Lagos State University and the Nigerian Immigration Service have called for stronger collaboration among researchers, policymakers, security agencies and border communities to address emerging security challenges and promote socio-cultural integration across African borders.
The call was made on Monday at the 2026 annual conference of the African Borderlands Research Network, held in Ikeja, Lagos, with the theme, “The Connected Borderlands: Socio-Cultural Integration and the Centrality of Policy, Research and Security.”
The conference, co-hosted by LASU and the NIS, brought together scholars, practitioners, policymakers and other stakeholders to discuss border management, migration, security, regional integration and the socio-economic realities of border communities.
Speaking at the conference, the Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, said borderlands should be viewed as living spaces where people, cultures, languages, markets and histories intersect, rather than merely as territorial boundaries.
She said Lagos was an appropriate setting for the conference because of its strategic position along the Lagos-Abidjan corridor and its importance to trade, movement and regional integration.
Olatunji-Bello said LASU’s commitment to border studies was reflected in the establishment of its Bachelor of Arts programme in Border and Migration Studies.
She stressed that Africa needed a new generation of scholars and practitioners who understood the relationship between borders, livelihoods, identity, security, development and human mobility.
The Vice-Chancellor also highlighted the importance of LASU’s partnership with the Nigerian Immigration Service, noting that effective border management required the combination of research, practical experience and sound policy.
“Research needs practice, practice needs research, and both need policy. That is the triangle within which meaningful border governance must operate,” she said.
In her address, the Comptroller-General of the NIS, Kemi Nandap, said border management was undergoing significant transformation due to technological advancement, changing migration patterns, regional integration, cross-border economic activities and emerging security threats.
Nandap said the government must ensure that border areas remained secure while facilitating lawful movement, strengthening regional cooperation and protecting the social, cultural and economic integration of border communities.
She noted that traditional physical patrols and document inspection were no longer sufficient to address challenges such as human trafficking, migrant smuggling, identity fraud, organised crime, terrorism and cyber-enabled threats.
According to her, the NIS was combining the experience of its officers with technology, intelligence and stronger inter-agency cooperation.
She said Nigeria had made progress in modernising border management through electronic passports, enhanced e-passports, biometric identity verification, automated passport processing and e-gates at international airports.
Nandap added that investments in surveillance, command and control systems, communications infrastructure and integrated data platforms were aimed at helping immigration officers identify emerging risks early while facilitating legitimate travel.
However, she stressed that technology alone could not guarantee effective border management.
“Technology cannot replace professionalism, experience, judgment, and the integrity of the officers entrusted with securing our borders,” she said.
The NIS boss also called for greater involvement of border communities in security and border management, describing them as strategic partners whose local knowledge could not be replicated by technology.
She said Nigeria’s border policies must uphold ECOWAS principles of free movement while strengthening security and supporting legitimate trade and livelihoods.
The Senior Special Adviser on Policy to the Minister of Interior, Dr Kareem Oladokun, who represented the minister, also called for stronger partnerships among government institutions, universities, security agencies and development partners.
Oladokun said border communities were often the first to experience the consequences of insecurity and irregular migration, but also possessed valuable knowledge that could support early warning, conflict prevention and effective border management.
Representing the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Tolani Sule, said the conference demonstrated the importance of universities engaging with real-world challenges.
Sule noted that border and migration studies had become increasingly relevant because they intersected with national security, economic development, international relations, cultural integration, public health, employment, trade, demography, climate change and human rights.
He said Lagos’ position as Nigeria’s economic and commercial hub made discussions on mobility, migration and border governance particularly important to the state.
The Chairman of ABORNE Chiefs, Prof. Paul Nugent, said the African Borderlands Research Network was established in 2007 to promote research into Africa’s borderlands and understand the challenges and opportunities associated with them.
He said the network had grown from 12 scholars at the University of Edinburgh into an international network comprising academics, institutions and government departments across Africa and other parts of the world.
Nugent said migration, urbanisation, climate change, cross-border trade, public health and insecurity were increasingly centred on border regions, making borderland studies critical to understanding Africa’s development.
The conference also highlighted the contributions of Professor Emeritus Anthony Asiwaju, a renowned Nigerian scholar of African boundaries and borderlands, whose work advanced the understanding of borders as spaces of interaction, exchange, identity and contestation rather than merely territorial dividing lines.
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