With growing interest in electric vehicles, solar panels and cell phone batteries, Lithium has emerged the dominant mineral resource for global energy transition. Equipped with the knowledge and financial power, China continues to dig deeper in Nigeria, Zinbabwe, Serbia and other countries with proven commercial quantities of Lithium. In this interview with EDU ABADE, Executive Director of Renevlyn Development Initiative, Philip Jakpor, argues that like oil and gas, the global scramble for the ‘transition mineral’, will create another ‘mineral curse’ for Africa in terms of its reckless mining and resource mismanagement. Jakpor also x-rayed the environmental issues of flooding, government’s unpreparedness to combat the menace next time and the need for host communities impacted by extractive activities to seek redress in the courts of law to address the pollution, loss of livelihoods and neglect by the big polluters in the mining, oil and gas industry, especially in the Niger Delta region.
Excerpt
Globally, there is a growing awareness and scramble for Lithium. What exactly is this mineral resource and why is it so important to the world economy at this time?
Lithium cannot be described as a clean resource but it is the bridge to clean energy and that is why it is called a transition mineral. The extraction process is environmentally unfriendly and energy intensive but the final product is vital to the clean energy revolution because the electronic vehicles, solar panels and mobile phones batteries are made from it. The interest in Lithium has spiked with the growing clamour to move away from dirty energy.
The Lithium market is worth billions of dollars annually and it keeps expanding. The fact that the mineral can only be found in a few places especially in South America and Africa makes it more desirable and the race to control the market is growing by the day. China is at the fore of that competition. The fear, however, is that if African countries rich in Lithium do not control its extraction and use for production, then they will experience the same fallouts of oil where we export raw crude oil cheaply and import expensive finished products.
Already we are importing expensive phones, most of the components of which come from the cheap raw materials extracted from Africa. Lithium is one of those raw materials because most of the batteries that have a long life span are largely made from Lithium ions.
From Serbia to Nigeria, Zimbabwe and other countries with proven quantities of Lithium , China has featured prominently as a major investor in the mining of the mineral. Is there something China knows about Lithium that other countries have not discovered?
Well, China knows that the just energy transition will be driven by transition minerals and Lithium tops them all. Lithium is a major mineral in the production of batteries of electric vehicles, solar panels, batteries of cell phones and so on. China is ahead globally in the race to dominate the fast expanding market for Lithium. But unfortunately, China has been reckless in the quest to grab the market ahead of other western nations as manifest in their engaging in illicit extraction of Lithium in most parts of Africa including Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
But China is also making a lot of inroads into Africa and dominating the extraction of other solid minerals. It is also engaged in unholy relationships with African governments and trapping the corrupt ones through loans that are easy to obtain but have unsavory conditions attached to them.
China uses the allure for loans to trap governments on the continent. In summary, China is trying, if not already at home in dominating the global economy and it has its eyes on the immediate and future prospects that transition minerals like Lithium offer.
Nigeria has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company for Lithium extraction in Nasarawa State. Are there measures that must be put in place to ensure responsible and accountable mining of the mineral?
First of all I don’t think the MOU the Nigerian government signed with the Chinese firms involved in Lithium extraction in Nasarawa should be celebrated the way we have seen the Nasarawa State and Federal Government celebrate it. The two firms are not Nigerian firms extracting and creating jobs for Nigerians and ensuring that the Nigerian government gets revenue and the locals receive their due. The companies involved are Chinese firms and their repatriations will go to China. Except for a few well-placed individuals in and out of the government, Nigerians are more like spectators in the entire affair.
In fact, the meeting the firms had with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was an eye-opener and we mentioned it at the time that we found it worrisome that there was no community representation at the event. While the president dwelt on addressing community concerns and the environment, there was no single community represented in the meeting.
Going forward, our proposition is clear: There should be proper oversight on the activities of the firms, especially their agreements with host communities, the environmental impacts of their activities and effective penalties where they are found wanting.
Do you envisage any socio-economic and environmental impacts commercial mining of Lithium could have on the host communities just like oil and gas in the Niger Delta?
The impacts are already manifesting. From Nasarawa to Kogi, Kwara to Edo and Cross River states, local communities are already lamenting environmental impacts of mining and their exclusion from the governance of a natural resource in their own land. Worse is the fact that foreign miners, especially the Chinese are all over the communities where Lithium is mined and they do not respect any authority, the environment or human rights of their workers or surrounding communities.
Their human rights records are abysmal. Recall that about two months ago some Chinese nationals were arrested in Nasarawa State where they set up a Lithium collection point for export, yet they are registered as an agro-commodities firm. You can imagine how much they had made until they were arrested. Communities in Nasarawa, particularly in Uke, are already complaining that their ancestral lands and farmlands are being encroached upon by the Chinese miners and the artisan miners. Groundwater pollution is also already happening.
So, in essence, the same challenges associated with oil extraction in the Niger Delta region are already happening with Lithium. It’s not only in Nigeria. It is happening in Zimbabwe and other African countries rich in Lithium deposits.
What should host communities expect and (or) do as the government and companies investing in Lithium finalize plans to consolidate and deepen their extraction activities?
Local communities should be educated and mobilize to demand their right to a safe environment and the right to equally govern their resources. The benefit sharing arrangements must include and even be dictated by them. That is what the Renevlyn Development Initiative is doing in Uke and elsewhere where Lithium and other minerals are being mined. Education is crucial to mobilizing local communities to determine what happens in their own lands that nature has bequeathed to them. They must be able to get legal representation and scrutinize agreements that the mining companies and the government want them to sign. If this doesn’t happen they can be cajoled into signing their destinies away. That is exactly how crude oil became ‘a curse’ to communities in the Niger Delta.
