By Biliyaminu Suraj
Virtually all foreign investment in Nigeria’s minerals sector is Chinese. Mines Minister Alake recently to announced massive foreign investment in Nigeria’s solid minerals section. All three companies Minister Alake named are Chinese. The amounts he announced were wildly exaggerated as has been the case with every Chinese facility announced.
Nigeria’s minerals sector is being sold out to the Chinese. In fact, so prevalent are Chinese mining companies that we now have The China Mining Federation of Nigeria. Is there an American Mining Federation of Nigeria or a European Union Mining Federation of Nigeria or an Australian Mining Federation of Nigeria? No, and there should not be such organizations. Foreign mining companies operating in Nigeria should not set themselves apart as a powerful lobby group to intimidate government.
Only the Chinese companies can afford the enormous fees now imposed by the Mining Cadastre Office. Local Nigerian miners can no longer afford the huge increase in fees for new titles, annual service fees on existing titles or renewal of titles for a further term. To continue to make enough money to feed their families they are reverting to illegal mining yet again.
In a recent interview with Nigerian Mining veteran miner and Managing Director Mines Metal Limited, Alhaji Bala Umar, who has been in the mining industry for over three decades, cited insecurity and poor government regulation as critical factors in the demise of local Nigerian participation in the mining sector.
Rising insecurity has masked the infiltration of Chinese companies into Nigeria’s mining sector. The Chinese use of locally registered companies, often with a token Nigerian CEO, has become prevalent in Nigeria’s mining sector.
The cycle of violence is growing. But it soon becomes unmanageable by those who use it as a tool. The China Mining Federation of Nigeria has refuted claims of Chinese involvement in illegal mining, seizure of critical mineral resources, environmental degradation and alleged involvement in terrorist activities.
Protests from local Nigerian miners and local communities have fallen on deaf ears. It has taken a warning from President Trump to focus the Nigerian Government’s attention on the rampant insecurity which has gone hand-in-glove with China’s take-over of Nigeria’s mining sector. That warning came in the form of a missile from a US warship in the Gulf of Guinea. The genie is out of the bottle.
Biliyaminu Suraj is a Nigerian mining entrepreneur and public affairs commentator.
biliyasuraj247@yahoo.com