A new report by Global Rights has indicted political actors for providing protection for sponsors of illegal mining activities across host communities in the West African region.
 
Tagged ‘Violent Earth: Mineral Governance and Endemic’, unveiled at the fifth edition of the 2025 West African Mining Host Communities (INDABA) yesterday in Abuja, the document highlighted the nexus among illegal mining, criminal cartels, weak regulation, and state complicity.
 
The report, presented by the Executive Director of Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu, revealed that most of the respondents from the host communities gave instances of how political actors provided protection and cover for sponsors of illicit mining.
 
Bayeiwu underlined the key findings to include weak enforcement of mining regulations and inadequate oversight that enables the exploitation of mineral resources at the expense of local communities, resulting in environmental degradation, food insecurity and threats to national security.
 
She said the report also found that the proliferation of unregulated and illegal artisanal mining has fueled violence, environmental degradation and social and political unrest.
 
The study further bemoaned the legal framework that vests exclusive control of mineral resources in the Federal Government, thereby creating a disconnect with the state government and discouraging their active involvement.
 
The report also indicted regulatory agencies for their failure to verify the technical competencies of applicants, thereby leading to licences being issued to unqualified companies that employ unqualified and untrained miners who, in turn, devastate the environment and precipitate conflict.
 
It also noted that the exclusion of local communities from decision-making processes had fueled resentment and ultimately conflict, adding that they also found out persistent socio-economic challenges, including poverty and unemployment, that drive many unskilled citizens into illegal and unregulated mining. 

Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Orji Ogbannaya, regretted that the nation’s solid minerals sector, with over 44 distinct mineral types across 500 locations, contributes less than one per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
To tackle the problem, he called for an urgent reform in the legal framework, noting that the mining laws were relics of a different era, hence the need for them to be rewritten for the 21st century to empower communities, safeguard the environment, enforce transparency, benefit the citizens, and attract global investors.