Emeritus Professor Anthony Ijaola Asiwaju
The border towns and villages of Nigeria are acutely marginalised, suffering from developmental attention, Emeritus Professor Anthony Ijaola Asiwaju, a celebrated borderlands scholar has observed.
Speaking during an interview with THE STATEPOST at the Cultural Center, Kuto, Abeokuta, the venue of an international conference on “Comparative African History And Borderlands Studies” held in his honour to mark his 86th birthday, under the auspices of the Ogun State Government, the erudite professor noted that the history of border regions in Africa is replete with political and infrastructural marginalisation.
Responding to a question, Emeritus Professor Asiwaju, a member of the National Boundary Commission and the Chairman of the Ogun State Boundary Committee insisted that the lack of government attention to the development of border towns and villages is not peculiar to Ogun State alone as he pointed out that: “It is global, you know one region, you know all”.
Emeritus Professor Anthony Ijaola Asiwaju
He explained that the “border towns are included in the bigger areas that my research is concerned about,” noting that “they are strategically important but often ignored in terms of development”.
Emeritus Professor Asiwaju pointed out that the border regions suffer developmental attention because they are at the margin of national territories hence far off from decision makers.
He stressed that the borderlands are strategic to the country adding that continued apathy to these areas is dangerous.
“When you ignore the border towns and villages, you endanger the country and the people”, Emeritus Professor Asiwaju pointed out.
He explained further that continued neglect of the Borderlands expose the areas to insecurities which does not allow for patriotism.
The pundit said that his advice to the nation since 1984, based on scientific findings is that the country need to take border areas and issues concerning them seriously.
He called for establishment of an all encompassing agency to take care of the welfare of these areas and give the areas the required developmental focus.
Speaking on the global acceptance of his researches, the erudite scholar noted that “one of the things African Studies achieved was to prove that we can use oral African sources to establish history”.
