Oil smuggling, borderland and border management in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

On 29 May 2023, the vexed subsidy on PMS was finally removed after the unilateral border closure imposed since 2019 failed to prevent cross-border smuggling of the petroleum products in Nigeria. The ceaseless transborder smuggling despite border closure, raises questions about the effectiveness of border management in Nigeria. This study analyses the inefficacy of border policing against smuggling in Nigeria, arguing that strategies to monitor porous borders can only prevent cross-border smuggling of fuel in the absence of relationships between smuggling gangs and compromised border inspectors at various border crossings. The study identifies how the pervasive corruption and neo-patrimonialism characteristic of the Nigerian state has aided oil theft in the country and rendered border enforcement inefficient in addressing smuggling. By drawing attention to the profound socio-cultural ties as well as close economic relations between communities and villages on both sides of the border in the smuggling activities, the paper brings scholarship on the trans-border criminal cartel into international relations and contributes to the debates on contemporary border management politics in Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Border governance
• Nigerian security agency
• oil smuggling
• borderland
• trans-border crime

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Occupy Nigeria protest was a massive socio-political demonstrations and strike action championed by the civil society groups, celebrities, students and opposition political elites across Nigeria in response to the removal of subsidy by the administration of the President Goodluck Jonathan. It started on Monday 2 January 2012 and only came to an end when the government reversed the policy. See Busari (2012).

2. The border closure involves the deployment of massive security personnel from various security establishments under the umbrella of ‘Operation Swift Response’ to protect the nation’s borders and to check smuggling activities.

3. The Nigerian government owns four refineries. All the refineries have been shut down even though their workers continue to draw salaries monthly and get promotions on a regular basis.

4. Formal border crossings are gates, bridges, and other places with permanent state presence, while informal or unofficial border crossings are sites that are not sanctioned by the state.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sunday Omotuyi

Sunday Omotuyi (PhD) is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is also a Research Associate, Institute for the Future of Knowledge, University of Johnnesburg, South Africa. He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Ife Journal of International Affairs. He is currently a visiting lecturer at the Accra Business School, Accra Ghana. His studies have appeared in both national and international journal outlets.