Nigeria aims to balance ECOWAS free movement with national security via better border profiling
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, September 26, 2026, the Director-General of the National Boundary Commission, Adamu Adaji, said Nigeria is enhancing border profiling, documentation, and monitoring to balance ECOWAS free movement rights with national security threats including terrorism, kidnapping, and arms smuggling. He stressed that authorities must identify travelers and their entry purposes, even as goods and persons move freely under the regional treaty.
Adaji directed security agencies to boost surveillance along border corridors using technology like cameras and surveillance systems, and to profile users of illegal routes. He called for reducing illegal crossings through stronger inter-agency cooperation and promoted the NBC's Cross-Border Cooperation Platform for intelligence sharing with neighboring countries. He also urged support for border communities with infrastructure to enable threat reporting and foster community ownership of security efforts.
The NBC chief maintained that clearly defined boundaries and inter-agency coordination are essential to securing borders without unnecessarily restricting lawful trade and migration, emphasizing that border management must advance security, facilitate legitimate commerce, and support lawful movement within the ECOWAS framework. This strategy targets criminal exploitation of free movement while preserving regional economic benefits. Will these measures effectively curb border-related insecurity for frontier communities, or risk imposing undue burdens on traders and travelers reliant on seamless cross-border access?