L-R: (Sitting) Deputy Executive Director, Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF), Comrade Bomoi Mohammed; Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals Development, Hon. Jonathan Gaza Gbefwi and Executive Director, Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Philip Jakpor. (Behind): Chidi Ugwu of Daily Independent Newspaper; RDI Board Member of RDI, Tobias Dapam Lengnan and Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) Deputy Executive Director, Comrade Alagoa Morris during a visit to the Committee at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja
By Edu Abade
Worried by the poor monitoring and non-regulation of activities in the solid minerals sector, some civil society groups have proposed the amendment of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act to broadly include monitoring of solid minerals extraction.
NOSDRA, which was established in 2006, is the agency responsible for monitoring and responding to oil spills in Nigeria and acts between oil companies and communities at the local and state level.
Representatives of the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), the Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) and the Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF) made the recommendation during a meeting with the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals Development, Hon. Jonathan Gaza Gbefwi at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The groups had met the lawmaker to demand urgent intervention in addressing the impacts of solid minerals extraction in Karu and Awe councils of Nasarawa State where illegal mining has led to degradation of the environment and sexual exploitation of young girls.
They expressed concern that the seeming intractable challenge of illegal mining in the country is traceable to the lack of a coordinating agency in the monitoring of the activities of players in the sector hence the mistreatment of host communities and disdain for the environment by illegal miners.
They maintained that the proposal for an umbrella agency that would monitor and respond to infractions in the oil and gas and the solid minerals sector will also be in line with the current administration’s vision of pruning ministries and agencies and driving down cost of governance as recommended in the Orasanye Report.
Deputy Executive Director of EDEN, Comrade Alagoa Morris, explained that the proposal for amendment of the NOSDRA Act to incorporate solid minerals sector monitoring will not only address illegal mining, but will also empower local communities to hold the despoilers of their environment to account.
Alagoa, who insisted that community people where solid minerals are mined currently do not know who to report to or which government agency can fight for them when there are infractions, added that mining communities should learn from the lessons of the Niger Delta where 60 years of extraction has only brought pain, deaths and destruction.
Executive Director of RDI, Philip Jakpor, who led the team on the visit, explained that pockets of initiatives by the Federal Government such as the Mining Marshals and the proposed Nigeria Mine Rangers Service were laudable but they still lacked the overarching coordination framework and sagacity that would address illegal mining in the country.
Jakpor expressed worry that the oil curse of the Niger Delta may have a counterpart in the north in the form of solid minerals curse, except urgent action is taken to address the situation.
He revealed that the organisations proposing the amendment of the NOSDRA Act have been documenting the impacts of illegal mining across the country and particularly in Nasarawa State, where tKaru and Awe local government areas are now the epicenter of illegal mining activities in the North.
Echoing the need for urgent action to address the illegal mining menace in the North, Deputy Executive Director of CFSF, Comrade Bomoi Mohammed Ibraheem, insisted that the amendment of the Act would resemble the subsuming of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
Earlier, Gbefwi explained that he would ensure that the cases brought before his office by the three organisations are adequately investigated and sanctions proposed if violations of the environment and the rights of the people are established.
The lawmaker also disclosed that the House of Representatives will reach out to other relevant departments of government to identify the illegal mining companies as well as those that are not adhering to statutory environmental standards in their operations.
“We have learnt about the deaths of children in one of the communities where mining waste polluted the river. We will investigate and ensure the violators are brought to book. Such incidents will not be swept under the carpet,” he stressed.
