Nigeria is blessed with about forty-four mineral resources. Despite the enormous resource, Nigeria has struggled to maximise potentials for economic growth, employment creation and revenue diversification with its natural resources.
An analysis had revealed that despite neglect, Nigeria earned slightly over four hundred billion naira from mining in a Twelve year period.
Over time, journalists have focused reportage on the mining sector, producing both investigative and explanatory pieces on the challenges facing the sector including illegal mining activities which have been sometimes blamed for conflict in the country.
This report reviews a few of the investigative reports done by journalists on the mining sector, the rigours of reporting the sector, the impact of the reports and how these reports have either contributed to mining reforms or at least generated conversations on the issue.
Meandering Paths to Uncovering Truth
Olugbenga Adanikin is an investigative reporter with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, Abuja. According to him, it takes only a brave journalist to report the mining sector in Nigeria. Deciding to investigate the illegal activities of miners is a daring act. Citing Osun, a southwestern state in Nigeria where he did some investigative work, Olugbenga shared that most mining activities are being done inside forests or on Cocoa farms.
“The terrain is unfriendly, you could be harmed or kidnapped as you meander the tiny footpaths trying to access the mine” he noted.
He revealed that illegal miners are ready to harm journalists because they see reporters as spies.
The investigative reporter told Dataphyte that money made from illegal mining should be accounted for and there is a need for a register for artisanal miners. From the findings of his report, the control of lands by the federal government plays a part in the crisis.
He noted that after his report, there has been a meeting between the state government and traditional rulers on illegal mining with arrests also made.
Caught In the Middle; a Tale of Gun-Wielding Illegal Miners
Ruth Tene was targeted for her investigative work on the mining sector for Leadership newspaper. Ruth recounted that when she investigated lead poisoning that led to the deaths of over 400 persons, she had guns and other kinds of weapons pointed at her by the illegal miners.
“As early as the year 2000, I witnessed at least 50 persons pointing weapons at me for attempting to uncover their illegal mining activities. I remember that when they pointed the guns at me, one of the questions they asked was, who sent you”.
She told Dataphyte that she escaped by sheer luck and a combination of some communication tactics she had learnt and the fact that one of the illegal miners was willing to listen to her.
She noted that not much interest has been given to the mining sector like other sectors in the country. Ruth has travelled to states such as Osun, Gombe, Zamfara and Abuja for investigations in the mining sector.
According to her, the current situation in Zamfara State due to illegal miners is no surprise to her as her investigations already led her to believe that the crisis will escalate without quick action by the government. For her, she wonders why governments were neglectful of warnings raised in reports such as hers in states like Zamfara.
“It is very dangerous reporting the mining sector in Nigeria, sometimes you may not be able to get into some of these places and come out safe. In Osun state we were pursuing a gold mining story. I could remember that I was with a reporter with African Independent Television and we were surrounded by illegal miners in an Osun community. In that community, we had illegal miners from other regions of the country settling down there” Ruth told Dataphyte.
Similar incidents played out in Gombe and Zamfara state where she had to trek very long distances in search of the illegal miners, in the bush where they (the journalists)saw no one else and were at risk.
She revealed that in one of the gold wells she had gone to see, one of the illegal miners was buried there. According to Ruth’s account, one of the illegal miners went digging for gold and the earth collapsed on him. When she enquired further from one of the illegal miners why they did not attempt to save the man before he died, she was told there was nothing they could do, because before they could get down to him, he was already gone. So they just put branches across that place and everybody knows there are people buried there, so the spot will not be dug for a while. Asides from the loss of income from illegal mining activities, there is also unaccounted loss of lives.
She revealed that even in the Federal Capital Territory, Mbappe to be precise, quarry mining has been ongoing and Chinese companies are guarding the place so much that she could not get access into the community.
In Gombe, Ruth’s report exposed water pollution occasioned by the activities of a big corporation. After Ruth’s report, they headed to court and the court awarded 100 million against Ashaka cement but according to her, the company has refused to pay.
Her reports also led to an impact in Zamfara, where victims of lead poisoning received due compensation.
Death by Illegal Mining and Police, Eminent Personalities Complicity
Dataphyte also spoke to Adejumo Kabir and he shared that his investigations revealed that illegal miners who left Zamfara state moved to Osun state, Osun east in particular. The illegal miners took over places like Imoji, Ifewara, Ilesha and other places in Osun east.
The illegal mining, according to his report, affected agricultural businesses, leading to environmental degradation in the communities. His report further revealed that anywhere degradation due to mining takes place, it takes a hundred years for the land to get its nutrients back. Adejumo’s report also revealed that Chinese miners deploy locals to help them dig for mineral resources, sometimes the locals say they dig till they drop.
