The Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake on Monday said that powerful Nigerians are involved in illegal mining and sponsoring banditry and terrorism bedeviling the country.
Alake disclosed this in Abuja, during the 2023 budget performance and 2024 budget defence held at the instance of the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals, chaired by Hon. Jonathan Gbefwi.
According to him, a lot of banditry and terrorism are sponsored by illegal miners; “they are not people who pick gold on the ground but powerful individuals in the country.”
While noting that 44 minerals are in high demand, while six are in global demand, the Minister averred that the majority of the illegal miners were not foreigners but added that foreigners could be seen as symptoms.
“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.”
He said the most disturbing aspect was that most of the foreigners engaged in illegal mining in the country had no proper immigration.
He said for mining to generate the requisite revenue, there was a need to have a formal structure that the multinational could deal with, just like the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
He, however, said that the approach of the ministry under his leadership would be different from NNPCL, adding that the structure being proposed for Nigeria Mining Cooperation would be primarily private sector-driven.
He added that “Nigeria will also have its equity, adding that this would mean that no government after could destabilize the structure.”
He disclosed that Nigeria is yet to explore a quarter of over $700 billion of the conservative amount of solid minerals deposited across the country.
He, therefore, urged the committee to support the process, adding that this would help change mining in the country.
He also said that the host communities where mining activities take place across the country would be engaged to forestall the breakdown of laws and orders.
He pleaded with the committee to consider the amount budgeted for the ministry in the 2024 budget proposal.
“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,” he said.
He said Nigeria had the potential to become one of the destination hubs of the world’s economy through solid minerals.
He, however, said there was a need to sanitize the operating environment for the investors.
Speaking earlier, Chairman, House Committee on Solid Minerals, Hon. Jonathan Gbefwi observed that “there is no time in our nation’s history that the nation has needed the input of the Solid mineral sector like now, owing to the fact that the solid minerals sector remains the last hope of our country to attain the level of economic diversity it requires.
“This of course is hinged on the fact that Nigeria possesses the solid minerals needed to attract the kind of foreign exchange required.
“This has been exemplified when in the seventies, the solid minerals sector was accounting for over 50% of contributions to the GDP as against today where we are barely contributing meagre 0.63%.”
While acknowledging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s passion for the development of the solid minerals subsector of the country’s economy, Hon. Gbefwi said: “It is quite exciting to note that he hit the ground running by embarking on strategic bilateral and trade expeditions that will bring the needed investment into our country.
“However, ladies and gentlemen, when I received the budget proposal for 2024, it cast a dark shadow, owing to the fact that the sums appropriated to this critical sector are not just inadequate but grossly inadequate.
“To start with, exploration has never been the business of the investor but the government who carries out the exploration and based on values gotten, engages or attracts the necessary investments.
“It will shock you to note that the Petroleum sector which is more or less mining and an extractive industry, has earmarked $400 million for frontier exploration as captured by provisions of the PIA being a percentage of the operating profit of the NNPC.
“When you calculate or convert $400 million, it will give you an idea of what the NNPC is spending on just frontier exploration which is not its major exploration activity.”
In the bid to ensure a paradigm shift in the solid minerals subsector, he called on President Tinubu to “rethink and reconsider the paltry sums that were allocated to this sector. We must be careful not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. We are in a phase of energy transition and solid minerals is the next frontier for industrialization and world development.
“The House of Representatives will not rest on its ores to form strategic partnership with the executives, the Minister and all agencies to make sure we make good on the oath of office we swore to at our respective inaugurations.”
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