"The Kaduna State Governor Is Not a Mining Engineer".....Dr. E.A. Danmisa
This, to some stakeholders has been regarded as a minus in the proper utilization of the rich mineral resources and assets available to the nation through the development and enhancement of the sector with a bid to reduce its over dependence on oil.
NAIJ NEWS ALERT Publiser, Emmanuel Onotevure in an interview with Dr. E.A. Danmisa, National President of the Nigerian Society of Mining Engineers, brings to its esteemed readers, the challenges encountered in the development of the rich sector which has not received adequate support from governments; both at the state and federal levels.
Excerpts:
Your body, the Nigerian Society of Mining Engineers, recently had a meeting here in Kaduna few weeks ago. Nigerians would like to know how these conferences have impacted on the Mining sector itself and what has been the efforts of government, through its policies, in improving the sector in Nigeria especially as it concerns Kaduna state?
Thank you very much. As you already said, we had our 17th Annual General Meeting and International Conference less than three weeks ago and it was a success to some extent.
And, like I said, during the conference, we granted the hosting rights to Kaduna because of two reasons; one was that the governor of Kaduna state is highly interested in solid minerals development and, he has put somebody in charge, somebody we have come to realize, is very much interested in solid minerals development and of course, has experience, tremendous experience in the solid minerals sector. Though a lawyer, she has some experience in the solid minerals sector and that is the Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources; Mrs. Ruth Amina Dyeris-Sijuade. She has practical experience in the sector.
So, these are the things we considered and we thought we could come to Kaduna. Wherever we go, whenever we have our Annual General Meeting, AGM and Conferences, the whole idea is to raise awareness about the industry and, very importantly, considering our situation in this country, it is to invite investors into the sector. What we are need very much to do in the sector, is investment; both local and internationally. So, these are the reasons we had the conference in Kaduna this time around.
A lot of Nigerians believe that activities of mines are shrouded in secrecy. Why is it like this as many believe that there is inadequate awareness as regards this sector?
Well, I believe I gave an answer to it, that, one of the reasons we had our AGM and Conferences is to raise awareness so that people who are interested and want to invest and consider mining as a viable venture that they can come into it.
The theme of our conference this year is; “Unlocking the Investment Potentials in the Nigerian Mining Sector”. It is not a secret and everybody knows that Nigeria is well blessed with many mineral assets; Gold, Iron Ore, Lead, Zinc etc. that, other countries that are doing well in the mining sector, are not as blessed as we are.
And so, that is the major reason why we hold our Annul Conferences; that it is time for this country to wake up from its slumber and show more interest in the Solid Mineral sector of the country. I can tell you that, despite everything, the current administration has done or, has said that they would do regarding the mining sector in Nigeria; they have not enough.
This administration has not done enough and as we go along in this interaction, I will show you some areas in which the government should have done a bit more but they have not done enough as much as we would appreciate.
The mining sector is supposed to be run with a lot of information; data collation. However, some few months ago, the Kaduna state Governor informed a gathering here in his state during the KADAFEST, that his state has enough, if not more Gold, than the Republic of South Africa.
How true is this and where was this infrastructure sourced or, gathered from.
Secondly, if really the state has that amount of Gold here, how have we been able to harness it?
Well, first of all, let me say, though mining has been going on in Kaduna state, especially and specifically around Birnin Gwari area for many decades, please, let us realize that the governor is a politician. That is number one.
Secondly, he is not a Mining Engineer and we must give him that benefit of doubt that, this man who has just spoken or, who has just said this, is not a Mining Engineer and that he is a politician.
Before you can give the quantity of resource that you have, some work should have been done. To the best of my knowledge, I am a frequent visitor to the sites in Birnin Gwari where Gold mining is being carried out by artisanal miners. No serious or scientific work has been done in that area to determine the quantity or resource of Gold that we have there or any part of the country for that matter.
So, I cannot tell you whether the Kaduna state Governor is telling the truth or not. From what I have just told you, you should be able to know, as a professional, what my stand is. So, nobody can tell that we have a thousand ounces of Gold in Kaduna state or Birnin Gwari to be specific. As a professional, I cannot say that.
