THE National Vice President of Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Fidelis Ogili, recently spoke with journalists in Enugu on the nation’s socio-political and economic problems, contending that the authorities need political will to meet the yearnings of the people. South-East Bureau Chief, JUDE OSSAI, brings the exerpts.

WITH your position in the nation’s mining industry, how do you think Nigeria can benefit from mining, bearing in mind that the sector is no longer in vogue?
Mining is going to be the only industry that will rescue the Nigerian economy from collapsing.  This is because it will generate jobs, bring productivity, income and will help the industries, because it produces raw materials that are used both here and outside Nigeria.

It will also help industries in the sense that, coal, for instance, when maximised to the fullest, will increase power generation. I still feel that Nigeria has not given mining the desired attention. So far, there has been no visible will-power to show that government is committed to encouraging mining in the country.

If you want to develop a sector, there are sacrifices a country should make.  Look at the agricultural sector, they are giving out incentives and bail-out; even poultry has got bail-out, but mining has been undermined and denied a bail-out. From mining, you get fertilisers and substances for the production of drugs for livestock and human beings.  You can also get something used in building roads that will give access to the hinterland.

Why pay particular attention to mining when other sectors are begging for attention?
Mining should be given attention because mining it is a sort of every-home-business.  From the sand that is used in building homes to the sand that is used in building factories to the sand that is used in mixing tars to make roads, to the granite, the gold, the silver to the coralline and other solid minerals.  Mining is so important Nigeria.

Why Nigerian mining needs monetary support is because it is a long-time investment that doesn’t bring in yield immediately and as such, it will take time before the yield starts coming.  No individual, judging by the economy of this country, can raise the money to open up a mine that can give what will affect the economy.

In South East, it is even worse because our governors, and commissioners for environment and solid minerals development don’t have any regard for mining.  I have not seen them showing any regard for mining.  Recently, I asked the United States Embassy to come for Mining Safety and Enlightenment  Campaign Programme in South East, unfortunately, I spent close to half a million naira. All attempts to get support from any of the states in the South East did not yield any result.  No funding came and the American Embassy that funded the programme only took care of their own welfare, hotel accommodation and the experts they brought from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Worst still, when we went to Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, where lead is being mined, because they were talking about lead poisoning as it is happening in Zamfara, we were chased out of Ameka zone in Abakaliki, where we went to see the lead mining area.  As I am talking to you now, no government official has called me to ask what is happening.

Why I am talking about mining development is that if care is not taken, what is happening in Niger Delta, as regards oil, may happen in the South East, when mining becomes a good business because the villages where these solid minerals are located have a lot of things against the way things are done and that was the reason they drove us out of the mine site.

Except proper attention is given to those areas as regards helping them to understand the need for them to be safety compliant, we may end where Niger Delta people are today because the indigenes’ complaint is that the government brought Chinese to come and take over their mine, without giving regard to environmental degradation and development of the town.  If you look at it, it was good that they took the action.  So, I want the government in the South East as well as other governments in the country to get closer to the people to educate them more.

Apart from the enormity of financial involvement in mining, what are the other areas you think should be shown serious attention?
Lead is the most dangerous or poisonous substance in the world. It kills gradually. Somebody that is poisoned by lead today, his great-grand children may begin to have the effect of the poison many years after.  In Zamfara State the distance from the lead site to where people live is very far, but in Ebonyi State, people are living right on top of lead.
In fact, waste products from the mine, instead of being thrown away are used to fill up the holes in people’s compound.  They use the sand there to build houses; they use it to fill the compound, children use it to play thereby exposed to lead poisoning and by the time they grow up, they will not be able to reason well. Lead poisoning retards the growth of children among other hazards.

How do you want the government to intervene?
We have miners association in every state.  In Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi, we have miners association and they have chairmen.  By a stroke of luck, I am from Enugu State and I am the national vice chairman of the miners association.  I know much about this.  I have written to the Commissioner for Environment, Enugu State and we have written, under the platform of the Solid Minerals Stakeholders in the South East, to the South East governors, to make them know certain things about mining, its viability, benefits and what they should do to prevent the hazards involved in mining, but none of  them has replied.

What other advocacy are you planning to take to pass your message across?
Thank God for  the press. But I want you people to keep telling the people.  I intend to go and see the chairman of the South East Governors Forum, Mr. Peter Obi, to talk with him. I have tried my best to reach Enugu State governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, but he said I should go to the Commissioner for Environment.  For two years, I have been trying to reach any of them, but I have not succeeded. I returned from Abuja recently where they were talking about coal, but Enugu State was conspicuously absent.

What about the UN intervention fund for the coal sector.  How has it been so far?
The World Bank gave 120m dollars for the development of solid minerals under the Sustainable Mineral Resources Management project. Part of the money was used to develop infrastructure in Abuja, that is, the Ministry of Mines.  Part of it was used in building the School of Mines in Jos and nothing was said about coal; the mother of all solid minerals in Nigeria that even aided the independence of Nigeria.  There is a Colliery School in Enugu but nobody is talking about it. Thank God the Minister of Mines, when he visited Enugu some time ago, I brought the issue before him.  He felt so bad about it and directed that a proposal should be made for him to see if the World Bank could fund the resuscitation of the school.  But this is not done; the states in the South East should do something because it can generate employment.

What is being done to resuscitate Coal Mining?
Coal is being neglected because nothing is being done to see the privatisation carried out. Before you privatise something, you make the people that would like to invest in it see the viability.  The mines have been shut down for years and are over-grown with grasses and reptiles. If investors come in, they will stand aloof and look at the mines from a distance, unaware of the quantity of coal they are bidding for.

So, government has to do something to make the privatisation exercise successful.  They have to raise money to carry out some renovations at the mines.  They need to provide access roads, and then get it to a point where somebody can go and check.  After this, they can then carry out preliminary study on what is left. I carried a small scale study on my own and I discovered that the coal remaining can still last for about 100 years.

With your experience, are there other existing coal mine pits that have not been tapped in Enugu State?
There are a lot of them.  There are places where there is what is called outcrops, that is, you can see coals on the surface in abundance.  Enugu State has some engineers that were trained in the United Kingdom (UK) who were working in the coals before they were closed down.  They are still active and willing to give assistance and information if they are given the money that will enable them do one or two things to give the right information.

What about the solid mineral buying centre?
The centre, which the Federal Government built in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, is like a dry port.  It is a place where solid mineral products that are to be exported out of the South East are to be certified and sent out. But the place is over-grown with weeds.  Reptiles are living there and nobody is asking any question.  It is a place that would have employed, at least, 100  to 200 people as well as generate revenue for both the state and Federal Governments, but the place has been allowed to waste away.  The roof has been blown off by the wind. I want the South East governments to resuscitate the Solid Mineral Buying Centre and the Federal Government to equip it so that our people will benefit from it.