By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – FOLLOWING escalating insecurity in parts of the country, miners under the auspices of Miners Association of Nigeria, MAN, yesterday, vehemently condemned proposed banning of mining activities in northern Nigeria.

The rejection of the call to ban their activities by the Congress of Northern Governors and elders, as a panacea to prolonged and seemingly intractable security challenges in the region, the National President, MAN, ‘Dele Ayanleke, and National Secretary, MAN, Sulaiman Liman in a jointly signed statement and made available to Vanguard, pointed out that it is wrong to point to mining activities as the root causes of terrorism and banditry in the northern Nigeria.

The Association also made it clear that, “All our members are mineral title holders that engage in legal, responsible and environmentally friendly mining operations. 

“Legitimate miners work in synergy with security agencies to maintain security in their areas of operations, develop infrastructures in rural areas through the implementation of statutory Community Development Projects and they contribute positively to the national economy as their mineral products supply raw materials to local industries and are exported to earn foreign exchange that improves our country’s balance of trade. 

“To lump legal mining with illegal mining and place a blanket ban or suspend all mining activities in the Northern region will be most unjust and serious disservice to the legal miners and their employees. It would create mass unemployment, aggravate the existing multidimensional poverty and increase insecurity.”

Meanwhile, the Association also maintained that, “Going by antecedents, banning of mining activities in Nigeria as a solution to curbing insecurity, has not yielded any positive result. For instance, in the year 2019, the government pronounced a ban on mining operations in Zamfara State. 

“Unfortunately, the waves of banditry, kidnappings, terrorism and illegal mining have been escalating, not only in Zamfara State, but has spread widely to the adjoining neighboring states of Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi and others.

“It should also be registered that the victims of the ban on mining operations are the legitimate industry stakeholders that are denied access to their minefields by the overzealous security operatives; whereas, the illegal miners turned bandits and terrorists would be feeding fat, by helping themselves to the mineral resources under the active support of their local and foreign sponsors. 

“This situation is made possible by the government’s lack of adequate logistics and personnel to enforce the ban and ensure compliance with all regulatory frameworks.”

The statement also noted that there is an unfettered access of illegal miners to the mineral resources in a banned mining location offering incentives and empowerment to criminals as they exchange the minerals for arms and ammunition to upscale their heinous activities.

The Association warned that, “Pronouncement of ban on mining activities will result in huge losses of investments to the investing partners while our nation’s investment profile would suffer a loss of confidence in our credibility as a conducive investment destination.” 

While acknowledging the efforts of the Tinubu-led administration on the resumption of the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, the development and attraction of investments and investors to the sector with a 7-Point Agenda has been promoted, and there are results to that effect.

They also highlighted the efforts and gains the Minister has made: curbing illegal mining and sanitizing mining Industry; multiple cleaning up of the mining cadastre system – revoking expired, inactive and defaulting mineral titles. 

Establishment of the Mining Marshall outfit, and empowering the Ministry’s regulatory departments.

“We are very curious of the motive behind the Northern Governors’ request for auditing and revalidation of extant mineral titles, a process that is not legally or procedurally tenable”, it added.

Meanwhile, the Association counseled the Northern States’ Governors, “to deploy substantial parts of their Security Votes, or even make special budgetary allocations, to support massive improvement in the logistic and human capacities of the Mining Marshall outfit, among other constitutionally expedient initiatives, as solutions to illegal mining which is a precursor to criminality.”

However, the Association made their stand known by declaring, “As the foremost industry Association in the Nigerian Mining Ecosystem, we hereby reject the call for the banning of mining activities in any part of the country and we also patriotically plead with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly, to outrightly reject this call, as the negatives of such action overwhelmingly outweighs the positives.”