In just 25 minutes, the aircraft lifts from Maiduguri International Airport and descends into Hassan Djamous International Airport N’Djamena. A journey so brief it barely allows for a cup of tea. Yet, this short flight across the Lake Chad Basin offers a striking metaphor for a region whose economic potential remains trapped not by distance, but by the absence of cross-border infrastructure, characterized by deteriorated roads, and fragmented trade regulations, among numerous challenges affecting this Basin corridor of just an estimated driving journey of 264KM. Maiduguri–Dikwa–Gamboru–Ngala-Fotokol (Cameroon)-Kousséri (Chad)-N’Djamena.
As the aircraft glides above the vast, interlinked terrain shared by Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, one is reminded that the region’s communities are not divided by geography, but united by history, culture, and mutual dependency. Markets in Maiduguri rely on livestock from Diffa, onions from Maroua, and fish from Baga Sola. Yet these economic linkages are stifled by impassable roads, long formal and informal delays, and most unfortunately the protracted insecurity. The absence of all-season cross-border road networks and harmonized trade infrastructure has not only slowed the flow of goods but also entrenched poverty in communities that should be thriving hubs.
From the air, the dream of interconnected border towns, bustling dry ports, and free trade enclaves is almost poetic. But from the ground, the lived experience is one of broken bridges, overburdened checkpoints, and missed opportunities. Rebuilding and expanding cross-border infrastructure is no longer a development aspiration, it is a regional imperative as stated by the Chairman of Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum His Excellency Hon Mai Mala Buni.
With growing insecurity, climate pressures, and a youthful population yearning for opportunity, public and private sector investment in cross-border infrastructure is highly needed but simply beyond the desired asphalt, it is also about unlocking livelihoods, ensuring food security, and affirming the shared destiny of Lake Chad Basin communities.
The 25-minute flight reveals just how close we are. The challenge now is to make that closeness a lived reality for traders, farmers, students, and entrepreneurs who can’t afford the luxury of flying but who stand to benefit the most from a region when finally connected by roads, by commerce, and by a common future.
Dauda is the Yobe State Project Coordinator of Solutions To Internally Displaced Persons and Host Communities
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