Activating a profile (add its build.plugins) from a plugin during validate phase

Hi,

Is it possible to activate a profile programmatically from a Mojo (or a
plugin lifecycle extension) in Maven 3? I am trying to understand whether
or not I can add the "build.plugins" from an inherited (but inactive)
profile to the currently executing project during the validate phase. I
know I can do this with a custom ProfileActivator but I'd really like to do
this in a plugin to simplify sharing this functionality. I don't mind if
this involves using some internal APIs but I don't know where to start
looking. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Best,
Shahim