…demand serious regulation of sector

…urges Steel Minister to make Ajaokuta, NIOMCO work

By Gabriel Ewepu

WITH less than 24 hours for President Bola Tinubu to wear-in 45 Ministers, miners under the auspices of Miners Association of Nigeria, MAN, weekend, pledged support and cooperation ahead of the takeover of affairs at the Ministry by the newly appointed Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake.

Speaking with Vanguard, the National President, MAN, ‘Dele Ayanleke, said miners are in high expectation and believe that with the emergence of Alake as Minister there will be dramatic turn of events and activities in the sector, because the sector is a major focus of the Tinubu-led administration in terms of diversifying the economy  and massive generation of revenue and employment.

Ayanleke said: “We will cooperate with the newly appointed Minister of Solid Minerals Development and also engage in robust conversation that will continue the sector forward, especially the solid minerals where likely we are going to be feasible.”

However, he said what miners demand is serious regulation of the sector, which has been a challenge to operators in the sector, because overzealous State actors have gone ahead to take over the responsibility of the Ministry of Solid Minerals by setting up task force who have arrested legitimate and recognized miners and even jailed them.

He also said the issue of ‘illegality’ should be looked into because there are some misgivings and lack of knowledge on legal and illegal mining, and because of these facts, and he added that a State government regulating mining is against the constitution and it is an illegality.

“In the solid minerals sector, the major challenge now, number one, is the issue of regulation. Government has to be serious about regulation, if it means tinkering with the law or constitution, I think this issue of everybody wanting to regulate the sector does not augur well at all.

“There are other channels to regulate mining but it seems the lower tier of regulation. Government has to be serious about regulation, if it means tinkering with the law or constitution, I think this issue of everybody wanting to regulate the sector does not augur well at all.

“There are other channels to regulate mining but it seems the lower tiers of government are not ready to align with those structures. So there is that need for the government to be very serious about it to streamline the conversations.”  

Meanwhile, he  (Ayanleke) further stated that, “If the government wants to generate massive wealth the government needs to look into exportation of raw ore from Nigeria.

“We really need value addition and we are to move the conversation from mere rhetoric and pragmatic steps taken to make sure that we facilitate processing channels and the minerals are processed into ore before they are exported, and even at that government needs to bring in technology and investors to process raw solid minerals into finished products instead of export the raw material as it is being done in oil and gas.”

He also added that it is necessary to attract investors who will establish companies that would process different solid minerals as seen earlier in the agricultural sector when Nigeria was dependent on agriculture, which brought in different agro-allied companies into the cocoa, rubber, cotton, oil palm, groundnut, rice industries.

However, in a related development, the miners’ boss urged the Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu, and Minister of State for Steel Development U.Maigari Ahmadu, to make the comatose legacy projects, Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and National Iron Ore Mining Company, NIOMCO, work after several failed attempts and negligence of the two economic game changers by several administrations.

“Any nation that actually wants to go industrial, iron and steel is very key, and the problems we are having with these legacy projects, Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, and National Iron Ore Mining Company, NIOMCO, maybe government want to actually want to separate that ministry in order to refocus attention so that Nigeria can spring again back to industrialization”, he said.