Abuja – Prof. Olugbenga Okunlola, President, Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), has advised the Federal Government to harness the abundant resource available in 16 states for electricity and cooking.
Okunlola said this on Thursday in Abuja while briefing newsmen on the forthcoming 53rd International Conference and Exhibition of the society scheduled to hold in Abuja from March 26 to March 31.
The theme of the conference is “The Extractive Industry: Imperatives for Wealth Creation and Employment Generation”.
According to him, Nigeria is blessed with coal across the country, but government is yet to tap the mineral’s potential to address power supply.
According to him, in the last 30 years, the Nigerian government has not mined a kilogramme of coal across the country except for private companies such as the one that started mining a few years ago in Kogi State.
“Coal can be used to produce briquettes for cooking; it does not produce fumes, its production is very cheap and it produces clean energy that burns faster for eight hours than ordinary charcoal, ” he said.
Okunlola also said that government was not harnessessing lignite that could also produce energy for cooking, adding that this belonged to the same category of coal.
” Nigeria is blessed with lignite, we have 500 km belt of the mineral from Ekpoma down to Abia untapped; in the early 50s, NMGS brought out a publication on lignite resources available from the South to the East.
“It may be low in burning, but we have enough energy minerals to sustain the country”.
The expert urged government to adopt the political will and train security personnel such as the Customs and Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps, among others, to tackle informal mining that had dominated the mining sector
He also urged the government to formalise the informal miners into cooperatives to move the sector forward, saying that such activities did not happen during the colonial era.
Speaking on the forthcoming event, Okunlola said that the society would have different sections to discuss issues of wealth and job creation and how to move the country out of recession, among others.
He also said that over 2000 participants, both local and foreign, were being expected at the event.
The association president said the outcome of the event would go along way to provide solutions to the challenges hindering optimum operations of Nigeria’s extractive industry as well as the diversification plans.
NAN reports that the NMGS is an International, non-governmental and non profit professional organisation established in 1961 to advance the practice of mining, earth science and metallurgy, among others.
The NMGS also has a statutory representation on Board of Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientist (COMEG) Established by Decree 40 of 1990 to regulate the professional practice of Mining Engineers and Geoscientist.
Some state governors, ministers, geoscientists, mining engineers and metallurgists are expected to attend the event.