Mainstreaming Borderland Communities for Sustainable Policies and Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

For decades, emphasis in Nigeria is placed on formal borderland governance structures activities of intra-agency, inter-agency and international collaborations with little attention paid to the local patterns of mainstreaming borderland communities in managing borderlands. The paper examines the efficacy of mainstreaming borderland communities for sustainable borderland policies and governance in Nigeria. Secondary data, official documents such as Federal Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 as amended; Border Communities Development Agency Act, 2003; African Union Border Programme, 2017; International Organisation for Migration, 2017; UN-World Bank Report, 2018; National Border Management Strategy, 2019, were analysed descriptively and provided basis for discussion. The paper found out that, the dilemma with Nigeria’s borderland policies had its root in the ratification of the principle of respecting all borderlands as carved by the colonists enshrined in the Resolution AHG/Res. 16(I) of the OAU Charter of July 1964. Till date, the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) did not practically address the vacuum created by non-mainstreaming of borderland communities in borderland management system in the country. This distorts the historic borderland communities’ internal autonomy and local patterns of managing their borderland, escalating the rate of disintegration and perpetual instability in the management of borderland communities. It is suggested that the policy direction should recognise the 263 borderland communities as the most important stakeholder towards a more sustainable, secure and safe borderland management. Also, an appropriate institutional framework for mainstreaming borderland communities should focus on borderland governance structures that will implement the policy. More importantly, the active leadership of the main agencies responsible for borderland management should intensify efforts to harmonise their operations with that of mainstreamed borderland communities.