Nigeria’s mining sector is being exploited by foreign criminals for decades, and the extractive sector is the most recent target.
According to a recent published report, the sector is diverse in mineral resources, which make a significant contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. The country is endowed with an estimated $700-billion in commercially-viable minerals, giving it the capacity to diversify its revenue sources and boost foreign exchange earnings. Minerals include barite, bitumen, iron ore, lead, zinc, coal, limestone and gold.
However, it faces multiple challenges and its poor performance can be attributed to various factors including opaque extraction, insecurity and organised crime.
Since early 2020, several Chinese nationals have been arrested in Nigeria for their involvement in illegal mining. In April 2020, Police in Zamfara State arrested two Chinese nationals for allegedly engaging in illegal mining in the Bukkuyum locality, where the federal government had banned all mining activities to curb killings by armed bandits.
Also, in September 2022, a Chinese national was arrested by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives in Ilorin, Kwara State, in possession of a truckload of minerals suspected to be lepidolite.
In July last year, the EFCC arrested 13 more Chinese nationals for allegedly engaging in illegal mining. A month later, an illicit mining company operated by Chinese nationals in Akwa-Ibom State was closed down. The firm was unable to provide authorisation documents for titanium ore mining.
Observers have pointed out that over the years, policy inconsistencies have created disorder across mining sites and activities.
The lack of comprehensive legislation has enabled illegal mining characterised by inefficient manual mining techniques, unlawful trading of highly priced minerals, severe ecological degradation, spread of diseases and huge loss of government revenue through smuggling. This has opened the door for foreign organised criminals to exploit illicit minerals trade nationwide.
According to a senior police officer in Zamfara State the incursion of foreign criminals was happening because “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 regulators and security agents have neglected mining sites. Chinese and other foreigners too, are taking advantage of this prolonged neglect by the nation’s mining regulators and security agents. It’s also the reason why bandits are attracted to the sector.”
Echoing this, an Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) senior official said the problem was driven by “endemic corruption, opaque mining regulations, poverty among the residents of host communities and the readiness of Chinese actors, irrespective of where they operate, to corrupt the system with foreign funds [to] fuel illegal mining activities and its attendant security breaches. They are always ready to compromise the mining regulatory agencies and the local citizens”.
In a country contending with diverse forms of criminality, the involvement of foreign criminals in the extractive sector presents a serious security challenge. Nigeria’s government must accord the same level of importance to solid minerals as it does to oil and gas exploration. These minerals are among the country’s most critical national assets and should be guarded through a coordinated security response.
Solid minerals are critical national assets — and should be prioritised like the country’s oil and gas exploration.
