This was disclosed on Monday during a one-day workshop for the creation of Nigeria’s platform for Local Border Authorities along the Nigeria-Niger International boundary held in Sokoto on Monday, by NBC’s Director General, Adamu Adaji.
The workshop themed, “Transforming borders from barriers of separation to bridges of cooperation and integration”, was predicated on the need by the Federal Government to proactively harness the abundant human resources for peacebuilding nationwide.
Adaji charged the participants to be purveyors of peace in their domains, stressing that promoting peaceful coexistence should be everybody’s concern.
He said the platform would be replicated across all frontiers, stating that it could serve as a veritable tool for translating decisions of the Border Governors Forum into concrete actions and also serve as a vehicle for regular engagement of local authorities and traditional institutions, as well as neighbouring countries.
He further explained that Nigeria’s Seven States with twenty -local governments share borders with Niger Republic.
Speaking in his remarks, Deputy Governor of Sokoto State and Chairman of the State Boundary Committee, Eng. Idris Muhammad Gobir noted the coming of the platform was an indication by the Federal Government to sustain synergy among critical stakeholders through regular engagement to strengthen enduring relationships.
According to him, the initiative would also serve as a medium to mitigate the daunting challenges being faced at the border communities by instituting projects of common benefits geared towards enhancing existing ties with “our neighbours and uplifting the standard of living among border community dwellers.”
He said that the Sokoto government was making efforts to tackle insecurity in the border towns orchestrated by banditry in those areas.
On his part Executive Secretary, of Border Communities Development Agency, Junaid Abdullahi, represented by Director of Planning, Inter-Governmental and Community Relations, Sadiq Abdullahi, pledged his organisation’s continued partnership with relevant bodies towards implementation of effective border management policies as enshrined in the agency’s Strategic Action Plan (BCDA-SAP) for the development of all border communities in the country.
The Deputy Governors of Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, with the representative of Zamfara, Borno, Yobe and the representative of His Eminence Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar 111 attended the programme.
