Stories by Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has canvassed an urgent review of the country’s laws to allow states play more prominent roles in mining issues as a necessary step in making the mineral and mining sector more profitable.
The Minister stated this in his keynote address at the fifth annual lecture of the School of Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), on Friday.
Fayemi, in the lecture titled “Mineral Resource Management for National Cohesion and Progress”, said the present situation where state governments were not adequately involved in the administration of mineral titles despite bearing the brunt of impact of resource exploitation, grossly affect growth of the sector.
He said the country needed to take a cue from her experience in the oil rich Niger Delta, where oil riches rather than cementing national cohesion, became a source of discord and a toxic bone of contention in the polity and where decades of oil exploitation have resulted in a legacy of ecological degradation, trans generational poverty and violence.
“The critical difference between resource-rich performers and resource-rich underperformers is simply resource management. We must now end this grossly self-destructive culture of governmental, economic and political irresponsibility.”, he said.
Although the Minister said the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has put in place some administrative measures to involve the states and ensure they take advantage of the resources in their domains, he maintained that a review of the laws giving the federal government exclusive rights over mining must be effected in order for states to play more prominent roles.
Fayemi however assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has the political will and the preparedness to do what is necessary in this regard,
The Minister also said that government needs to create about two million jobs annually in the next decade in order to effectively tackle the menace of unemployment among its teeming youths.
He added that mining would help in the realization of this massive job creation through the on going reforms in the sector.
“About 70% of Nigeria’s population is under 35 years of age. Unemployment levels are high, in some cases approaching 30% – 50% in certain age and education categories. It is critical that we create 2 million jobs per annum to help absorb such manpower over the coming decade; mining can be an important part of the solution.
Speaking further, the minister said: “the constitution ordains the exclusive jurisdictional hegemony of the federal government over mining matters. The responsibility for licensing and regulating mining operations resides solely in the federal sphere. Accordingly, the very architecture of resource governance resulted in tensions between the federal government, particularly the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, state governments and communities and became the main hindrance to the development of the mining sector.
“The structure of the sector was designed to relegate state governments, and offered no incentives to the states and local governments to support the growth of the industry. They have no direct access to royalties and taxes and thus, are excluded from optimally sharing revenue from the mining of resources in their respective jurisdictions.