The rains seem to have receded in the last couple of weeks making it look like there may not be flooding again this year. What should the government and people do in case the floods come again during the year?
I think differently. We are experiencing what we have come to know as the August Break during which constant rainfall ceases for some weeks or a month before it resumes again in September or October. This notwithstanding, there are still heavy rains in the northern parts of the country that have caused flooding and ruined farmlands. This window is one that we expect state governments to seize and open their drains and clear flood plains of obstructions.
Unfortunately, as in times past when the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) or Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) predicted heavy rains and floods, the state governments have gone to bed. Once the rains resume they will, again, start talking about the Ecological Fund and other financial interventions that they could easily carry out but choose to play the ostrich.
Has there been any corresponding response to issues of flooding from the government since last month when Lagos State and other parts of the country were overwhelmed with floods?
There have been some interventions in some states like Lagos where there have been reports on the clearing of canals and drains. There have equally been some sensitization efforts at the state and federal levels, but they are not enough and are coming quite late. At the state level, we are yet to see more concrete actions like the building of shelters on high ground for people likely to be displaced, clear sanctions for those who have built on flood plains and government officials who approved the buildings.
At the federal level, we are yet to hear about the status of the Dasin Hausa Dam, which was conceived to address the release of waters from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon. We don’t know the progress on the project and we don’t know whether Cameroon will release waters this year. For agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), by now we should be hearing that they have secured speed boats or choppers to use in case floods come again and make some communities inaccessible.
Climate change and its impacts are becoming more evident in Nigeria and across the world. Where are we presently with regard to the climate crisis?
Like the rest of the world we are currently in the throes of the climate crisis. More people are now noticing that the change in Africa is getting more intense and scary. Mozambique and nearby countries are now experiencing devastating cyclones, flooding induced mud slides in South Africa and water shortages there too, while Europe now experiences unprecedented heat waves of up to 45 degrees Celsius. Here in Nigeria, we are having abnormal rains even if it rains only a few minutes.
In northern Nigeria, the Lake Chad which was 25,000 square kilometers in the 1960s is now less than 1,500 square kilometers and still shrinking with devastating impacts on lives and livelihoods. The deserts are also encroaching on 11 states of the north. In the south communities like Ayetoro in Ondo are being submerged. Same as communities like Okun Alfa on the Atlantic shorelines of Lagos. These are all happening rapidly and yet the government shows extreme laxity in tackling the issues frontally.
The 29th edition of Conference of the Parties (COP29) is fast approaching. What are the expectations from governments, the extractive industry and climate justice groups?
Personally, I don’t have high expectations from COP29 because like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023, Azerbaijan is an oil-producing country. So, it will be another gathering of industry players and we will hear a lot of false solutions and initiatives that commodify nature such as Net Zero and carbon credits and as usual, these will be targeted at distracting the talks from the real solution to the climate crisis which is to cut emissions at source.
As usual, individuals, communities and countries on the frontline of the climate crisis in the Global South will find it hard to secure visas for their people to travel for COP29 and express their views. The industry, on the other hand, will have slots to send hundreds of their executives to the talks where they will showcase their image laundering.
In your opinion, will IOCs divestments from their onshore facilities in the Niger Delta reduce gas flaring and mitigate the climate crisis in the host communities?
The issue of unending gas flaring in Nigeria has lasted over 50 years. The first proclamation on the need to end gas flaring was in 1979 under the military. Since then, we have had 1984, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2013 deadlines and no sanctions for the oil firms. In fact, we don’t know if there is any new date. Successive administrations have demonstrated unwillingness to end the practice. A recent report by the World Bank even places Nigeria among the nine highest gas flaring entities in the world. This is an irony because while Nigeria is at the fore of global efforts to transit from dirty energy, it is at the same time prospecting for new oil in the north and will flare there just like in the Niger Delta. The divestments by Shell and other International Oil Companies (IOCs) are disturbing because while we are against new oil exploration, we equally feel the industry players in the last 50 years must also take full responsibility for their failed stewardship on the environmental front.
What is your advice for neglected oil and gas host communities of the Niger Delta region still suffering the impacts of extractive activities?
We need more communities to take the fossil fuel corporations to court here and in their headquarters in Europe. Many communities have been ruined by the divesting IOCs and they are divesting to the deep offshore where it becomes more difficult to monitor their activities adequately. We must continue to encourage the communities to document the impacts and go to court to ask for remediation of the environment and compensation for the impacts.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Assessment Report on Ogoniland, released in August 2011 is a pointer. There was a similar report in Bayelsa State on the massive and under-reported pollution going on there. More states need to do the same and then we need to encourage the Nigerian government to do a comprehensive environmental audit of the Niger Delta so that we can ascertain the real costs of oil on our people and the environment. For instance, we must determine how much gas has been flared by the IOCs since they started operations and the cost in terms of losses to the nation in revenue and health impacts on locals.
Should Nigeria, Africa and the world expect a reduction in the impact of climate change any time soon?
I don’t see that happening soon. At the global level, the Russia-Ukraine war has exposed western hypocrisy. Immediately Russia closed the taps on oil to Europe, they started looking for oil elsewhere, particularly in Africa. So, we can see escalation of work on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline owned by TotalElf and how it is affecting Ugandan communities and communities on the pipeline right of way in East Africa. There is also the Trans-Saharan pipeline that will freight gas to Europe from Nigeria’s Niger Delta through the Sahara. As the Nigerian government has set its zero flare date for 2060 or 2070, it is also prospecting for oil in the north. These initiatives will not address the climate crisis. Instead they will worsen it.
