expensive", we hear in the markets.

However, the agricultural and industrial policy of Muhammadu Buhari intends to develop the Made in Nigeria and want to diversify the economy, which is based almost solely on oil.

Then, at the start of his second term, the president decided to strike hard by imposing a "partial closure of the border" with Benin at the end of August, then, in mid-September, an "absolute closure of all borders" ( Benin, Niger, Chad).

"Nigeria could no longer stand by as such countries prosper at the expense of our economy," said Nigerian Customs Comptroller Colonel Hamid Ali, angrily.

This total blockage is a real economic asphyxiation for neighboring countries, particularly for Benin, whose port activity represents a very important source of revenue. In addition, Beninese usually benefit from cheap smuggled gasoline from Nigeria: thousands of tons of liters have been illegally imported in the opposite direction of rice for decades.

- 'We do not live on an island' -

But if Benin suffers, Nigerians are the first victims of "this protectionist policy of an extreme level," according to Adedayo Ademuwagun, an analyst for the study firm Songhai, based in Lagos.

If there is more imported rice to buy in the country, the government hopes that local farmers will produce more to fill the gap, says AFP Mr. Ademuwagun.

"But it does not work like that," asserts the economic analyst.

This strategy has already been used in Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007) banned cement imports, to the delight of his protege, now multi-billionaire Aliko Dangote, whose local cement industries flourished immediately.

But while waiting for the next harvest in the Nigerian rice fields and the improvement of the security situation in rural areas, the big Ajara market in the big border town of Badagry is desperately empty.

It has almost no more rice, more macaroni, more oil or sugar.

"We can not depend solely on local production," regrets the market president, Todaughte Baba Oja. "We do not live on an island, we depend on each other."

In the face of the shortage, the price of rice has risen from 9,000 nairas (22 euros) for a bag of 50 kilos to 22,0000 nairas (55 euros), a price higher than the minimum monthly wage (18,000 nairas).

Even the Ajara butcher, who sells local beef, has almost no customers and has had to raise his prices to make up for his losses. "People do not have money anymore," he grieves.

© 2019 AFP