Almost a year into the effective take-off of the Federal Government’s e-border project, which is being effectively implemented by the Nigeria Immigration Service, some developments that have followed need to be assessed. First, to x-ray the performance of the NIS as an agency of government under the supervision of Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior within President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda, and second, as a way of assessing the connection between policy elucidation, implementation and congruence between projections and outcomes.

There is no doubt that irregular migration through unauthorised borders is a global challenge. The most recent US election had issues surrounding such movements well debated, and the policy direction of the newly Inaugurated Trump presidency attests to this.

The peculiarities of Nigeria, its being hemmed in between different Sahel states and the fact that numerous cross-border communities are interacting on a commercial, family and cultural basis, among others, place more pressure on her in this direction.

The e-border solution was, therefore, conceived with the variables highlighted above in mind. One of the aims of the project was to deliver a total of 40 e-verification gates across multiple airports in Nigeria by the end of the first quarter. Those installations were to include 10 gates in Abuja, 21 in Lagos, five in Kano, and four each in Enugu and Port Harcourt. All have been built, but only Abuja and Lagos are fully functional currently.

To actualise the set goals, and obviously mindful of these challenges, the Comptroller General of the Immigration Service on assuming office conducted border assessment tours across our various border posts, commands, and formations in the country, to assess the status of our borders and reinforce inter-agency collaboration. It is safe to opine that the tours must have enabled her to identify areas of vulnerability and take proactive measures to strengthen our borders.

The tours also strengthened its border community informants network, providing it with timely and actionable intelligence on potential security threats.

Little wonder gains have been recorded in droves. Late last year, precisely on the 10th of December,  84 illegal migrants were apprehended in Oyo state. These individuals, mostly under the age of 20, were upon interrogation confirmed to be involved in different cyber and other related crimes. They were also confirmed to be from such African neighbours as Congo Brazzaville, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Specifically connected with the e-gates system is the arrest of 14 persons of international security interest! This means that from information gleaned from the immigrants, which was run through the e-gates database, they were confirmed to be persons who pose security threats of international dimension! Such persons would have seamlessly dissolved into Nigeria if the initiative had not been commenced.

But that was not all. One Mrs Uadiale Christiana Jacob, aka Christy Evan Osagie, a wanted convicted leader of an international human trafficking network, was also arrested by operatives of the NIS at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on December 24, 2024. Again, it was with the e-gate process.

Just currently, 90 illegal immigrants were apprehended by the NIS in Rivers State. Their profiling revealed that 85 of them are Cameroonians, five are Chadians, aided by four are Nigeriens. Of the 94, 74 are males and 20 are females. This also points to a more proactive, more diligent and more focused immigration service.

Yet these achievements, remarkable as they are, do not conclusively in their own prove that the NIS has arrived at the desired destination in the bid to make our nation safer through renewed vigilance on her borders. What it shows is that with more effort, better outcomes are possible. It also shows that much more must be done and that for the NIS, there is still much room for improvement.

Such possible improvements may, however, not come until other phases of the e-border solutions are commenced. The truth is that the e-border solutions were scheduled to be installed and deployed in three phases, and only the first phase has just been operationalised.

That first phase has, however, brought some positive developments as earlier shown.  For instance, the NIS has intercepted and repatriated 176 migrants along Nigeria’s border with the Benin Republic in the past six months.

Yet the NIS was operating under international parameters. It had to be careful to avoid the over-generalisation of all irregular migrants as criminals, terrorists, and bandits, a reality that the United Nations Conventions and other regional protocols to which Nigeria is a signatory frown.

It must, on one hand, be able to allow regular migration, avoid criminalising undocumented migrants, and refrain from stigmatising Nigeria’s neighbours without proper evidence and facts, on the other.

Also, the NIS must navigate around the fact that citizens of the Benin Republic and Niger Republic being members of the ECOWAS region do not require visas to enter Nigeria and that Chad, another country from which immigrants flock in, enjoys visa-free entry to Nigeria for visits not more than 90 days!

In a way, therefore, the close cultural and historical relationship at the border communities have in no small way affected the performance of the e-border effort.

But the NIS seems to have apprehended this reality. Within the last one year, it introduced the issuance of the ECOWAS National Biometric Card that will ensure proper documentation of ECOWAS migrants as they transit between their countries of origin and Nigeria. This document doubles as a residence permit for citizens of ECOWAS apart from being a travel document.

The service has also continued with the e-registration of migrants, an initiative that commenced in 2019 and has registered over 250,000 foreigners between then and 2024. The NIS through this effort has acquired and is keeping biometric records of all categories of migrants in Nigeria.

At all times, the NIS has never kept its attention from closely monitoring the movement of migrants into Nigeria as part of its mandate. Even when Nigeria’s borders were closed in 2020 against the inflow of goods, the Federal Government did not order the closure of borders against humans and the NIS did not reduce its vigilance in any way.

No doubt, the e-border initiative being implemented by the NIS has helped greatly along the line. It is hoped that more phases will do more to keep Nigeria and her borders safe and protected from dangerous and criminal elements while guaranteeing the movement of others under the laws of the land.