Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Musa has reiterated his earlier call on the federal government to completely fence Nigeria’s borders in order to secure the nation.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports CDS Musa made the call on Thursday when he featured on Arise TV’s Prime Time programme in the face of worsening insecurity in the country.
“Having gone through my analysis, and looking at the Sahel, the main attraction to all these terrorists and bandits is Nigeria because of the perception that Nigeria is a rich country, and the borders are porous.
“If you follow the news and see the kinds of killings going on in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, it is so much. If these continue in the next one year, there will be issues.
“I know of recent there were attacks from Burkina Faso in Benin Republic. It is just 50 kilometres to Nigeria. That is another area.
“All around us, we have francophone countries. Our ideologies are not the same. For us to be secure, it is important, let us fence our borders,” Musa said.
TNG reports Nigeria shares a total land border of approximately 4,047 kilometers with four neighbouring countries: Benin, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
The nation shares 773 kilometers border with Benin Republic, 1,497 kilometers with Niger, 87 kilometers with Chad, and 1,690 kilometers with Cameroon.
The CDS stressed that Pakistan has implemented a similar measure of border fencing and that it has given them respite, adding that the most critical one is the Nigeria-Niger border.
Musa said: “Some people say, look, it is expensive. I say, what is money when you are dead. It’s of no use.
“Once you fence that area, you use technology; you have cameras and you have drones that will move. It reduces the manpower you have to engage in that area.
“Besides that, for Pakistan, they use double wire mesh for all that distance.
“If the distance is one thousand, they use double, which means two thousand, and then use concertina wire at the middle so that even if you penetrate through here, before you get through here, you are seen and action is taken.
“That has given them respite and that is what we are looking at”.
The CDS, who identified basic issues resulting in killings in Benue State, went further to say: “We have Ajaokuta steel mill; we have rolling mills in Nigeria.
“We could engage them. We don’t need to go anywhere. We just task them from here. They can produce what we need and then we deploy.
“The most critical one for us now, even if we were to start, let’s start with Nigeria-Niger. That is the most dangerous because the Lakurawas, that is where they are coming in.
“The Boko Haram are coming from the Sahel, the ISWAP guys, they are coming in all through those areas. That is why it is critical.
“And we can start State-wise at the same time. Each State will start on its own and before you know it, we are there.
“The important thing is we have a threat that we have to really look at. It is very critical and it is very important”.
TNG reports the Nigerian defence chief earlier made the call for the fencing of Nigeria during a security conference in Abuja on June 3rd 2025.