The Senate has summoned the Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake, to appear before its Committee on Solid Minerals next week Wednesday, to brief it on the federal government’s work plan to develop the sector and block illegal mining.
The apex legislative Assembly also berated Alake, for allegedly disregarding invitations sent to him by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals since he was appointed by the President.
The Committee, during its meeting at the National Assembly Complex, expressed dissatisfaction about the failure of the Minister to honour Senate invitations since assumption of office, saying that he always gave excuses of having to travel with President Bola Tinubu.
The Committee expressed concerns that the Minister had abandoned his primary duties of bringing the mining sector to international repute, stressing that his relatively inexperience in the sector had further created a crowdy future for the yet to be explored wealth.
Accordingly, the Committee threatened to give zero allocation to the Ministry in 2024 fiscal year, if the Minister failed to amend his ways, to start responding to the invitations of the Committee.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sampson Ekong, who issued the summon at the meeting, mainatined that his Committee would ensure the right legal frameworks that would bring a positive turn around of the sector.
Ekong pointed out that accountability and transparency would be the watch word of the Committee, noting that the Bitumen bill sent to the Committee would be expeditiously processed and presented to the Senate for passage and onward transition to the President for assent.
He said: “The Nigerian solid minerals and extractive industry is very vast and grossly under-taped . God in his unquestionable benevolence ,has blessed Nigeria with huge mineral deposits .However a number of factors have continued to hamper the sector. The sector has the potentials of contributing significantly to our economy.”
Ekong also pointed out that the 2021 contributions of the solid minerals sector to Nigeria’s GDP stood at 0.63 per cent, saying: “the performance, though, an improvement when compared to previous years where it contributed 0.45 percent in 2020 and 0.26 percent in 2019, is still negligible and disappointing considering the humongous potentials therein.”
The Committee Chairman expressed concerns that the low output had been attributed to the over 90 percent of the activities of the mining industry were dominated by artisanal operators.
“Nigeria is blessed with over forty identifiable minerals in varying commercial quantities. Developing the solid minerals base of the country can offer the Nigerian economy the much needed diversification it has been yearning for.
“Our vast solid mineral endowments should be utilized to drive prosperity for all Nigerians , not abused to fuel insecurity,exacerbate economic dislocation and opportunity theft. We will through this committee, vigorously explore trajectories for our solid minerals to generate revenue meaningfully for the federal government and help strengthen our economy.”
In his reaction, Senator Onawo Ogoshi, representing Nasarawa South Senatorial District, suggested that the Committee should give zero allocation to the Ministry of Mines and Solid Minerals in the 2024 fiscal year, if the Minister continued to ignore the Committee.
