아세안

On 29 May 2023, the vexed subsidy on PMS was finally removed after the unilateral border closure imposed since 2019 failed to prevent cross-border smuggling of the petroleum products in Nigeria. The ceaseless transborder smuggling despite border closure, raises questions about the effectiveness of border management in Nigeria. This study analyses the inefficacy of border policing against smuggling in Nigeria, arguing that strategies to monitor porous borders can only prevent cross-border smuggling of fuel in the absence of relationships between smuggling gangs and compromised border inspectors at various border crossings. The study identifies how the pervasive corruption and neo-patrimonialism characteristic of the Nigerian state has aided oil theft in the country and rendered border enforcement inefficient in addressing smuggling. By drawing attention to the profound socio-cultural ties as well as close economic relations between communities and villages on both sides of the border in the smuggling activities, the paper brings scholarship on the trans-border criminal cartel into international relations and contributes to the debates on contemporary border management politics in Africa.