Abuja – The Miners Association of Nigeria said any attempt to remove mining from exclusive legislative to concurrent list could lead to constitutional crisis.
Alhaji Sani Shehu, President of the association, made this known while addressing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.
Shehu said the removal of mining from the Federal Government custody to the hands of state governments would jeopardise the national economy.
He said the recent suggestion by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development on the removal of mining of solid minerals from exclusive list, to allow states to play prominent roles in mining issues, would not be acceptable.
“Nigeria is operating a single mining jurisdiction and it is governed by the national constitution, which makes mining governance an exclusive preserve of the Federal Government.
“If the Federal Government approves the removal of mining from its jurisdiction, that will give states that are endowed with liquid minerals (Oil and Gas) to canvass for autonomy over the liquid minerals in their states.
” If the Federal government allows states to control minerals in their states, this can crumble our economy because there will be sentiment,” he said.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, recently called for the removal of mining from the exclusive list to concurrent list, to allow states to play more prominent roles in mining issues in the country.
Fayemi said it became necessary to make the mineral and mining sector more profitable.
The minister said the present situation where state governments were not adequately involved in the administration of mineral titles, in spite of bearing the brunt of impact of resource exploitation, grossly affected growth of the sector.
He also noted that some state governors had threatened to prevent miners from operating in their states, adding that any governor that put up such act would be sued.
” Any Governor that prevents legal miners from operating in their states will be taken to the court for contravening the law of the country.”
“We know that states are making efforts to make more money to meet challenges confronting their states, but the constitution says the land belongs to the state while minerals embedded inside the land belong to the Federal Government.”
On the dispute between Dangote and BUA over the ownership of a mining site in Edo, he urged the two giant firms to wait for court verdict, as the matter had been in the court for some time now.
“The ideal position is for them to wait for the verdict of the court; the current press wars between the two is taking an unpleasant dimension which will not go well for the growth of the mining industry in Nigeria.”
He appealed to critical stakeholders, including Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), to make peace between the duo in the national interest and industrial harmony in the country.
On the N5 billion loan for Artisanal and Small Scale Miners (ASM) that had being in the custody of Bank of Industry for the past five months, he said no miner had been able to access the fund due to conditionalities.
The N5 billion was a joint intervention fund of N2.5 billion each, contributed by the ministry and the BOI, as loan for the ASM.
He said the conditionalities were highly commercial, which contradicted the social concern attached to the objective of the loan.
The Artisanal Miners that registered with cooperatives could access from N100,000 to N10 million, while Smale Scale Miners could access from N10 million to N100 million.
He commended the government for clamping down on illegal mining activities in different parts of the country, especially in Zurak, plateau and Major Sins in Taraba. (NAN)