By Samuel Okunade

I write this not as a critic standing outside the system, but as a researcher who has spent close to a decade walking the ground I am about to describe: checkpoints, trading routes, and conversations with officers and traders who experience Nigeria’s borders every day. Since 2017, I have visited border posts across South-West Nigeria, published observations in journals, newspapers, blogs and books, and worked alongside senior scholars of the region.

Most recently, this work continued at the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) Conference in Nigeria. One conclusion was encouraging: Nigeria already has much of the expertise and institutional capacity required to secure its borders more effectively. What remains is the political will and investment to finish the job.

Two experiences frame this reflection. The first is my visit to the Seme/Krake border on July 21 this year, the busiest land crossing between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. The second is the exchange of ideas at ABORNE, where scholars compared approaches to border management. Together, they reveal a country that has made progress while retaining solvable gaps.

The Airports show what is wossible
It is worth beginning with the good news. Nigeria’s air corridors have improved significantly in recent years. Biometric verification, e-gates and electronic passenger-data systems are now standard features at major international airports, and the Nigeria Immigration Service deserves credit for this transformation. The achievement demonstrates that Nigeria can deliver technology-driven border management when resources and political attention are directed towards the problem. The e-border architecture developed for air travel provides a proof of concept for what land borders could become. That is why the contrast with our land borders is so striking.

A well-documented gap
What I observed at Seme is not new to the scholarly community. Research presented and discussed at the ABORNE conference reinforced an established evidence base. Okunade’s empirical mapping of Nigeria’s border architecture has shown that land frontiers remain difficult to control fully, with unapproved routes far outnumbering official ones. Government estimates have similarly placed unapproved crossing points in the thousands, compared with fewer than a hundred recognised posts. My research has linked this porosity to broader security challenges, including under-resourced border communities, inconsistent enforcement and slow technology adoption. Yet the visible gaps should not obscure the Nigeria Immigration Service’s less visible successes. Security operations, intelligence gains and threats averted may never become public for security reasons, but they demonstrate a level of professionalism deserving greater recognition.

At Seme, what struck me most was not misconduct or negligence but the inefficiency embedded in the physical system. Checkpoints are so close together that travellers barely clear one before encountering another. Officers repeatedly pull and push barriers fashioned from coconut wood and tied to plastic kegs. A Nigerian officer could spend decades of a career operating such a gate manually. After crossing into Benin, I did not encounter a comparable sequence of checkpoints. Nigeria has now enacted the National Identity Management Commission Act of 2026, committing the country to a modern digital identity framework. If we can modernise identity management at that scale, we can modernise the border gate too.

Honouring the officers who hold the line
This criticism is not directed at the officers. The men and women I met at Seme were courteous, professional and candid about the monotony and physical demands of their work. They operate in heat, dust and long hours, often far from their families, while using equipment that does not match their training or responsibilities. They deserve appreciation and better tools.

A young officer joining the Immigration Service today should be able to retire after a career defined by skilled, technology-assisted security work, intelligence gathering, risk profiling and community engagement not decades of manually operating wooden barriers.

What ABORNE made clear: The path forward
The central message from ABORNE was optimistic: Nigeria can do more by building on capacities that already exist. Four priorities stand out.

First, intelligence gathering and sharing must become central to border strategy. Physical barriers, whether wooden or automated, cannot substitute for intelligence. Officers currently tied to manual gate duties represent an underused pool of local knowledge and community trust. They could be redirected towards risk profiling, pattern recognition and early warning, preventing irregular crossings and smuggling rather than simply slowing movement at checkpoints.

Second, synergy among Nigeria’s security and revenue agencies must improve. At crossings such as Seme, immigration, customs, police and other agencies can duplicate inspections within short distances. Better coordination and information sharing, potentially through integrated posts rather than overlapping checkpoints, would reduce congestion and allow each agency to concentrate on its core mandate.

Third, cross-border collaboration with neighbouring countries requires sustained investment. Borders are shared spaces; no country can secure one alone. The 2023 Abuja workshop jointly organised by the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism was a welcome step. ABORNE reinforced the value of joint patrols, shared data systems and coordinated response protocols with counterparts in Benin and beyond. The European Union’s integrated border-management model also provides a useful reference for coordinated, technology-enabled cooperation.

Fourth, modern equipment must reach land borders as it has reached airports. Automated barriers, number-plate recognition, CCTV and biometric checkpoints are neither exotic nor beyond Nigeria’s technical capacity. The expertise exists. What is required is sustained political commitment and funding beyond individual budget cycles.

Investing in border communities
Security cannot be separated from the communities surrounding border posts. Settlements around Seme and similar crossings often lack adequate water, electricity, schools, clinics and drainage, despite their location along major West African commercial routes. Flooding and stagnant water also create health risks.

With deliberate investment, these communities could become assets rather than neglected spaces: centres of local income, tourism, cross-border culture and community-based security. Better roads to and from border posts would reinforce other investments because traders will avoid even an efficient checkpoint that they cannot easily reach.

A circle Nigeria can break
I leave ABORNE, and my memory of Seme, more encouraged than discouraged. Nigeria’s airports demonstrate what is possible. Scholarship has already mapped the problems and identified practical solutions. Diagnosis is no longer the principal obstacle. What Nigeria needs now is a funded, time-bound plan: extend the modernisation achieved in the air corridors to land borders; strengthen intelligence sharing and inter-agency coordination; deepen cooperation with neighbouring countries; invest in border communities; and equip the officers who serve there with tools worthy of their responsibilities.

Nigeria has already demonstrated that it can secure its borders more effectively. The task now is not to start from zero, but to build on what works and finish what has already begun.

Okunade is of the Department of Border and Migration Studies, Lagos State University Ojo, Lagos.