Mining sector performance above average –Miners

The Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) has described the Nigeria mining sector performance as a little above average. Taking a glance at how the industry fared in the last 12 months under the current administration, the miners through its President, Alhaji Sani Shehu, tells AYONI M. AGBABIAKA the performance was above average
Would you attest to the Ministry’s 30 days licensing to miners?
No. it’s not obtainable now. License can be processed and issued through the portal; that was just I thinking a proposal and we are not supporting the proposal.

Why are you not in support?
Because by law only the mining cadastre office has the statutory power to issue license and cancel license. So while we are not against the use of portal for issuing license we advise that cadastre law should be amended so that we don’t contradict the law.
You have also been dissonant on minister’s call for mining exclusion from the exclusive to concurrent list, can you tell us why?
You know presently the mining is under the exclusive list in the Nigeria constitution and there was also a call that it should be moved to concurrent list. The interpretation of it is that now that the sector is under exclusive list, only federal government has the right to control it. If the sector is moved to the concurrent list of the constitution, that means the control will be shared between the federal and state government and we are saying that it may not augur well for the sector for now.

Why do you think so?
We think so because Nigeria is blessed with both solid and liquid mineral. Liquid mineral refers to oil and gas and solid minerals refers to of course what you know as solid minerals and the control of both minerals are entirely in the control of the federal government. Now if the control of solid mineral is divided between the federal and state government, what will happen to the oil people. Remember the agitation? There is lot of agitations. It is only now that this thing is calm and the economy is just out of recession, but we can’t afford to have any confusion in the economy sector so that we can be fully out of the recession. So if this call succeeds then the oil people will say they want to control their oil.
That is number one. Number two: the foreign partners or the foreign investors in the mining sector are apprehensive about policy inconsistency. The policy should be allowed to work for a long time.
The policies should be tested.
Where doubts are observed then you can think of policy amendment but now if we move the sector to concurrent list that means the Mineral and Mining Act has to be amended, the Nigerian Constitution has to be amended and that may not be well enough for the sector. Thirdly, the miners are not comfortable with the attitudes of state government, local government and even community leaders that will just decide to sometimes disturb their mining operations.
So if this power is divided, I think there will be confusion, confusion and confusion in the sector.
What we are supporting is the recent initiative by the honourable minister, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to support MIRENCO. MIRENCO is a committee in every state which involves states to some extent on how these licenses are given and also know who is mining in their state and so on. So, MIRENCO is a very good initiative. The minister also was thoughtful enough to constitute a National Council on Mining and Mineral Resources Development (NCMMRD) where all the commissioners in charge of solid minerals in all the states are members. This is going to be an advisory body that will be talking directly to the minister. All concerns and observations from all the states can be channeled to the minister directly though the council. So with this powerful initiative I think we should sustain these two concepts – the concept of MIRENCO and the Council for sometime so that if there is any gap we can think of what to do.

How would you rate the sector in the last 12 months?
Rating the sector is not going to be an easy task because you need some data to back up the position that I take. However, since it’s just a telephone interview, I want to rate the performance of the sector a little above average because so many initiative are been introduced by this minister – the Roadmap of course you know is there and then there is a committee of Mining Implementation Strategy Team (MIST) that is supposed to oversee the implementation of the Roadmap. It has never happened before. And having constituted a representation from all stakeholders to an all inclusive body that is headed by a renowned professor of geology and given the structures that are in place and improved funding of the ministry one can say gladly that the performance has been a little above average.

 

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