By Agbo-Paul Augustine, KOLA EKE-OGIUGO and DONATUS NADI
Experts say that with trillions of naira lying fallow from untapped mineral resources in Nigeria the nation has no business with poverty and deprivation. AGBO-PAUL AUGUSTINE (Abuja), KOLA EKE-OGIUGO (Asaba) and DONATUS NADI, (Lafia) report on the travails of Nigeria’s minerals sector, and its imminent position as the next money spinner.
When Senator Duro Faseyi, representing Ekiti North Senatorial District stood in the hallow chamber of the Nigerian Senate recently, to sound the alarm over the mind-boggling amount of money the nation is robbed off annually from mining, he never minced words in rousing his colleagues to the reality before them.
The loss of N4 trillion yearly was enough to choke, the seated Senators needed to come alive to spurring national reawakening to the massive loss of the badly desired revenue from the solid minerals sector.
In the motion, sponsored by Senator Faseyi, he said it was ‘’worrisome and unlawful plundering’’ of the nation’s solid minerals sector by local and foreign illegal miners.
He claimed that unapproved mining has cost Nigeria over N8 trillion in every two years. He centred his argument on the inability to muster a strong legislation for the solid minerals sector and poor implementation of the existing weak laws.
As to where the Ekiti state senator got his fact remained unclear to LEADERSHIP Weekend but Senator Faseyi maintained that Nigeria’s underground wealth is being stolen barefacedly.
If oil had maintained a flying price in the international market, Nigerians like the Ekiti Senator will have no memory of the existence of the mining sector.
Nigeria over the last 12 months has witnessed a sharp decline of oil prices which has impacted much on the economy. With 45 dollars a barrel, Nigerians do not need a prophet to know the hard truth.
The situation has created a never foreseen circumstance where the government is failing to meet .....
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