NBC promoting peaceful coexistence among interstate border communities
By Philip Yatai
The National Boundary Commission (NBC), says it is creating platforms to promote peaceful coexistence among communities living along interstate boundaries.
The Director-General of the commission, Mr Adamu Adaji, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
“We have come up with a concept of what we call “local platform for promotion of interstate boundaries.
“We have notified the affected local government areas on both sides, then created a kind of local platform where they will engage in the promotion of peaceful coexistence and the appreciation of the essence of boundaries.
“So, we are going to do that for almost all the boundaries.
“We are also going to intensify efforts in terms of awareness creation among communities along our various boundaries and engage the community members through workshops, training and seminars,” he said.
Adaji said that the commission had organised zonal workshops on cross-border cooperation for all the six geo-political zones, adding that plans were underway to organise similar gatherings, targeting fewer states.
He said, “we want to engage the states that have boundary issues and create a workshop that will bring people from the states concerned to dialogue properly.
“This, in the long run, will strengthen cross-border cooperation.”
Adaji said that a similar initiative has been created at the level of international boundaries, where administrators along international boundaries were being engaged.
He added that the administrators were being encouraged to engage their counterparts on the other side for the promotion of peaceful coexistence.
According to him, the move is helping to douse tension, exchange of intelligence information.
“Such collaboration, cooperation, exchange of information and early warning systems is helping to address insecurity and threat to national security.
“So, we want to create that kind of scenario along our internal boundaries.”
He said that the commission also planned to organise a high-level cross-border cooperation workshop on the Nigeria-Benin International border, because of the tension compared to other international boundaries.
The D-G said that the workshop would be attended by ministers of both countries, experts, academics and other stakeholders.
He said that discussion at the workshop would cover areas of cultural, economic, and security cooperation so that the two countries could be on the same page. (NAN)
Edited by Sadiya Hamza
Published By
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Editor/Assistant Chief Correspondent,
FCT Correspondent,
NAN Abuja.
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