The Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) says banning mining activities in the country will be counterproductive and capable of worsening insecurity.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Dele Ayanleke, the National Secretary of MAN, on Saturday in Abuja.
Ayanleke said that placing a ban on mining activities due to insecurity in the country would further explode the labour market and enlarge the reserves for the recruitment of more bandits and criminals in the country.
Recall that the Federal Government had said it was looking at the possibility of banning motorcycles and mining activities as a way of addressing the myriad of security challenges facing the country.
The MAN president said that the ban would ruin the Federal Government’s plan of diversifying the economy through the mining sector.
“Stigmatising an important economic hub such as the mining industry and criminalising it as a scape-goat will be counterproductive and we have reasons for this assertion.
“At the inception of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, included in the economic blueprint was an agenda to diversify the economy from oil and gas and broaden the economic space using mining and agriculture as pivots,” he said.
He said for the past three years, mining activities had been under ban in Zamfara and Katsina States.
“The victims of the purported ban are the identifiable and traceable owners of the mines with extant mining titles obtained from the appropriate authorities and remitting annual service and royalties to the government’s purse.
“The fact is that the regulatory and security agencies lack both human and logistics capacities to enforce the ban.“The ban is only succeeding in keeping the legitimate mines owners away from their concessions and declaring the field free for illegal operators to occupy and pillory with the sponsorship of foreign nationals and local chiefs.”
Ayanleke said the purported ban of the gold rich mining fields of Zamfara had been the revenue source fueling the increasing waves of insecurity in the Northwest.
“It is on this note that as partners in the Nigeria project and major industry players, we feel obliged to offer some patriotic tips toward finding solutions to national security, especially around the mining corridors.
“We encourage our security agencies to up their trade in intelligence policing.
“There are unconfirmed reports from our members in the affected states noticing high level movements into the purported banned minefields, including air movements that are not for surveillance missions,” Ayanleke said.
He said that security searchlights should be beamed on some high profile personnel in the country.
“The reported dethronement and prosecution of some high ranking traditional rulers in recent times should serve as enough pointer to this piece of advice.
“The policy of 100 per cent ownership of mining assets by foreign nationals should be urgently reviewed.
“Experience has shown that foreigners are the major targets of the kidnappers and their presence in mining locations are major incentives to the increasing rate of kidnappings and killings around mining sites.
“These criminals are always ready to waste as many lives identified as obstacles to their targets. The Shiroro massacre also comes handy to illustrate this point.”
Ayanleke said that the rate at which Chinese nationals flood Nigeria’s minefields these days looking for every ounce of lithium mineral “is very alarming.”
“The issue of Chinese hunting for our lithium is an issue for another day, which we intend to take up with the government through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.
“Without prejudice to the rights and privileges of any national under various bilateral and multilateral treaties and charters to which Nigeria is a signatory, we recommend that the movements of foreign nationals be restricted to urban centres.
“Their movement should be restricted to urban centres in this period of security emergency. Partnership with indigenous players should be encouraged and strengthened to oversee their joint investments.”
He called on the government and all security agencies to deploy the same security measures being employed in the oil and gas sector to the solid minerals sector to save the industry and its operators.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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