From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Minister of Solid Mineral, Dele Alake, has said powerful Nigerians were behind illegal mining, which is fuelling banditry and other forms of insecurity in the country.
Alake stated this, yesterday, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals to defend the 2024 budget proposal of his ministry.
He explained that illegal miners found at mining sites have very powerful Nigerians behind them. The minister, however, stated that the government was making efforts to identify the individuals and would move against them.
According to him, “one discovery that we have made is that a lot of these insecurities and banditry associated with this sector are sponsored by illegal miners.
“These are not your artisan miners. They are not the people who pick gold on the ground. These are heavy and powerful individuals in our country. They are Nigerians and not foreigners.
“Yes, you can see foreigners as symptoms, but they are not the basics. Nigerians are the powers behind those foreigners that you see on the streets. We are identifying them and employing various strategies, both kinetic and non-kinetic.
“The non-kinetic with that artisan miners, I gave them an ultimatum that they should form themselves into cooperatives because every Nigerian has a right to life and necessities and if the government cannot provide these necessities, we cannot push them into the bush.”
Alake, who explained that his ministry has identified about 44 key solid mineral deposits in the country, which are in high demand globally, stated that with the right investment, the country could become the hub for solid minerals.
The minister said conservatively, the worth of minerals deposits in the country is over $700 billion dollars, nothing the solid minerals is yet to be tap commercially due to institutional bottlenecks.
Nevertheless, he said the N29 billion allocated to his ministry in the 2024 Appropriation Bill was grossly inadequate. Consequently, the minister appealed to the lawmakers to increase the budget.
“What we have is N24 billion and this is a non-starter. For this ministry to contribute at least 50 per cent of the nation’s GDP, we need N250 billion to take care of exploration. If we are given that amount of money, I can tell you what the ministry will contribute will outweigh other ministries, including what we are deriving from oil.
“We cannot leave exploration in the hands of private sector. If we do that, they will keep part of the date for pecuniary purposes. We can return trillions to the coffers of this country as revenue if we are given such a budget as proposed,” Alake said.