AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
With vast fields of natural resources like oil, tin, iron ore, and other solid and non solid minerals dotting its landscape, Nigeria is a big attraction to miners and mining, both local and foreign. This explains why they jostle desperately to dig up the quantum of mineral endowments that are buried several thousands of meters beneath the ground.
In Nigeria, both legal and illegal mining apparently run shoulder to shoulder under a less regulated atmosphere thereby giving room to impunity.
Analysts said while the government paid overbearing attention to petroleum exploration, it hardly ever gave required attention to mining of solid minerals.
As a result of this, cartels of foreign and local miners and foreign elements are found to have exploited been exploiting the country with impunity for decades. Since early 2020, Chinese nationals turned into the country, taking turn to milk it.
Scores of Chinese had been arrested in Nigeria for inviting in illegal mining.
Governments is being variously blamed for the unregulated and illegal mining activities in various communities even as officials, agencies, traditional and community leaders are not spared.
For instance, on Thursday, January 18, 2024, the Kogi State Government banned the traditional rulers and community leaders from issuing consent letters to prospective miners in the state.
The state government said that consent letter to miners must pass through due process for its consideration and approval.
The Commissioner for Solid Minerals and Natural Resources in Kogi State, Alhaji Bashir Gegu, announced the government’s decision during a stakeholders meeting with traditional rulers in Lokoja.
In light of the atrocities being allegedly committed by illegal miners in the state, Gegu said, “This step taken by government becomes imperative in view of the prevailing circumstances about the issuance of consent letters that has given us a lot of concerns.
“The decision is to address the growing issues of illegal mining activities and insecurity in the state, as well as effects of environmental degradation. It’s my belief that this meeting will afford all the stakeholders the opportunity to have adequate information on the proper manner of handling issues that concern the release of consent letters to the mining investors.
“The ban imposed today is not the first as most states of the federation had long banned issuance of consent letter to mining investors without clearance.
“As traditional rulers and royal fathers, it is generally believed that you hold the key to the success or failure of the economy and security administration of the state. This is simply because you operate at the grassroots of the society and interact closely with people in their daily activities.”
He said the state government, through his ministry, would continue to formulate policies that would provide an enabling environment for the mining sector to thrive.
According to Gegu, the Law stipulates that before miners commence activities in Kogi State, they are required to submit statutory environmental documents mandatory for operation such as the Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental processing, Rehabilitation programme and Community Development Agreement.
“As a result of this unregulated mining activities going on, the extent of environmental degradation in Kogi state is unimaginable.”
The state government lamented that most mining investors in Kogi defaulted in environmental obligation such as provision of portable water supply, electricity supply, healthcare services, school facilities, road construction and reclaiming farm lands.
As things stand, Gegu disclosed that the state government is partnering host communities and mining companies to develop a comprehensive CDA that would be binding on both parties.
Indeed in Nigeria, mining had been described by critics as an all comers affair as criminal elements take advantage of the weak policy in place by delving into the field with little or no experience. As a result of this, they constitute a threat to national economy and also become nuisances to host communities.
Observers said that the Federal Government is apparently aware of the illegal rackets in the mining sector but decided to turn its gaze away. Some critics blamed the eyesore in the mining sector on lack of willpower by the leadership to sanitize the sector.
Those in objection to the disposition of the government, on the impunity being perpetrated in the mining sector, attributed the tragedy that struck in Ibadan on Tuesday where tons of explosives that were kept in a residential area went off killing people and destroying properties, to weak operational policy and poor willpower on the part of government.
During the 2024 budget defense in Abuja before the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals for his Ministry, Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Mineral, declared that some ‘powerful’ Nigerians and foreigners are involved in illegal mining. He went further to allege that the persons in question were involved in sponsoring banditry and terrorism in the country.
Alake stated that the country needed to pay closer attention to the mining sector, stressing that “Nigerians are those powerful people behind them; we are identifying them with both kinetic and non-kinetic means. We have encouraged those petty illegal miners to form cooperatives.”
Alake, explaining that for mining to generate the requisite revenue envisaged, there was need to have a formal structure that the multinationals could deal with. However, he said most of the foreigners engaging in illegal mining in the country had no proper immigration documents talk less of legally acceptable business procedures.
Indicating an imminent review of the old structure, the minister said that the Nigeria Mining Cooperation would be primarily private sector-driven in due course.
The Minister who put the mineral deposits in the country conservatively at more than 700 billion dollars, noted that the deposits were neither tracked nor annexed.
In a bid to address the neglect being experienced by host communities where mining activities take place across the country, he said the inhabitants should be engaged in order to forestall the usual breakdown of law and order.
On the allocation made to the Ministry in the 2024 budget, Alake said, “If we are given that amount of money, I can tell you that what the ministry will contribute will outweigh other ministries, including what we are deriving from oil. We can return trillions to the coffers of this country as revenue if we are given such a budget as proposed.”
Alake, who hinted that the country had 44 minerals in high demand, with six in global demand, said Nigeria had the potential to become one of the destination hubs of the world’s economy through solid minerals.
Unless the operating environment is sanitized, investors could not be encouraged to come in, the Minister said.
Gaza Gbefwi, Chairman of the Reps committee, affirmed that the solid minerals sector remained the last hope for the country to attain diversification. He, however, noted that the funds that was appropriated to the sector in the 2024 budget were grossly inadequate.
Following the explosion that rocked Adeyi Street, Bodija, Ibadan in Oyo State on Tuesday, many people are apprehensive that it means that many other miners may be keeping explosives in their homes also.
Specifically, a former member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Muideen Olalekan Olagunju, warned that those working for illegal miners in Ibadan may have explosives in their shelters.
Olagunju, alleged in a statement titled, ‘More on Ibadan explosion,’ that Sawane Youssouf, a Malian occupying the building where the explosives were kept, is the leader of the illegal miners in the state.
His findings showed that Youssouf, Darame Ibrahima, Yattara Ibrahim and Bakare Hakeem Oladimeji, a Nigerian registered a company called SDYB International Company Limited with registration certificate 511184, in 2004 to engage in mining activities in the state.
Youssouf, whose company targeted mining activities in Iwere-Ile, Iwajowa Local Government Council Area of the state, reportedly has dozens of people working for him in Bodija, Ibadan.
The former lawmaker, saying that those working for Youssouf might also have explosives in their homes, advised the state government to trace the locations of his workers in order to avert a reoccurrence.
Illegal mining is described as a major problem with adverse effects such as environmental degradation, economic losses, social instability, governance challenges, lost revenue and insecurity.
Pundits have stated that mining in the country is challenged by regulatory and legal challenges such as inconsistent policies, overlapping responsibilities between federal and state governments, and unclear land tenure systems. This, they said, deterred investors and hindered the industry’s growth.
Investigations showed that over 3 billion metric tonnes of iron ore deposits are found in Kogi, Enugu and Niger states as well as the Federal Capital Territory. Iron ore is being mined at Itakpe in Kogi State and is already being beneficiated, up to 67 per cent of iron.
In developing countries like Nigeria and Ghana, poverty is said to be propelling illegal artisanal mining. Families are often torn between needing the income and suffering from the environmental and health consequences of such activities.
Experts are worried that most of those using explosives in mining in Nigeria are unprofessional in its handling.
A Physician, Prof. Babatunde Adebo, at Lead City University in Ibadan, said that explosives required extreme professional touch in their handling. He explained that there are three fundamental types of explosives namely mechanical, nuclear and chemical.
Findings showed that handlers of explosives must wear appropriate PPE like specified gloves, lab coat or apron, safety goggles used in conjunction with a face shield, and explosion-proof shields when working with potentially explosive chemicals.
It is required that minimum number of people should be exposed to the minimum quantity of explosives for the minimum period of time for the maximum protection possible to people and property.
Although it appears to many as a tall dream, Ola Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, vowed that the agency would do everything possible to checkmate activities of illegal miners in the country in a bid to help the government to leapfrog the economy and reduce the associated risks in the sector.
Olukoyede in an address at the 5th Annual Conference of the National Council on Mining and Mineral Resources Development, in Ilorin, Kwara State, said, “EFCC is a major stakeholder in the issue of illegal mining. The Commission has been at the forefront of sanitizing the mining sector in Nigeria. This is done in line with the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“illegal mining is not only a threat to our local and national economy but also constitutes a grave danger to the lives of the people.”
However, in the view of some stakeholders, the problems that saddled the mining sector in Nigeria is not as simple as the EFCC chief imagined.
For instance, in parts of the North, some terrorist cells are reportedly into mining in order to widen the scope of financing of terrorism activities. A report fingered one Halilu Sububu, a deadly terrorist in the North-West of Nigeria of engaging in illegal mining.
Sububu’s illegal gold mining operation in Bagega near Sumke Forest in Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara State is said to be going on without interference.
Sububu, who reportedly has close ties with French-speaking Jihadists in the Sahel region of West Africa (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegal) is said to be feared by other terrorist cells in the area, hence he operated the largest and most thriving gold mine by compelling inhabitants of neighbouring villages to work for him at the mines.
Report has it that before the arrival of Sububu to the ungoverned part of the North, some locals usually hired armed bandits whom they paid in gold or cash to protect the mining sites.
As things progressed, terrorists are said to have annexed the mines. They turned round to force the locals to work for them usually without pay.
A researcher on banditry in the North, lecturing at the Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto, named Murtala Ahmad-Rufa’i, said, “Bandits decided to join mining to diversify, especially because most of the communities they (terrorists) target are no longer financially strong enough to pay ransom or levies. It’s good to know that banditry has transformed from cattle rustling, abduction, kidnapping of school children, imposition of levies and tax to mining.”
Whether the mining sector in Nigeria could be repositioned to boost the economy or not depends on strong political willpower on the part of the government, experts have said. They also emphasized the need for the government to firm up the laws so as to stamp out illegalities that may be threatening the lives of Nigerians.
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