Abstract:

In 2019, Nigeria did closed its borders again. This singular act sparked off a debate about whether the country had contravened the tenets of good neighbourliness embodied in the ECOWAS treaty of 1975 or acted justifiably in line with the promotion of its national interest. The justification for the border closure was based on the need for the Nigerian government to deal with several acts of economic sabotage against the country’s economy.  The border closure was also calculated to help deal with cases of insecurity in Nigeria. The action of Nigeria had implications on its relationship with its West African neighbours whose economies were adversely affected by the policy.

This paper, therefore, interrogates two interrelated questions, namely, the extent to which the closure of the Nigerian border negated the policy of good neighbourliness; and whether the closure was targeted at promoting Nigeria’s national economic interest to the detriment of the economies of its neighbours. Relying on both primary and secondary sources of data analysed qualitatively within the framework of the rational actor model, this work discovered that the border closure was neither a negation of Nigeria’s commitment to the principle of good neighbourliness nor an attempt to undermine the economies of affected West African countries, rather it was a measure meted to attain its national interest. The study recommends the deepening of sub-regional partnerships as a means to establish a sustainable trans-border structure for effective cross-border surveillance and management.