Paper short abstract:

The concept recognizes the existence of borders between countries, but refers to a dynamic community united by socio-economic and cultural realities. Borders and borderlands on the other hand are disadvantaged areas due to their location at the margin of their states territory,

Paper long abstract:

It is indicated that a cross border area is a geographical area that overlaps between two or more neighbouring states and whose populations are linked by socio-economic and cultural bonds. The concept recognizes the existence of borders between countries, but refers to a dynamic community united by socio-economic and cultural realities. Borders and borderlands on the other hand are disadvantaged areas due to their location at the margin of their states territory, and are socially and economically depressed. They usually assume the status of "asylum" and are "creators and facilitators" of cross-border crimes. The border in focus evolved due to the imperial rivalry between the British-German and later the French. It divided the Boki, Ejagham and Akwaya placing them in Nigeria and Cameroon, including a cultural inherent area, the sea bed, etc. The border referenced is the least developed and underpolicied of all nigeria's borderlands making it a sanctuary or camouflage for criminals to thrive. The neglect of the borderlands from the colonial era have continued in the era of independence due to the adoption of a socio-economic development strategy which emphasizes by way of policy recommendation that the adoption of the cross border area concept could reverse the status of the borderland as militarily vulnerable and unsecure for investment and development. The micro-integration formations taking place along and astride the borderlands at the grassroots should be galvanized and vitalized for broader economic integration of the shared borders.