I came across a recent publication that got me thinking. I hope that our leaders, including the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Chief Dele Alake, the Security Chiefs, and everyone who is genuinely disturbed by the worsening security situation in Nigeria read it too.
The report was published on an online platform named African Defence Magazine or ADF Magazine. The title of the report was “Chinese Gold Miners Fuel Insecurity in Nigeria” and the date of publication was February 6, 2024. The report was illustrated with a photograph of a Chinese national shoveling processed gold dust in Anka village, Zamfara state.
The two opening paragraphs of the report read: “Illegal gold mining is a growing problem in Nigeria that is benefitting terrorist groups, causing violence and increasing pollution. Residents of mining areas blame Chinese nationals who set up and oversee mining and refining operations…. tension continues to rise around these mines. Locals accuse Chinese miners of collaborating with extremist militants, corrupting government officials, destroying farmlands, and polluting water with mercury and lead.”
The report went on to quote a traditional ruler in Osun State. He was identified as Omololu Afilaka the traditional ruler of Atorin-Ijesha in Osun state. He was quoted as saying that his people had been conquered by the Chinese. He said: “Before the Chinese came, we had artisanal miners. They could only bite as much as they could chew. Then came the big players, the Chinese illegal miners, and they came with excavators.”
According to the report, “in the banditry-affected north-west and central areas, loose criminal networks engaged in illegal mining have ties to foreign actors and facilitate trafficking… Foreign networks operate like their local counterparts and have repositioned their activities in the criminal value chain through direct involvement in illicit gold mining in remote villages and forests”.
This quote is about another research project by Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organised Crime (ENACT) which further stated that “foreign demand drives most of the criminal markets for gold in Nigeria”. It added that the “Nigerian authorities have arrested several Chinese nationals since 2020 for involvement in illegal mining.”
Further, the report quoted a Policeman in Zamfara state as saying that “our mining sector has not been accorded much priority by the nation’s security actors until recently when illegal mining was linked to rural banditry. Most of the mining activities are being done by illegal miners because mining sites have been neglected by regulators and security agents. Chinese and other foreigners too are taking advantage of this prolonged neglect by the nation’s mining regulators and security agents. It is also the reason why bandits are attracted to the sector.”
The magazine also referenced another report by a Lagos-based analytical group, SBM Intelligence, whose Head of Research, Ikemesit Effiong was quoted as telling The Times that “Chinese mining bosses in Zamfara and Katsina are perfectly willing to pay off whoever needs to be paid off and have no qualms about it and are allowed to carry out operations.”
The report did not conclude without a voice from the Chinese Embassy, which said in response, that “The Chinese government, as well as the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, have always encouraged and urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to abide by the laws and regulations of Nigeria, and to implement the local rules and guidance on labour, environment, health, and safety, etc., and would continue their effort in this regard.”
This report by the ADF Magazine, published quarterly by U.S. Africa Command to provide an international forum for African security professionals and covers topics such as counter-terrorism strategies, security and defense operations, transnational crime, and all other issues affecting peace, stability, and good governance on the African continent, reinforces the suspicion that foreign criminal interests fuel banditry and other forms of criminality around mineral-rich parts of Nigeria.
Recall that the President of the Senate, Chief Godswill Akpabio, had during a sitting of the senate, narrated a story of the kidnap of a Chinese national in Nasarawa state. According to Akpabio, the Chinese national was released after about two weeks in the kidnappers’ den. He was picked up from a mining site in the state. It was not clear if the mine was legal or illegal. But the thing here is that after his release, the Chinese Embassy asked him to present himself for medicals. According to the Senate President, the man refused the offer of medical evaluation and requested that he be allowed to return to the bush where the mine he operated from was.
This is an indication that Nigeria may be glossing over the real issue behind the upsurge in banditry and kidnappings in parts of the country while focusing on peripheral issues. In November 2023, the Federal Government revoked 1633 mining licenses over default in the payment of statutory fees. On January 1, 2024, Minister Alake threatened to revoke more licenses over default in the payment of statutory fees. With these, the federal government showed that it was more interested in the income that comes from mining licenses and not in the security of the mining communities.
Given the ADF Magazine report, one would expect that the government would step in fully to conduct an audit of solid minerals mines in the country and through that establish, first, who the licence owners are and secondly, who exactly was operating the mines. This could also help the government to generate data on the involvement of Chinese nationals in mining sites in Nigeria. This data could become a tool to determine how those Chinese miners entered Nigeria and also to establish their roles in the sort of criminality that is found in many mining communities.
Such information could also help the security services in understanding the trajectory of crime around mining communities and the possible involvement of Chinese nationals. For emphasis, the statement from the Chinese Embassy, quoted in the ADF Magazine report, did not deny the involvement of Chinese nationals in the criminality around mining communities. It merely advised that they abide by the rule. That admonition is, in other words, a veiled admission that indeed Chinese nationals may be promoting crime and criminality around mining communities as cover for illegal excavation, mining, and export of solid minerals in Nigeria.