The Nigerian Senate on Thursday discussed a bill that would create a Solid Minerals Development Commission and ban foreigners from engaging in artisanal mining.
The Bill was sponsored by Senator, Mohammed Onawo of Nasarawa South during Thursday's plenary, he added that bill is to tackle alleged illegal mining by foreigners in the country.
Development Commission
Onawo (PDP-Nasarawa) said the bill has been listed for first reading and titled "Solid Minerals Development Commission", he added:
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"The bill will be taken for the first time; this bill is to create a solid minerals development commission that will bring about the unification and improvement of solid minerals in Nigeria."
"We are a very rich nation naturally; God has endowed us with almost everything but the way we are harnessing it is what is making our people poor by the day."
Ban foreigners
Senator Onawo added that foreigners engage in artisanal mining in Nigeria without regard for locals, plus capital flight, he said:
"We allow foreigners to come, go to our localities, start mining without regard to the laws of the land and they take away millions daily."
"They go to our local governments, give our local chiefs 5,000 dollars, 10,000 dollars and they look at it as a lot of money.
"Some of these things should be mined and processed here. When they are mined and processed here, our people are going to be better for it, employment will be created."
Local development
He added this would ensure that more federal presence was attracted to Nasarawa state at large, citing that in the Doma Local Government Area, they have the second largest dam, and it has been lying down since 1988.
"We had talked and talked but there has been no much money that has been put there to become the source of revenue that it is supposed to be."
"It is supposed to be for irrigation; it is supposed to be for water supply. With the crisis in Ukraine, attention is being moved to Nigeria for agricultural products."
"A lot of people have come to my community they want to farm but the dam, all the infrastructure that had been put in place, they have been put down.
"This is because they have been down there for too long some of them were stolen, some have gone comatose, the generator is down, and the power supply there is poor.
What you should know
Nigeria's mining sector contracted by -3.96% in the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same quarter in 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2022.
The contribution of mining and quarrying to the country's real GDP in the first quarter of 2023 stood at 6.26%, lower than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022.
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