Sanitise the mining sector now

On Monday, March 4, 2025, the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, told journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that political, social and cultural sensitivities were major impediments to the eradication of illegal and unregulated mining activities in the country. Alake said: “There is a sensitivity given the peculiarity of our environment – […]

On Monday, March 4, 2025, the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, told journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that political, social and cultural sensitivities were major impediments to the eradication of illegal and unregulated mining activities in the country.

Alake said: “There is a sensitivity given the peculiarity of our environment – political, social and cultural – which we recognise. I will not be the one to heat up the polity unnecessarily. I have met the governors. I have had a meeting with 32 of them at their secretariat, organised by the chairman of the Governors Forum.

“Some of them feigned ignorance of this constitutional separation of powers, even though they have attorneys-general. There have been cases of interference by states in mining activities. If there is an infraction in a state, the governor must consult us before taking action. We investigate and either act directly or authourise the state to act under federal cover.”

Despite the situation, the minister said that states had been encouraged to incorporate state-owned Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) that could apply for mining licences, saying, “This way, they feel a sense of belonging. And it is a win-win situation for the federal government, the states and host communities.”

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He added that the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Ministry of Defence were working closely to curb illegal mining operations while the ministry implements two-pronged approach – persuasive and coercive – to address the menace. For example, under the persuasive strategy, over 300 informal and artisanal miners have successfully been encouraged to form cooperatives to legalise their operations. Already, on Sunday, September 3, 2023, the minister gave a 30-day ultimatum to illegal miners to join artisanal cooperatives.

For those who refuse to comply, the government has deployed law enforcement agencies through mine marshals, unveiling a 2,200-strong paramilitary agency in March 2024 to smoke out illegal miners and those who flout the country’s mining laws.

Alake said that out of the 320 illegal miners arrested in recent months, about 150 are currently facing prosecution, while 9, including four foreigners, had been convicted.

But despite the arrests and prosecutions, not much has changed. In December 2023, the minister blamed unnamed ‘powerful Nigerians’ for the menace of illegal mining, accusing them of fueling acts of terrorism around the country.

Defending the 2024 budget estimates, he told the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals that: “Those powerful people behind them (illegal miners) are Nigerians; we are identifying them with both kinetic and non-kinetic means. The insecurity in the mining areas is sponsored by illegal miners and these are powerful individuals in the society.

“There is connivance among the strata of the society – high, medium and low classes of the society – in the country’s mining sector. Illegal mining is not exclusive to the high class alone but cuts across the strata of our society.”

Whatever the situation is, we at Daily Trust call for a new mining sector guided by global best practices, including issuance of permits, licences, leases, collection of rents, fees and royalties, prospecting, quarrying, mining, handling, sale and consumption of solid minerals.

We also implore the minister to lead initiatives, especially in forging technical partnerships, technological support, security of the operating environment and reforms that guarantee regulatory compliance in order to take the sector to greater heights.

Nobody ever said this would be a tea party, yet, it is a task that must be done. And the minister has made enough proclamations since assuming office in August 2023, to raise the hope of Nigerians. He made a lot of promises and we at Daily Trust encourage him to work towards actualising them.

Towards this, nothing should be a hindrance, not even the Land Use Act being raised as one. After all, in the exploration of oil in the Niger Delta, it was never an issue. Moreover, the Army and Navy regularly regale Nigerians of their exploits in the arrest of illegal crude oil refiners in the Niger Delta and the destruction of their equipment. The same seriousness should be directed against all illegal miners and their equipment wherever they are found in Nigeria.  

We refuse to take the minister’s recent statement as a seeming surrender to unpatriotic forces that reign in the mining sector. It should not be. We still encourage him to lead in modernising mining operations in Nigeria as illegal mining has left on its way, grinding poverty with visible human and environmental misery, in frightening contrast to the billions the land yields to both legal and illegal miners.

Any excuse is totally untenable and unacceptable. There is no escapism in the crisis of illegal mining in the country and no rhetoric would resolve it.

We cannot continue to have a situation where Nigerians are not benefitting from the country’s substantial solid rare deposits of columbite, tantalite, beryl, aquamarine, lithium, tourmaline, besides gold, coal, tin, lead, zinc, limestone, granite, laterite, barite, gypsum, kaolin, marble, iron ore, wolframite, graphite and nickel.

Conservative estimates put the country’s minerals at over $700 billion, but Nigeria is yet to tap commercially into these resources for development due to institutional bottlenecks.

The mindboggling losses in the sector must stop. There must be a halt to unregulated, under-reported and unlicensed mining activities. Presently, the only beneficiaries are the cabals and their collaborators in both public and private sectors. It is time to dismantle them for the good of the country. The mining sector must advance the national interest and benefit Nigerians and lead in economic diversification, job creation and community development.