It is mind-blowing to see a country such as Nigeria wallowing in abject poverty and having a comatose industrial sector due to inadequate attention and political will to transform the abundant minerals and metals endowed by God across the country.
The dependence on oil had become worrisome as the economy of the country had not recorded significant diversifications, particularly in the minerals and metals sector. Those in government are not keen in developing and expanding the solid minerals sector as they are yet to realise that in global trade the world has gone beyond oil, whereby the nation’s prosperity is measured.
Every state and local government in Nigeria is blessed with various minerals and metals in commercial quantities. There is no gainsaying that the government and investors are yet to key into the money spinning sector, because it had become a world attraction in global trade.
Economic diversification
The President of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, NMGS, Prof. Clifford Teme, said that, “the number one consumer of Nigeria’s crude oil, America, has been playing tricks with us for a long time. When they buy from us they accumulate and they don’t use and they now have three times what we have. Now they are arranging with China to buy their own. So we don’t have anybody to buy our own, except some minor countries.
“You see that it will affect the economythat is why we are now going towards the solid minerals industry, which is the mainstay of countries, like Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, and others. They don’t have oil, but they are managing.”
Teme speaking on the potentials of the solid minerals sector noted that with the 44 minerals discovered across the country, seven of them are capable of diversifying and driving the economy. This include gold, coal, limestone, iron ore, lead/zinc, bitumen and barites.
“We have found out that we have enough commercial quantities of the seven minerals, so we should start exploiting them to boost our revenue. We should first commence the mining of the seven minerals before going into the second phase of other minerals,” Teme stated.
He expressed optimism that very soon the nation’s solid minerals would become the mainstay of the economy while less focus would be on crude oil.
Life beyond oil
The Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, had at different occassion urged Nigerians to wake up to the reality of life beyond oil because the future of Nigeria’s economy is in danger as other sectors that could be of great economic prosperity remain underdeveloped and neglected.
Uduaghan said: “This is our thrust to end our overwhelming dependence on oil as the source of our income. To us, oil dependence makes no sense because it is simply not sustainable.
“As everyone knows, oil is a volatile and exhaustible commodity with possible future substitutes, which if it happens as is now happening with large discoveries of shale oil, will end crude oil’s competitive edge.”
Uduaghan explained that this was the reason behind the ‘Delta Beyond Oil’ campaign initiated seven years ago, adding that the state had started planning for other investments, and to convince Deltans to embrace the diversification of the oil-based economy of the state.
He said the essence of the programme is to grow the state and make it prosperous and assure its future.
President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, Mr Femi Adesina, said that Nigeria needed to envision and evolve a nation beyond oil,else it could lead or plunge the entire economy into distress.
Adesina, who during the 9th All Nigerian Editors Conference, held in Asaba, Delta State, said, “Nigeria must now diversify or die. For well over four decades, we have run a mono-product economy.
Petroleum has been our mainstay, and we have allowed the easy money from oil to strangulate other cash cows like agriculture, solid minerals, tourism and many others.But as they say, `everyday is not Christmas,’ and the Egungun (masquerade) festival must end one day. The honeymoon is about ending.”
“Oil is fast becoming a vanishing source of easy revenue. Nigeria once had a pride of being one of the largest producers of petroleum on the continent, but not anymore. But Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroun, Chad and some others have also found oil. And much more contentious is the fact that America, our largest customer has discovered shale oil and so may not need to patronise us again.”
The leaders in the country ought to start the full implementation of the roadmap for solid minerals, as it forms a comprehensive base for holistic development of the sector.The government in collaboration with the solid investors should go into partnership and joint ventures with mining giants as it is in the oil sector, in order to invest heavily in the sector on short, medium and long term basis. This will go a long way to revolutionise the sector and position it for productivity and wealth creation.
The government is to aggressively enlighten investors and the public on the huge potentials of the solid minerals sector, and also attract them with mouth-watering incentives. Geosciences information should be made available to the media and relevant authorities in order to give potential investors full knowledge about the huge endowments of the sector.
The time to invest in the solid minerals sector is now, because Nigeria must go beyond oil and be ranked number one solid minerals producing country in Africa as it has the potential to achieve it.
Vanguard
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