Nigeria, Benin to host 2018 Border Region in Transition conference

Abdulrahman Dambazau
Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau

Nigeria is set to host the 2018 edition of Border Region in Transition (BRIT) Conference alongside neighbouring Benin Republic.

Nigeria’s Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau who inaugurated a 21-man National Planning Committee (NPC) for the event on Tuesday, said the conference will hold at the University of Ibadan from 15th to 19th October 2018.

Dambazau who was represented at the occasion by the Director Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary (DOOPS), Dr. Attairu Rufai tasked the committee to stage a hitch-free conference that will help address the challenges of border management in Nigeria.

“You will be expected to put in your best to organise the conference with resounding success….”, he said while inaugurating the committee in Abuja.

The BRIT conference is a leading international scientific network of interdisciplinary researchers and professors of international repute, who meets every two years to reflect on innovations relating to border and cross-border dynamics.

Dambazau said the conference will afford Nigeria the opportunity to get international researchers and scientists to help examine the peculiar border challenges confronting the country and help fashion out ways to deal with the issues.

While assuring the committee of government’s continuous support in realizing the successful hosting of the conference, Dambazau said the event will be captured in the 2018 budget to enable adequate preparations for the conference.

Speaking at the event, the chairman of the committee, Prof. Tajudeen Akanji who assured the government of committee members’ commitment to ensuring the success of the conference, stressed that the event will “allow the world to get first hand information about us from us.”

He also noted that the conference will provide Nigeria with the best and most current ways of managing her borders.

Over 350 delegates all over the world will participate in the conference which is to be the first in the African continent.