Mining And Insecurity: Call For Suspension Of Mining Activities In Northern Nigeria Not The Solution
Miners Association of Nigeria, as the umbrella body for all mineral title holders in the Nigerian Mining Ecosystem, wishes to lend its voice to the recent proposal by the Congress of Northern Governors and elders, for the banning of mining activities as a panacea to prolonged and seemingly intractable security challenges in the region.
While the Association recognizes the dire security situation in our nation and pray for a permanent solution to the present ugly development that prompted this call, it is imperative to critically scrutinize these recommendations in the face of antecedents and in the nation’s economic interest.
As a responsible Association of patriotic corporate and individual citizens, we present our views to Mr. President, members of the Federal Executive Council and the Parliament for their objective consideration:
1. Insecurity is a national malaise that cuts across all sectors. The preponderance of criminal activities in the rural areas, especially in the agrarian and around mining corridors, is coincidental on the remote locations of farming and mining sites which are far from well secured metropolis under the immediate oversight of security agencies.
2. A nexus has not been established between legal mining and terrorism, banditry and kidnapping. It is the disorderly illegal mining that is conducted without licences and government regulations and control that practices money laundering and fuels insecurity. A clear distinction must be made between legal and illegal mining. Therefore, stigmatizing mining as the cause of insecurity is a misnomer.
3. All our members are mineral title holders that engage in legal, responsible and environmentally friendly mining operations. Legitimate miners work in synergy with security agencies to maintain security in their areas of operations, develop infrastructures in rural areas through the implementation of statutory Community Development Projects and they contribute positively to the national economy as their mineral products supply raw materials to local industries and are exported to earn foreign exchange that improves our country’s balance of trade. To lump legal mining with illegal mining and place a blanket ban or suspend all mining activities in the Northern region will be most unjust and serious disservice to the legal miners and their employees. It would create mass unemployment, aggravate the existing multidimensional poverty and increase insecurity.
4. Going by antecedents, banning of mining activities in Nigeria as a solution to curbing insecurity, has not yielded any positive result. For instance, in the year 2019, the government pronounced a ban on mining operations in Zamfara State. Unfortunately, the waves of banditry, kidnappings, terrorism and illegal mining have been escalating, not only in Zamfara State, but has spread widely to the adjoining neighboring states of Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi and others.
5. It should also be registered that the victims of the ban on mining operations are the legitimate industry stakeholders that are denied access to their minefields by the overzealous security operatives; whereas, the illegal miners turned bandits and terrorists would be feeding fat, by helping themselves to the mineral resources under the active support of their local and foreign sponsors. This situation is made possible by the government’s lack of adequate logistics and personnel to enforce the ban and ensure compliance with all regulatory frameworks.
6. Unfettered access of illegal miners to the mineral resources in a banned mining location offers incentives and empowerment to criminals as they exchange the minerals for arms and ammunitions to improve their heinous activities.
7. Pronouncement of ban on mining activities will result in huge losses of investments to the investing partners while our nation’s investment profile would suffer a loss of confidence in our credibility as a conducive investment destination. At his resumption into the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Henry Oladele Alake, made it a point of duty to promote huge investments into the Nigerian Solid Minerals sector with a 7-Point Agenda aimed at removing all the bottlenecks to the growth and development of the sector and engages in global marketing of our national endowments to attract investments. Therefore, the call by our Northern Governors and Elders to ban mining activities, at a time when the nation has started welcoming pockets of investments, is not only unfortunate, but highly unpatriotic.
8. Perhaps we also need to ask whether the call was well thought-through, with regards to the national economy and ongoing huge infrastructural developments in the country: What happens to our cement production and other industries that depend on some minerals as their raw materials? What happens to workers of the affected mines and industries that use mine products? What happens to the gradually steady improvement in the mining contribution to the national revenue? Should the President accede to this call, the nation will be creating more recruits for terrorists, bandits and kidnappers?
9. It is pertinent to mention here that there was never a call to ban petroleum exploration and exploitation when militancy was raging in Niger Delta Oil producing areas. Neither was any call made for the banning of any oil and gas operating license, nor the Governors and people of Niger Delta Region suggested the idea of revalidating oil and gas operating licenses. Instead, the Federal Government deployed homegrown solutions to douse the tension. Similarly, the FG raised Joint Task Forces (JTFs) to tackle illegal bunkering, which is the oil and gas industry version of illegal mining. All these are with the active support and facilitation of the Niger Delta states’ governments.
We commend the efforts of the Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Henry Oladele Alake to curb illegal mining and sanitize the Nigerian Mining Industry. He has conducted multiple cleaning up of the mining cadastre system, revoking expired, inactive and defaulting mineral titles. He established the Mining Marshall outfit and empowered the regulatory departments of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to curb illegal mining. We are very curious of the motive behind the Northern Governors’ request for auditing and revalidation of extant mineral titles, a process that is not legally or procedurally tenable.
We, therefore, call on our Northern States’ Governors, to deploy substantial parts of their Security Votes, or even make special budgetary allocations, to support massive improvement in the logistic and human capacities of the Mining Marshall outfit, among other constitutionally expedient initiatives, as solutions to illegal mining which is a precursor to criminality.
The call for revalidation of mining licenses is akin to agitation for resource control and fundamentally against the letters and the spirit of our Constitution which locates the control and management of mineral resources in the Exclusive Legislative List.
In conclusion, as the foremost industry Association in the Nigerian Mining Ecosystem, we hereby reject the call for the banning of mining activities in any part of the country and we also patriotically plead with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly, to outrightly reject this call, as the negatives of such action overwhelmingly outweighs the positives.
May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and guide our leaders right.
