National Boundary Commission Holds Workshop To Tackle Boundary Issues

The Director-General of the National Boundary Commission, Adamu Adaji, disclosed that Nigeria will continue to prioritize sub-regional engagements in order to enhance cross-border cooperation with her neighbors.

Mr. Adamu Adaji stated this at a one-day workshop on the establishment of a National Consultative Forum for Chairmen of Boundary Committees of border States in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Mr. Adaji revealed that the forum was the first of its kind and was crucial to the African continent as it fostered engagements in the National and Regional space on border development initiatives.

“The National Consultative Forum is the first of its kind and would be a platform for regular engagement between State Authorities and National structures responsible for Border Management as the engagement with regional authorities in proximate countries.”

The Director-General also disclosed that a forum at the grassroots level would be established to tackle security challenges first-hand as well as give border communities a sense of belonging.

He added that “the Forum would involve traditional and local authorities at the grassroots levels who would be directly responsible for translating the decisions of the Chairmen/Deputy Governors forum into concrete actions.”

Mr. Adaji emphasized that “the formal cross border interaction between the local authorities in border communities would no doubt alleviate fears of turning the border regions to ungoverned spaces and safe haven for terrorist and other transnational organized crimes.”

The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State who is also the Chairman of the State Boundary Committee, representing the Southern region in Nigeria, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, advocated equity among border communities both in Nigeria and other African countries to engender peaceful co-existence.

Mr. Ewhrudjakpo further called for better funding for the border development agencies “so that the burden of taking care of border communities will be taken a little bit from the States and handled by the federal government.”

The Deputy Governor of Ogun State and Chairman of the State Boundary Committee representing the South-western region in Nigeria, Noimot Salako-Oyedele, spoke on the challenges faced by border communities and suggested that ‘Nigeria should integrate more with her neighbors, adding that the formulation and implementation of policies between Nigeria and her neighboring countries would strengthen economic development and other bilateral relations.”

The workshop was attended by twenty-one Deputy Governors of Border States in Nigeria who also function in the capacity of Chairmen for State Boundary Committees, traditional rulers, representatives from the Border Communities Development Agency and security agencies in Nigeria.

The workshop was organized by the National Boundary Commission and had the theme “Converting Borders from Barriers of Separation to Bridges of Cooperation and Regional Integration.”

It would be recalled that in March 2022, the African Union Integrated Border Governance Strategy and the African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation called for the need to establish a National Consultative Forum for Chairmen of State Boundary Committees of Nigeria’s State Borders with the Federal Government Agencies responsible for Border Management in order to facilitate engagements and effective coordination of border policies and programmes for the promotion of security and economic growth.

Olusola Akintonde