December 13, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has alleged that some powerful Nigerians are sponsoring banditry and terrorism in the country to further the exploration of illegal mining.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, disclosed this on Tuesday, when he appeared before the House Committee on Solid Minerals to defend the Ministry’s 2024 budget estimate.
The Minister said the Tinubu administration is already identifying those individuals and will take appropriate measures.
Alake also alleged that majority of the illegal miners were not foreigners but noted that most of the foreigners engaged in illegal mining in the country had no proper immigration.
“One pernicious discovery that we made, Mr Chairman, is that a lot of these banditry, terrorisms, and insecurities that we identified in this sector are actually sponsored by illegal miners. These illegal miners are not artisanal miners or people who pick gold rusts on the ground.
“These are heavy and powerful individuals in our country, and they are Nigerians, not foreigners. Yes, you can see foreigners as symptoms and not diseases.
“Nigerians are the powers behind those foreigners that you see. We are identifying them, and we are employing various strategies, both kinetic and non-kinetic with the artisanal, who are at the lower ladder of illegal mining. We have encouraged those petty illegal miners to form cooperatives,” he said.
Alake said his Ministry is liaising with the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies in the country, with the inclusion of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to boost security in areas where solid minerals abound in the country.
“We have to use this mechanism so that we don’t just deploy men and materials into a wide expanse of land or bush. But now, with the introduction of artificial intelligence, we’ll be able to pinpoint flash points, and then deploy men and materials more efficiently and effectively to combat insecurities and insurrections.
“We did make a very appreciable budgetary proposal. But when the envelope came, you understood these things more than us. What we saw in the envelope was quite discouraging. In fact, the figure we were given cannot even engage in one single item on our agenda. And the most important is exploration.
“Without generating geo-scientific data, which we will use in convincing foreign investors, we will just not be doing ourselves justice. We need a lot of funding in exploration and as you have rightly mentioned, it is the business of the government to embark on exploration.
“We cannot leave exploration in the hands of the private sector, because when we do that, they will generate the data and keep half of it to themselves for pecuniary purposes and give us only half and that will not be in our overall economic and security interest in this country. So, it is proper for the government to devote a substantial amount of funding to exploration. And we are asking for a conservative figure of N250 billion for exploration.
“This is because, as I said earlier, we have identified 44 minerals but those are the ones identified as of now. And a foreign agency that we signed an MoU with recently did tell us that the conservative estimate of the minerals that we have underground in Nigeria is over $700 billion and they are basing their estimation on the identified minerals alone. Nigeria is such a vast land.
“We have not even explored a quarter of the potential of what we have. Therefore, the entire budget of N24 billion is a non-starter if we are to achieve the stated objectives of the sector. We need nothing less than N250 billion for exploration if we are to achieve the mandate of this sector. The sector should contribute not less than 50 per cent to the nation’s GDP. That N24 billion is a non-starter,” he said.
Responding, Chairman of the Committee, Gaza Gbefwi, who noted that the solid minerals sector remained the last hope for the country to attain the level of diversity it required, said the funds appropriated to the sector in the 2024 budget were 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 obtained, engages or attracts the necessary investments. It will shock you to note that the petroleum sector, which is more or less a mining and extractive industry, has earmarked $400 million for frontier exploration as captured by provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (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.
“Let me use this medium to call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 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 are the next frontier for industrialization and world development. The House of Representatives will not rest on its ores to form strategic partnerships 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.
“To this end, we have taken proactive steps to put up motions and bills that will strengthen and bring about some reorganisation or restructuring in line with the seven-point agenda of the Minister,” he said.
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