In August, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered closed Nigeria’s land border with Benin, preventing the import of goods. The move significantly affected trade in foodstuffs. It is part of an effort to tackle smuggling and associated corruption, but also, apparently, to spur the domestic agricultural industry. On October 14, Nigeria ordered closed all of Nigeria’s borders with Benin, as well as those with all other countries, for the same reasons.

Undated handout image courtesy of the U.S. Air Force shows a MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft. (Ho New/Courtesy Reuters) Richard Joseph, the John Evans professor of political science at Northwestern …