Jide Olatuyi
Abuja

Africa boundary demarcations drawn up by colonial powers has been described as arbitrary owing to lack of proper consultations and ethnic considerations for the people of the Continent when the exercise was deliberated upon.

The Minister of Cooperation and Integration in Africa, Chief Bimbola Ogunkelu said this yesterday in Abuja, during a national seminar on: "The management of African Boarders" organised by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

According to the minister, the existing boundaries demarcated at the Berlin Conference of1885 were a product of negotiations and treaties entered into among colonial powers without any input from the African people.

He said: "Practically, all boundary lines were arbitrarily drawn without taking into consideration existing ethnic affinities, nor historical and cultural ties among the people.

"Africa was just like a big cake sliced and shared among the colonial masters."

The minister disclosed further that with the over one hundred and three separate international boundaries on the African Continent and the existing resolution of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) that for social and political stability, boundaries between and among member states at independence must be maintained and respected, post colonial Africa is plagued by a series of "chain connected" inter-state disputes.

He said such disputes were exemplified with what is obtainable in Morocco and Western Sahara; Libya and Chad; between Sierra-Leone and Liberia versus Guinea, Nigeria and Cameroun.

Others include; between Ethiopia and Eritrea; Mauritania and Senegal, Kenya and Uganda; South Africa and Swaziland.

The minister said that because man is a territorial animal whose activities are driven by the imperative to acquire and defend distinct physical spaces needed for his survival and well being, thus such territorial demarcations have become a part of human history while border conflicts are integral component of social life.

Besides, Ogunkelu stated that the management of African borders still possess some strategic, economic and political significance, especially for the Cooperation and Integration in Africa ministry.

The minister later called on all stakeholders for instance the National Boundary commission, professionals and those charged with the responsibility of international and intra-national boundaries to take the issue of border management as a serious task that must be effectively completed.

In his address, Dr. Sunday Ochoche, the Director General of the Institute while welcoming seminar participants, observed that border conflicts have always been serious threats to domestic law and order as well as to the peace among neighbouring states.