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Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, has given the Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee a 90-day ultimatum to improve its performance or face severe sanctions.
Alake, who spoke at the 2024 Annual General Meeting of MIREMCO Chairmen, expressed his dissatisfaction with the agency’s current revenue performance, stressing that it was not satisfactory.
He emphasised that it is the committee’s essential responsibility to interface between subnational, local communities, operators and the government to minimise cases of conflict.
This was disclosed in a statement on Monday by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori in Abuja.
The statement read, “The Federal Government is supposed to rely on your reports on the activities or inactivity of operators and whether they comply with environmental regulations and all other sundry regulations governing the sector.
“We are not impressed by the execution of that mandate, and we will not hesitate to wield the big stick if, after 90 days, the committee fails to turn a new leaf.”
Quoting the Nigeria Minerals And Mining Act 2007, Section 19, sub-section 3g, which makes it mandatory for MIREMCO to act as a liaison between the subnational authorities, the LGs, the communities and the operators; the minister stressed that the provisions of the act has not been effectively executed by the committee.
“If the provisions of the act had been effected by MIREMCO, the spate of interference that we witness by the sub-nationals, in some instances, local governments shutting down mines, making policy pronouncements that are unconstitutional — would have been minimal. It is the failure of this body that has given rise to states dabbling into areas that are beyond their constitutional purview,” the minister lamented.
Emphasising the role of sub-national authorities in MIREMCO’s operations, Alake noted that the chairmen and five of the committee members are nominated by state governments, ensuring their interests are already represented under the committee’s statutes.
Reading the riot act, the minister charged the chairmen to rally their members and improve their performance, failure of which the FG will be left with no other option than to act appropriately to restore effective management of the nation’s mineral resources and its attendant environmental concerns.
Responding to issues raised, Alake assured of periodic engagements with the committee while also promising to push for improved funding for the agency in the 2025 fiscal year to bolster its capacity to effectively fulfil its mandate.
