The Mining Guards scheme.

The Mining Guards scheme
NIGERIA, a country richly blessed with a wide array of solid, liquid and gaseous minerals, has found it increasingly difficult to earn its due incomes from these endowments due mainly to insecurity, corruption, theft and sabotage.

The oil and gas sector, which has been the mainstay of our economy for over 50 years, has failed to yield Nigeria’s official quotas for export due to these factors. The solid mineral sector has fared even worse because much of the mining going on is carried out by unregulated, artisanal agents of the rich, powerful and well-connected elements. This was recently acknowledged by the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Henry Alake. Many of the illegal mine operators are foreigners, especially Chinese.

President Bola Tinubu’s government has created the Mining Guards as a means of bringing mining activities within the ambit of the law. The Minister of the Interior, Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, last March inaugurated the Guards in Abuja to safeguard the 1,975 mine sites officially identified in Nigeria. These mine marshals are drawn from units of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC. The creation of this security outfit is a very laudable move. If properly managed, they will help the government to monitor the mine sites and ensure that the extant laws governing the solid mineral sector are effectively implemented. They are also expected to provide government with valuable security information, especially pertaining to the activities of illegal foreigners, bandits and terrorists who have seized control of some of these mines to fund their anti-Nigeria agendas.

We, however, caution that the creation of security marshals for the mineral sector will not automatically solve the problems it was created to do. Indeed, if mismanaged, it could add to these problems. Our experience in the oil and gas sector should serve us well in this venture. Oil theft has gone on in varying degrees for over 40 years. It has gotten worse the more we post the Navy, Army, Police, NSCDC and security agencies to the Niger Delta.

Indeed, many of these officers are known to pay bribes and lobby to be posted to the creeks to benefit from the thievery. Getting posted to the oil-bearing coastal belt is seen as a gesture of privilege which is only available to well-connected officers and personnel. It became so bad that the Federal Government lost faith in its own security system and hired private contractors to guard our oil infrastructure.

To avoid repeating this blunder in the solid mineral sector, the Mining Guards must be well-motivated and strictly monitored. More importantly, the Federal Government must act promptly on useful intelligence on the criminal syndicates and their sponsors without fear or favour.

The Mining Guards are just the first step forward.