Has it been properly harnessed and again, is the government getting investors? Because, there are reports of a huge scale of illegal mining activities going.
What is your reaction?
First of all, let me say one or two things about illegal mining because, it is actually very difficult to say that illegal mining is going on in the country.
This is because, most of the sites where mining is being done; where you have people working, the titles are owned by individuals. So what they do is to say; “you go and work on that site for me”. People actually have titles to these areas.
Yes! The people working on the site may not have much experience in mining and when you even talk to them, they might not even have an idea of what people do or, people with titles do is to get somebody with a bit of experience in mining and say; “I give this site to you”. You can go and hire people for you. When you go to such sites, you may not even find the supervisor there.
So, people begin to think that there are illegal miners. That is one.
Secondly, it is true that in some cases, you have people working on sites; farmers during the rainy season, they do their farming and during the dry seasons, they find something to do around their areas and communities and, if they know that there is a deposit somewhere, they begin to dig.
So, you can call these ones; illegal miners. But, what the government has tried to do over the years or, in the past few months by saying, “please come together so that we can formalize this”; you do it well the way it should be done so that, if you need assistance, government can come to your aid to buy simple equipment for you to do mining and to leave the rudimentary mining that you are doing; bring it up to small scale or even big scale.
So, that is the reason for formalizing the mining and if you can come together as a cooperative, it will be easier for government to assist or, for any intervention agency to actually assist the artisanal miners.
Over the years; for the past fifteen years or so, government has been doing something as regard illegal mining and mining operations in the country and, just less than a week now, the Federal Executive Council FEC approved some money to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to buy some vehicles (probably you are aware of it). It is okay but, we wish that the government will even do more than that. It is not just about policing the illegal miners that are the main issue. The issue is that those who are actually doing the mining activity for survival should be encouraged to do it the right way and not send them away because, some of them live on these activities to survive.
Then, if you send Mine Police to send them away, what will happen? Many of them will go into crime and criminal activities. So, the thing to do is to assist them; try to formalize their operations, get to know them, bring them together so that government can assist them as in that way, government will also be able to derive some revenue from them and not just to give vehicles to Mine Police to go and chase them away from the sites.
Apart from some of this advice that you have given on some of these challenges, Nigeria’s dependence on oil is becoming worrisome and there is need for diversification just like the Federal Government and all other officials of government have been talking about.
How do you think that the mining industry can grow for us to begin to enjoy the desired dividends and revenue from this resource?
When we talk about the oil industry, you are talking about one or two products; the oil itself and gas. But, I can tell you that, as I said earlier, Nigeria has so many mineral assets and mineral resources and I mentioned some of them earlier on; gold, iron ore, lead, zinc and some industrial minerals like gypsum, barite, and so on and so forth.
If we can concentrate on just a few of them, even the industrial minerals alone, honestly, Nigeria will do very well compared to how much we are doing with regards to oil. Now, how many minerals does Ghana; a country very close to us, have? Not as many as Nigeria. They may have more gold than we have, but they do not have the variety of minerals that we have.
Until recently, the solid minerals industry has been the main stay of Ghana’s economy. The solid mineral industry has been the main stay of South Africa’s economy. The solid mineral industry is the main stay of Zambia economy and also, that of Australia. It is also the main stay of the Canadian economy. Why can’t the same be true of Nigeria?
When we discovered oil in 1957 before we were even born, the agricultural and solid mineral sector were the main stay of the Nigerian economy but, when we discovered oil, it was as if we drank something to make us fall asleep. We forgot all about solid minerals and agriculture. Like I said earlier on, during the campaign this administration promised that the economy base of this country will be based on agriculture and solid minerals. I do not know how much the country has done; if we have more time to talk, I will indeed tell you a lot more. I will be able to tell you that the government has not done enough; they have done but it is not enough and I expect that they will do more.
So, if we take gold alone, we have almost one-half of this country; the western part of this country and by this I mean the western axis where we have many deposits. Right from Southwest up to Northwest; from Osun state through Niger state, Kaduna state, Zamfara state to Sokoto state and even some parts of Kano state, you will find gold.
If deliberate efforts, even let us concentrate on that alone; get investors to show interest, I can tell you, the economy will be turned around for the better. One of the major obstacles like I said; we mainly talked about investments; investors coming into the sector is the problem that the state governments are giving to potential investors.
Solid minerals are vested with the Federal Government; that the land is under the control of state governors, many times when the federal authorities; the Nigeria Mining Cadastral Office gives license to go to a particular site in the state, the governors in particular, somehow feel they own the land and therefore, they should be kind of; not “resource control”, but that they should have a say in the development of the minerals in those localities and this is a big problem. It is discouraging investors.
I can cite many examples and in fact, I don’t need to tell you; state governments have come out to openly, say that they want to have better participation and say in the development of the mineral resources in their state. Like I said, I don’t want to mention particular governors or, states. I know one or two potential big investors that have been discouraged from investing in a particular mineral deposit. I can even mention it as it is not a secret anymore; the Governor of Taraba state has come out several times to say, “his state will want to have more say in the development of mineral resources in his state.
So, the federal government or, the Nigerian government should do something about governance of solid minerals in this country if we want to move forward.
I am so happy that, just some few weeks ago, the Honourable Minister of Mines and Steel Development said something in this regard which was published in one of the national dailies saying; States should have more say in the development of Solid Minerals in their states. This is something that we have shied away from. I have already booked an appointment to see him.
About two months ago, they (Ministry of Mines and Steel Dev) invited stakeholders to present papers at an event called “Mining Council”. So, I sent my paper and this was my position but it is sad that somehow, I think the person in charge was not comfortable with my position that states should have more say and as such, I was not allowed to present that paper. I was however surprised that, few days later, I saw the presentation at the Federal University of Technology, Akure in Ondo state. I was so thrilled and that will form the basis of my discussion with the Honourable Minister.
So, the governors are a stumbling block to large scale operation in mining in Nigeria and, something has to be done about it. There should be proper governance. If need be, let there be a review of the Nigerian Mining and Mineral Acts 2007 that vested mineral assets from the federal government or, something has to be done so that state governments can have more say in mineral exploitation in their areas of jurisdiction.
These are indeed some commendable achievements by your association but, we would like to know the level of involvement you have achieved with the government; state and federal in making further improvements?
What we do in our AGM and Conferences is that, we issue communiqués stating 1,2,3,4, 5 or more that we think government should do. And, when there is an issue we feel strongly about, we write to the govt, make courtesy calls on the Minister to say, look; this is our feeling. Like I told you earlier, the Minister is away and I hope to meet with him on is return to let him know certain things that are going on in the sector which we feel he should act upon.
Our Kaduna state chapter has also reiterated on some of the things that we discussed during our last AM/Conference. There are so many things that we need to discuss.
For instance, we are going to talk about the lethargy of government on certain areas of the sector. For any mining engineer to practice in this country, or even for an operator to practice here, you need to get the go-ahead or certificate from the regulatory body regulating Mining n this country. It is called the “Council of Mining Engineers and Scientists”.
Now, there are certain things about life that you can be slow about; not mining. Mining is business and mining is money. And, as you know, time is money.
Since 2015 that this government came into being, the Council that regulates mining in this country has not been inaugurated. What this means is that, young mining engineers who want to register to start to practice here, cannot register.
Mining companies, who want to come and operate in this country, cannot register.
So how do you expect mining activities to go on when the regulatory body is not in place? And, what the government has to do is just to select some people and say; “you are the council and then, regulate the sector”. We don’t know why the government has not inaugurated that body that should regulate mining in Nigeria.
Many of my members; members of the society are complaining as some of them sat for the examinations but they have not been issued with certificates because, the council has been inaugurated.
The government cannot afford to do that if we want to grow the sector; if we want to grow the revenue or GDP from the sector. At the moment, the sector is just doing about 1%. How do you expect that the sector can contribute to the GDP when, for over two years; since 2015, the Council that is supposed to regulate the sector is not in place?
There are so many issues; it does not cost the government anything to inaugurate the Council. There are people who can be in the council; so many including members of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
So, this is just one issue that we will like to bring to the limelight of the public and let the government act upon.
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