Following the allegations and counter-allegations between the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel and BUA Group over alleged illegal mining activities in Kogi State, the Minister, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has revealed that BUA Group has written a petition against him to President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the minister, the company cannot eat its cake and have it, as he insisted that it could not get a free pass for illegal mining.
He said, “We have said, pending the determination of the matter in court, we have a duty to protect the investors known to law. He has also chosen to write a petition to my boss. My boss is a stickler for due process and I’m sure he will send the petition to me for my comments. Until then, the less said the better.”
On the allegation of abuse of office levelled against him by the company, Fayemi defended, “I really don’t know what informed the attack on my person
and the ministry by the Chairman of the company, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu.
“Whatever it is, it is unfortunate. Our role in the ministry is purely regulatory. The ministry had acted purely on the basis of the records in our custody by stating that the legal owner of a specific mining area is Dangote Plc. BUA disagrees with that position and he has taken the matter to court which is his right.”
To inculcate illegal miners into the existing formal system in the sector, the former governor of Ekiti State explained that his ministry has decided to form cooperatives, particularly at the artisanal level and ensure that what they get out of their efforts is received by mineral buying vehicle.
“For instance, if you are mining gold, let your cooperative give the gold to a gold buying centre and you get the exact value that you get on the London metal exchange for it, rather than a discounted rate that a middleman takes it from you and you really are grateful for being cheated because you do not know any better. That is one level.
“The second level is we also need to carve out some areas for artisanal miners to legitimately mine and provide them with facilities, particular equipment beyond the diggers and shovels that people are using and mercury that is poisoning their
lives.
“For that, we set up a N5 billion fund that we put in the Bank of Industry and set criteria for them to access these funds in the hope that once you access these funds, you automatically formalise because we will take information from you before we give you the money and you begin to work with other colleagues,” he
said.
Fayemi added that the ministry is partnering with the Miners Association of Nigeria and the Bank of Industry in order to create a level of support.
According to him, when a miner takes the money, he needs support to get the equipment either from leasing company or as operations cost for his quarry, something to give him a sense that government does care about a thriving mining industry and there is a support base for it. “It’s going to take a while because roughly 80 per cent of the people in the industry are artisanal and small scale. But it could also be our greatest vehicle for job creation if we get it right because you have more
people in mining than in oil and gas, making a living out of mining,” he added.
