The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has taken a swipe at the recent closure of the nation’s land borders by the Federal Government.
This is as Igbo traders under the auspices of southeast Amalgamated Market Traders Association (SEAMATA) said the continued closure has crippled their trading activities.
Enugu State chapter of the Ohanaeze said the border closure has inflicted more pains and hardships on the poor.
President of Ohanaeze Enugu State, Alex Ogbonnia, at a briefing after a meeting at the weekend, said it was an act of hypocrisy to shut borders to rice importation, while foreign exotic cars were given the right of entry.
Ogbonnia, however, commended Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for patronising Innoson Motors by procuring 100 vans to beef up security in the state.
He demanded that the federal and state governments emulate Ugwuanyi in patronising locally manufactured cars, noting that it is the sure way to retrieve the nation’s economy from total collapse.
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According to him, the ripple effect of patronising locally made products “is not only in the conservation of scarce foreign exchange, but a direct confrontation on unemployment that would exit Nigeria from being the poverty capital of the world.”
SEAMATA President General, Gozie Akudolu and Secretary-General, Alex Okwudili, in a statement, said local industries were already badly affected by the border closure.
According to the traders, products from industries like building materials, electric cables, locally-manufactured biscuits and confectioneries, plastic products, local fabrics and textiles, cooking utensils, locally-made toilet soaps and detergents as well as lubricants bought by foreign customers were lying at the borders.
They also attributed the sudden rise in prices of staple foodstuff to the closure.
“When demand outnumbers supply, the price must increase. We appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to look in the direction of the poor masses that are having hunger and starvation boldly starring them in the face considering that this border closure situation is compounded by the flooding that has swept most of the farmlands with agricultural products,” SEAMATA stated.