Adejumo shared the story of a man whose son was killed. The man who was a farmer already sold his land to illegal Chinese farmers and having done that he was expected to vacate the land.
But the man’s son who did not know of the development challenged the illegal Chinese miners on what they were doing on his fathers’ land but the illegal miners beat up the man’s son till he died and buried him on the mining site. This story is one of the many tales of heartache that could not be captured in his report.
A reporter was also allegedly beaten by illegal miners and personnel from the Nigerian Police Force. The police officers were reported to have told journalists that illegal mining sites are no go areas.
After Adejumo’s report, the Osun state government set up a taskforce, consisting of Amotekun and other security outfits. The report was part of what was used in formulating the modus operandi of the task force. Already, more than 100 illegal miners have been arrested.
Adejumo noted that some of those caught revealed some eminent personalities as their sponsors, names such as the Ooni of Ife, Senator Famurinwa of Osun East among others are some of the prominent people accused of sponsoring illegal mining activities.
Suleiman Akande who is a researcher with Climate Change and Environmental Research Group told Dataphyte that it is scary for any journalist to want to venture into investigating the sector especially because illegal miners usually have backers who are prominent. Suleiman revealed that illegal mining often comes with illegal arms, human rights abuse by expatriates and even Nigerians who are brought into the illegal mining business.
According to him, many of the host communities are left with lasting pain after miners leave.
The investigative journalist stated that there is a need for environmental impact assessment to be made compulsory and wondered why mining laws are not obeyed.
His investigative research report on the sector is set for release in the new year.
Communities Reap Loss of Livelihood, Neglect as Rewards of Illegal Mining
Gidado Shuaib’s report on illegal mining in Ogbagba Osun state revealed that the community’s water became contaminated leading to a disease outbreak and farming became very difficult.
Before the incursion of miners, Ogbaagba indigenes were merchants in Cocoa and other agricultural produce but that became a thing of the past. Their land became degraded and even their water was no longer drinkable and the whole village shared just one water source as at the time of the investigation.
The elders in the community noted that the illegal miners operated with the approval of persons like the Ooni of Ife, King Adewusi Enitan.
Another report in the Awoakpali and Onupi communities of Ankpa local government area of Kogi state done by Gidado exposed how Dangote coal mining sites lead to environmental degradation. In the community, water pollution is prevalent and fishes and crabs have almost become extinct with farmlands also destroyed.
John Beloved told Dataphyte that her experience in investigating illegal mining exposed how a company while looking for mineral resources situated their mining equipment close to a riverbank which led to fish in the river dying the water becoming unusable for the community.
Many of the residents who are farmers are also affected due to the activities of the miners.
She told Dataphyte that this deprives communities of livelihood, agricultural resources and good water.
Ijeoma Okereke, a journalist with Premium Times who also investigated illegal mining in Jos, noted that Nigeria lacks data on miners and data infrastructure to capture miners. She told Dataphyte that the sector has been neglected wholly and no one is paying keen attention, this allows illegal miners to operate without any checks.
She also revealed that in the course of her investigation, she was told that it is very hard to regulate the mining sector, painting the picture of how hard it has become to get illegal miners off the minefields.
Ijeoma said that the government has failed to take action despite being presented with evidence of the need for action.
Her investigations revealed that the cost of registration seemed high for artisanal miners while the process of registration was a challenge for the miners as told to her by the miners in her interaction with them.
Dataphyte’s multimedia journalist, Samad Uthman, revealed the plight of the Orile-gunmakin Community from Rock blasting. His report which used technology to establish the environmentally unsafe distance between RCCs rock blasting operations and the community shows how the companies illegal operations has led to grave exposure to danger and loss of properties for the residents.
His report extensively examined the environmental impact of RCCs activities in the short and long term and the challenges with overlapping roles and responsibilities of regulatory agencies that make it difficult to uphold the mining laws.
Samad’s experience led him to conclude that journalists need more training in understanding mining laws as this will help to ensure better and more robust investigative reports.
States, Nigerian Police Speaks On Illegal Mining, No Word from the King
Dataphyte reached out to the spokesperson of the king, Moses Olafare, to get a reaction to the accusations of support for illegal miners by the king but he did not respond or reply to all the attempts made to reach him.
Dataphyte also reached out to police spokespersons in the different states where illegal mining has been reported.
The spokesperson of Niger State police, Wasiu Abiodun told Dataphyte that the state police command has been making efforts in collaboration with other security agencies towards ensuring that illegal miners are arrested.
