• Govt earns N78.9 billion from resource in 15 months
• Stakeholders accuse govt, private jet owners of aiding crime
• Expert says PAGMI culpable in mining crisis
• FG urged to be proactive to avoid possible collapse of the sector  

Nigeria’s 21.37 tonnes or 754,000 ounce of estimated gold reserves, currently worth $1.8 billion at $2,352.84 per ounce spot price at the international market may continue to end up in private pockets four years after the launch of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI), The Guardian understands.

Coming amidst Nigeria’s struggle to fix the foreign exchange (FX) market crisis and prevent the crisis caused by low oil revenue, stakeholders said millions of dollars worth of gold is still being stolen from the country even as states where resources are domiciled continued to wallow in abject poverty, including the inability to pay salaries.

With the revelation that high-profile Nigerians and foreign bodies are illegally carting the country’s gold away in private jets despite a ban on the export of raw solid minerals, industry players said unless the illegal mining in Zamfara, Borno, Osun and other parts of the country is treated like the criminality of oil theft in the Niger Delta, the country would continue to experience an exodus of solid minerals while the country borrows to finance developmental plans.

Some stakeholders are also accusing the government of paying lip services, stressing that while the country has one of the best mining laws, enforcing the legal framework remained a major concern in the face of looming environmental disasters from mining activities.

Recall that in 2019, Buhari created PAGMI. Nine months later, the federal government disclosed a gold bar said to have been mined from Zamfara through the initiative. That was the biggest news from the initiative, which earlier this year boasted of about 11,547 illegal miners.

Despite the potential in the solid mineral sector, revenue from the industry settled at N193.59 billion in 2021. In 2020, an audit report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) showed that the total revenue from all solid minerals in the country was just N116.82 billion in 2020. Between 2007 and 2021, all the government made from the sector amounted to N814.59 billion.

While some countries are relying basically on solid minerals like gold, the contribution of the entire solid mineral to gross domestic product (GDP) remained 0.63 per cent or N1.10 trillion. In terms of contribution to government revenue, the solid minerals sector contributed just 2.62 per cent of the government revenue.

Where Nigeria has gold, lithium and other money-spinning solid minerals, which are considered the new oil, industry reports showed that Granite, Limestone, Laterite, Clay and Sand are the primary contributors to solid minerals revenue in Nigeria.

While the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed Nigeria exported gold worth N78.9 billion between 2022 and the first five months of 2023, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, who quoted a former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development under Buhari, Uche Ogah, said yearly losses to illegal gold mining are way higher than that.

Like oil theft, which the Federal Government said is carried out by elites in Nigeria, Ogah had specifically said illegal export of gold is being aided by wealthy Nigerians with private jets, an indication that the federal government is not in control of its airway or its security agencies are looking away.

About one year ago when he assumed office, Tinubu said: “Our administration shall wake up the sleeping giant that the solid minerals sector is today, to play its strategic role in the economy, by providing jobs for our people, improving the revenue accruable to the government, and establishing an industrial sector that is the envy of the world.”

While companies like the Dukia Gold & Precious Metals Refining Co. Ltd Nigeria, which had a partnership with Philoro Global Trading AG Switzerland and the Segilola Gold Project among a few others are making progress in refining, the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) and the country’s porous borders, according to most stakeholders are aiding export of illegally extracted gold in flagrant violation of extant laws that forbid the export of raw gold to pave way for local refining.

Renowned solid mineral expert, Adeyemo Temitope, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Geocardinal Engineering Services Limited, said PAGMI is another scheme, which is aiding illegal mining and export of gold from the country.

Temitope said most people who are mining illegally have sophisticated technology and equipment and can move to the site and operate.

He said in a country with a functional government, such activities would not happen without the backing of the government or arrest by the government, adding that the government appeared not ready to tackle the illegal mining of gold from the country.

“Referring to PAGMI, he said most of the people listed by the government under the plan are just “people that are aggregating gold from one place to another.”

“These are the people giving money to people who have no license. Illegal mining is a function of people, who aggregate gold from one place to another. We need to understand that people that we said are mining illegally are using machinery. Do you want to tell me that the government is not aware of these people?”

Temitope noted that the mining in Nigeria was modeled like what is obtainable in Canada and can stand global standards but that poor enforcement by the government remained the primary issue.

According to him, the government is not being realistic in stemming illegal mining, adding that miners, referred to as illegal, go to sites with excavators, bulldozers and other machinery while pumping water to wash gold without being apprehended.

Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, boasted last week that Nigeria would become a destination for solid minerals investors, as his ministry and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in March, unveiled men of NSCDC as mining marshals to smoke out illegal minerals where the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the military have failed.

Energy and solid mineral expert, Prof Wunmi Iledare, described as disheartening the thriving illegal mining in the country, especially when the federal government has been charged to hold the ownership of mineral and natural resources in trust for Nigerians.

“That some people or any constituent state gives licences or permits the exploitation and exportation of gold in any state in Nigeria is illegal. It is a blatant violation of the 1999 constitution and it is not in any way different from crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.

“Any criminal activity must be met with prosecution. Unfortunately, the love of money for power, pleasure and possessions delimits law enforcement,” Iledare said.

He added: “Without the latter, the marginal propensity for illegality will perpetually persist including illegal mining of gold and crude oil theft.”

Before now, the Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States Parliament, Mohamed Tunis, said Nigeria loses 91 per cent of its revenue from the mining sector to illegal miners.

Spotlighting the northern region, he said a staggering 80 per cent of mining occurs illegally, Tunis said Nigeria only receives nine per cent from the sector with 80 per cent of the mining in the country’s North West region carried out illegally.

Former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Segun Ajibola, said illegal mining is expected to be frontally attacked by the relevant arms of the governments at local, state and federal levels, including their ministries and departments.

“Their efforts ought to be complemented by those of the security apparatuses. I believe we can for now assume that there is no internal connivance with the illegal miners. If any, I also believe that there are enough laws in Nigeria to checkmate such practices of illegally mining solid mineral resources across Nigeria, including gold.

“If gold is mined legally, the revenue accruable therefrom is capable of reducing over-dependence on oil and push the economy towards the much-touted structural diversification status,” he said.

Noting that illegal mining has been a recurring decimal for quite some time, Ajibola said: “The time is ripe to put an end to the malaise.”

An extractive industry expert, Faith Nwadishi said the persistence of illegal mining in Nigeria’s gold sector despite initiatives like PAGMI is concerning. She sees this as an indication of the challenges in effectively regulating and formalizing the artisanal mining sector.

Nwadishi stressed that illegal mining not only deprives the government of revenue but also poses environmental, security and social risks “as is evidenced by the Zamfara case.”

Nwadishi, who is the Director of the Centre for Transparency said a multifaceted approach, including improved enforcement, community engagement across the value chain, development of Community Development Agreements that address the needs of communities, improvement in security and investment in alternative livelihoods for artisanal miners must be adopted.

“Moreover, with the increasing price of gold and Nigeria’s reliance on oil revenue, there’s an urgent need to optimize the management of the country’s mineral resources to diversify the economy by quickly moving from policy to action and mitigate the impact of dwindling oil production,” Nwadishi said.