Former Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to establish a stronger institutional relationship between the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Immigration Service to enhance national border security and governance.
Babandede made the call in an exclusive interview with Migrationwatch magazine, where he drew parallels with the post-9/11 reforms in the United States that brought Customs and Immigration under closer coordination for improved homeland security.
He lamented that in Nigeria, both agencies often operate in isolation despite their overlapping responsibilities. “Any time the two agencies are made to come together, one runs away from the other,” he said.
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According to him, the movement of goods and the movement of people are inseparable, especially within the West African subregion. “A person carrying goods and a person travelling are the same, particularly in our region. You cannot separate the movement of goods from the movement of persons carrying the goods,” Babandede stated.
He emphasized the need for deliberate collaboration and innovation between the two agencies to tackle transnational crimes effectively. “Both the Immigration and Customs Services should deliberately invest in enhanced partnership and working relationships to achieve effective and efficient national border security and governance,” he said.
Babandede also criticized what he described as a “great negligence” in recognizing the critical role of migration in national development. He urged the Federal Government to sustain ongoing reforms in the Nigeria Immigration Service aimed at modernizing border management.
“The border is not just a security zone; it’s a cultural, historical, and economic zone,” he noted, calling for the creation of buffer zones and improved cross-border connectivity with neighboring countries.
He further stressed the need for Nigeria to adopt a more strategic migration policy that evaluates the impact of migrants on the economy. “Migration is key to our development. Nigeria must invest in the type of people we filter in and the type we filter out. We must analyze the kind of jobs migrants do and how they affect our economy. We need to remove people who are undermining our development,” Babandede reiterated.
