Varsity of mining needed to unlock Nigeria’s solid mineral economic potential — Sen Plang

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Employment and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang, has stated that Nigeria is in dire need of a full-fledged University of Mining and Geo-Science to unlock the economic potential of the solid minerals sub-sector.

Senator Plang, who stated this on Tuesday shortly after he visited the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geo-Science in Jos, said the establishment of such a university can spur rapid and beneficial development of the country’s solid minerals.

According to him, the bill towards the establishment of a university of this nature in Jos is before the Senate has passed through the first reading, and will soon undergo the second reading and subsequent public hearing.

He narrated that his visit to the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geo-Science in Jos, Plateau State, was to assert the content and manpower development of the institute in readiness for its upgradement to the status of a University of Mining and Geo-Science if the bill before the Senate is passed and finally accented by the President.

Said he:” The Director-General of the institute has taken me around; I have seen what is on the ground, and I am convinced that based on the structure and equipment on the ground, the institute may not have much problem transforming into a University of Mining.

“I want to say that if established, it will serve as a vehicle for rapid transformation of the Nigerian economy, while its products should be able to provide technical services in all aspects of mining engineering and its allied courses.

“And more so, the choice of Jos is not misplaced given the abundance of solid minerals in Plateau State. As sponsor of the bill, I am here because of the capacity of the institute and also because of what the institute can offer Nigeria and Nigerians.

I am interested in Nigeria and am doing deep research in the area of minerals and geosciences. I felt that a great country like Nigeria is endowed with the mineral resources to deepen and upgrade the Institute of Mining into a university where mineral exploration will be maximized.

“That is why when I went to the National Assembly within the first month of my tenure, I came out with a bill to repeal the Act establishing the Institute of Mining to enable us to explore the possibility of upgrading it to a University of Mining.

The content here is high, and most Nigerians may not know that there is enough manpower to galvanise it and run it effectively whenever it is upgraded to the status of a university,” he said.

Also speaking, the Director-General of the Institute, Professor Suleiman Bolaji Hassan, said the institute has 23 standard pieces of equipment, adding that this and other facilities, including the structure at its permanent location, will be enough to move the institute to the next level of a university.

Professor Hassan said other institutions in the country have been patronizing the institute at the undergrad, postgraduate, and PhD levels as a result of the equipment on the ground, adding that if eventually upgraded, the takeoff will be smooth.

“Though not 100 per cent, we are building on what we need to take, and we have standard international equipment for analysis and identification of minerals. We also have space for us to take off. We also want to tell the world that we are being patronized by universities in this country in terms of training.

So a university is not built in a day; it starts gradually. By the time the government establishes this, it will be the first of its kind, if not in Africa; the one that will be competing with us will be that of Takwa in Ghana,” he said.

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