Nigeria on Wednesday ratified the African Union Convention on Cross Border Cooperation, which is also known as the Niamey Convention.
The ratification of the convention followed the presentation of a memo to that effect by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, who briefed the media after the meeting, explained that Nigeria initiated the Convention during the Conference of African Ministers in charge of Borders on May 29 2012 in Niamey, Niger Republic and adopted in Malabo Equatorial Guinea in 2014.
Dada said Nigeria also spearheaded the drafting of the Niamey Convention and signed it on the 29th of January, 2017.
“The Convention aims to simply promote cross border cooperation at local, sub-regional and regional levels.
“This simply talks to our government’s foreign policy, which emphasizes on good neighbourliness; in other words, making good efforts to ensure that we live in peace with our immediate neighbours.
“This Convention equally intends to facilitate the delimitation, demarcation and reaffirmation of inter-state borders in conformity with mechanisms that have been agreed upon by the parties to this Convention.
“This Convention is aimed at facilitating peaceful resolution of border disputes between member states. It is also intended to promote peace and stability through the prevention of conflicts, the integration of the continent and the deepening of unity amongst member states.
“Equally very important is the fact that it provides opportunity to share intelligence between us and our neighbours.
“It also provides a mechanism for the promotion of economic integration of the continent, cross-border cooperation that will help trade facilitation and promote African Continental Free Trade Agreement which has just come into effect in the entire continent,” Dada explained.
Dada said that the Niamey Convention would enable Nigeria to harmonize activities at its numerous borders and ensure that the country and its neighbours achieve an integrated border management system.
He added that some other African countries have already signed on to the Niamey Convention and have also ratified it.
“All we are doing is to give leadership to Africa by ensuring that we also ratify it so that it will come into effect,” he said.
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