He also noted that there are legal miners but the efforts toward ensuring that illegal miners are prosecuted is a continual one. “When we learn of such activity, we ensure we raid the scene, many persons have been arrested and many others have been prosecuted” he revealed.
The Osun State Police public relations officer, Yemisi Opalola when contacted on if she is aware of prominent personalities supporting illegal mining and what is being done to arrest the situation told Dataphyte that such a complaint has not been brought to the state police command’s desk and denied knowledge of such incidences.
Funke Egbemode, Osun State Commissioner for Information, told Dataphyte that the state is committed to safeguarding communities hosting mining resources. She noted that a task force has been set up to ensure that illegal miners are taken off the state.
The police spokesperson of Kogi State Williams Aya also denied knowledge of illegal mining in Kogi state despite being presented with the investigative reports pointing to the existence of such in the state.
The Nigerian Mining and Minerals Acts 2007/2011 and Government’s Implementation Strategies
The 2007 Act emphasized that there shall be no search for mineral resources by anyone except as provided by the act. The act provides for the procedure for monitoring developments in the solid minerals sector and establishes procedures for; right to search for or exploit mineral resources; an exploitation license; mining lease, Quarry lease; Water use permit.
Miners who gain a license must also maintain and restore the land that is the subject of the licence to a safe state from any disturbance resulting from exploration activities.
The act also established a mining cadastre office responsible for issuing mining permits and licenses including driving investments into the sector.
The 2011 Minerals and Mining Regulation also supports the need to ensure that mining activities do not degrade the environment, encroach on human rights and are done illegally.
It goes further to state that the minister may by notice in the gazette and widely read national newspaper designate any vacant area as an area in which exploration licence and mining licence shall be granted after competitive bidding. Holders of a small-scale mining licence have the right to conduct small scale mining operation which does not use any of the following mining practices; extensive and continued use of explosives, extensive and continued use of toxic chemicals, the mining should not also have workings more than 7 meters below the surface of the ground or galleries extending more than 10 meters from shaft.
Despite the many commendable provisions in the acts, there appears to be no commensurate implementation of its provisions and so the sector continues to suffer.
The Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative director (NEITI), Dr Dieter Bassi, in October was quoted as stating that Nigeria loses between $2-$3bn to illegal mining.
The Nigerian government has stated its desire to reform the sector repeatedly, even the recently released National Development Plan 2021-2025 features the mining sector prominently. The plan hopes to increase mining contributions to GDP to 3%.
However, illegal mining has not responded to their rhetoric and the spate of illegal mining activities as revealed by the many investigations is proof.
In May 2020, 17 Chinese illegal miners were reported arrested by the Osun state government.
Another 18 illegal miners were reported arrested in Zamfara for illegal mining.
Troops also arrested another 11 miners in Zamfara for illegal mining in 2020.
These actions don’t appear to be enough however, a report had noted that illegal mining in Northern Nigeria is leading to worrying trends such as the exchange of illegally mined gold for weapons and the use of women and girls in illicit activities. Yet another report says illegal mining is contributory to the escalation of conflicts.
A mining expert and geologist, Felicia Aina, agreed with the summation of the journalists that one of the major challenges bedevilling the Nigerian mining sector is the prevalence of illegal or otherwise informal mining.
“The situation has degenerated to the point where even foreigners encroach mining sites, cart away mineral resources with impunity. This, by implication, has robbed the government of major revenues that should have ordinarily accrued to its coffers. “
Speaking further, she said “Apart from revenue loss, it has robbed our teeming youths of employment, it has fueled the insecurity currently plaguing the country and it has given the sector a less than stellar reputation thus unable to attract foreign investment.”
Felicia noted that arrests are not enough, calling for reforms. “Several arrests have been made but that’s all we’ve heard. What happens after? It is time we reform the sector, implementing the laws that would aggressively tackle the activities of these illegal miners.
We are very good when it comes to reforms and laws. But the major challenge is implementation. Nigeria has a library of policies, laws and reforms but we are very bad with implementation.
Take for example, the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiatives (PAGMI). It was a laudable project and was well-received by all. It was done to encourage the Artisanal Gold miners and discourage illegal mining. It’s a year after the launch, what has been the response?
“How many states have been participating? Has it reduced illegal gold mining? How much has gold contributed to the royalty since the PAGMI launch?
Beyond making reforms, implementation is our major problem. “
“The mining law is really beautiful but gradually becoming obsolete due to modern-day realities. At the last mining week, the Vice President, Yemi Osibajo, said the mining act review is underway. We hope this would aggressively address the issue of illegal mining for shared mining prosperity, and other benefits that would come with it.” She noted.