By Philip Yatai

Abuja, May 30, 2025 (NAN) The National Boundary Commission (NBC) has advised internal and international border communities to see boundaries not as barriers but as bridges of cooperation.

The NBC Director-General, Mr Adamu Adaji, gave the advice on Friday in Abuja, while assessing the impact of President Bola Tinubu’s administration after two years in office.

Adaji told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the people of border communities were placed there by geography and have co-existed as neighbours and as friends for a very long time.

He added that the people have shared so many things in terms of culture, history and socio-economic relations.

He, therefore, advised them not to allow the politics or policies of boundaries to bring any bad blood among them and their neighbours or tear them apart.

“That’s why sometimes we try to divorce the traditional boundaries from the administrative boundaries.

“Traditional boundaries may have their extent even beyond the administrative boundaries because of ethnicity and of course, boundaries are not according to ethnicity, they are for administrative purposes.

“The boundary we now have is an administrative boundary, different from what some of them conceive as their traditional boundaries, which in some cases may not be in alignment with the administrative boundaries.

“The administrative boundaries are those that the Federal Government has created for ease of governance and for jurisdictions of the various levels of governance,” he said.

He further appealed to border communities not to be deceived by some elites who may try to create bad blood between them and their neighbours.

According to him, people should look at issues of boundaries from a more humane perspective and see boundaries as bridges and not barriers that will separate them.

“I bleed each time I hear of any crisis that leads to loss of life because of one community fighting another community over boundary disagreement.

“These are lands that we came to meet and we’re going to leave and when people fight over boundary issues, most of them do not even live to see the benefits.

“There is no need to shed blood over boundary skirmishes. People should take note of the fact that they have co-existed for so long and have intermarried and interacted in so many areas,” he said

He identified the activities of some elites, who tried to influence the people’s decision as one of the major challenges of boundary management.

He called on the people to allow the boundary commission interface with them and the appropriate authorities to see how these boundaries could be properly defined. (NAN)

Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi