By Lara Owoeye-Wise
When good work dey happen, make we acknowledge am abeg.
That’s exactly what I am doing this morning.
There are moments when patriotism simply means telling the truth and this is one of such moments.
Long read alert.
I will make this very easy for you to understand.
For a long time, the story around Nigeria’s solid minerals sector was that of wasted potential. You who is reading this, did you hear about the sector before now? Be honest.
The sector sat on enormous mineral wealth, yet exported opportunities, imported finished products, and watched illegal miners profit while communities remained poor. No foreign countries wanted to do legitimate business in solid minerals with Nigeria: deals that would have benefited the economy never happened.
Today, something different is happening.
Deliberately. Quietly. Consistently.
Let me break it down for you, shall I?
I have watched the sector evolve under the leadership of Mr. Dele Alake the journalist-turned-administrator and I genuinely believe history will be kind to him and the steps he’s taken to bring Nigeria’s solid minerals sector to limelight.
When President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu sent him to the sector, he knew what he was doing. If we weren’t sure then, now we are.
The first thing Alake did upon assuming the position was to tackle security first. He figured that there would be no meaningful progress without a security outfit wholly dedicated to the sector. So the mining marshals were formed. These guys have one mandate; secure our mining sites, arrest illegal miners and let the law do its job.
While that was going on, Alake reached out to these illegal miners and offered them a beautiful option: “Because minning is all you’ve known to do all your life, form yourselves into small scale artisanal mining groups. We will register you and give you the funds and support to now mine legally”.
Many took that option but a few chose not to. They are the ones the mining marshals are after.
As at this moment the marshals have arrested and secured convictions for many offenders. Some of whom are foreigners. Yes you heard me. Foreigners have been arrested and persecuted in Nigeria. That’s has never happened in the sector before now.
After providing security, , Alake freed up space for setups investors to come in. What did he do?
He saw that many Nigerians had minning licenses they sat on without going to site. They bought several mining cadasters and were prove waiting for a hike in price to resell. Many of them refused to renew their licenses. These guys tied down our assets. Alake gave them time to do the needful. At deadline, he revoked their licenses and cleaned up the house!
Then what did he do next? He figured that if the space has now been freed up and he wishes to market the sector to serious Internetional investors, then they will need accurate data. Prior to this time, our data on mining was outdated or incomplete.
That made it difficult to attract serious mining investment.
Alake introduced modern geological mapping, advanced surveys and improved mineral data, Nigeria is building a more reliable picture of its mineral wealth as we speak and investors can now access what we have from the comfort of their rooms anywhere on the world.
His focus is not about just digging minerals out of the ground. It is on beneficiation. Value addition.
Industrialisation. Alake came in with the saying “the era of digging out minerals from the pit to the port is over”
