By Philip Yatai

The National Boundary Commission (NBC) says it has concluded plans to strengthen the capacity of state and local government boundary committees across the country on boundary management.

The NBC Director-General, Mr Adamu Adaji, disclosed this on Sunday 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 goal was to ensure that the committees were not only established but functional.

He explained that the Act that established the NBC made provisions for the establishment of the State Boundary Committee at the state level, Local Government Boundary Committee at the local government level.

He said the provision is to ensure that states and local government councils play very critical roles in terms of the definition of the boundaries between them and their neighbours.

The D-G said that the three tiers of boundary management are expected to work in synergy by involving the affected communities, local government areas and the states.

He said this was contrary to the previous practice where documents were interpreted and boundary maps drawn without involving the affected communities, local government or states.

“it is part of the plan we have for this year, to organise a kind of training workshops for some members of the state and local government committees across the country.

“We will bring them together and explain to them their roles and the synergy expected among them and us, and how they will go about getting documents that will help to facilitate the resolution of some boundary issues.

“Our desire is to ensure that every state and local government council across the country has a functional boundary committee.

“So, we will try as much as we can, to see how we can encourage the states to establish those two levels of boundary committees.”

Adaji said that, although, the Federal Government has improved funding of the commission to carry out its activities, more funds were still needed to achieve the desired results.

He pointed out that boundary issues were part of the causes of insecurity, adding that more funds should be provided to enable the commission to resolve many boundary issues as quickly as possible. (NAN)

Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi