The revocation of licenses recently announced by the federal government through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has been described as capable of scaring investors and therefore uncalled for.
A veteran in Nigeria’s solid minerals and steel industry, Dr Emeka Okengwu, who made this known during an exclusive interview with The Rock Post in Abuja, said the feedback he was getting on the matter showed that due process was not followed in line with the Minerals and Mining Act (MMA) 2007 before arriving at the decision to take away some of the titles from their holders.
According to him, what the Nigerian mining sector, with its rich business potentials, needs is for government to prove that its a destination for any willing investor by feeding adequate geological information to the public and ensuring business friendly environment with all sincerity of purpose, as going around the world in the context of attracting investors may be a waste of the useful scarce resources and time.
He said, “First and foremost, you have to look at what the Minerals and Mining Act says about revoking licenses. For the reason given, that those whose licenses were pronounced revoked have not paid their ground rents or whatever at a time like, it is a little bit uncharitable.
“You have gone to tell people to get into CDAs (Community Development Agreements); a lot of them have expended a lot of funds building goodwill, programmes for the respective host communities; what about the EIA (Environmental Impact Accessment) – the degradation that has taken place already, the reclamation that ought to take place, who will bear it, the man you’ve taken it away from or the man you are giving it anew? Have you gone to do those evaluations for you to understand and do what should be done? These are critical questions that must be asked. If you have not, then you do not understand the danger in the signals you are sending to the investment community, talking about the first step which is security of the mining and minerals titles.”
Querying further, he said, “And if such a person comes with his proof to say I have paid, what will you do, or if from the position of the law, it says what you have done is wrong, what are you going to do, especially now that you have entered it into the gazette, are you going to reverse it, how? Does the government have the right? And if you have now reassigned to other people, what happens? And you said you are trying to attract investors?
“Look, the mining sector is one sector that does not need you to attract investors; it does not need to look for investors, investors come looking for it, the investors do not need to be attracted. All you need is for you to show that you are a destination, and in showing that you are, the first thing is this your basic geological information that you put out there.
“If you now think the wrong people are coming in to take your licenses and titles, who are you and what qualifies you to decide who the right person is? If the law says at the moment this person has met these conditions, who are you to say he is now a wrong person.
“And if the person whom you have taken his license away, or a fraction of what he has put in, now goes to court and put a lien on that prospect that probably would have been used to help that community and government in the development of infrastructure there, is it going to be legal for you to do anything on that mine or site until that matter is over, especially considering that such matters could go as far as the supreme court and linger for a longer time? So is this the right decision?”
Asked whether there is no provision for stripping defaulters of their licenses in the law, he said, “No, but there is a procedure. until that person gets a letter, you don’t just publish; how many people read newspapers? And the law makes it clear that in such an instance, you must write to the licensee. Even if you publish in CNN, that person has to have a letter, and that letter has to be acknowledged by him.
“Everybody knows what the Cadastre office does; it takes all your information, including your email; you are supposed to show proof that you have sent a letter to the person via his mail on their phones, everybody has a phone now.
“So in essence you cannot say you are looking for investors when what you are supposed to do is simply put a programme together that shows clearly that these are what and what you have on ground for business.”
Section 151{2) and (3) of the Minerals and Mining Act 2007 says, “A mineral title shall be revoked upon written advice of the Minister and after thirty days notice of the intention to revoke the mineral title containing in detail the grounds thereof is given to the holder and during the period fixed the holder has failed to remedy the breach or remove the grounds for revocation within the required period.
“Any notice issued by the Minister and sent by registered mail to the last known address in Nigeria or given in person to an authorised representative of the mineral title holder in Nigeria or published in the Gazette, shall for all purposes be sufficient notice of the revocation of the mineral title to the mineral title holder.”
Explaining what led to the naming of peasant (hitherto branded illegal) miners as artisanal miners and the creation of the Artisanal and Small-Scall Mining (ASM) department at the ministry, Dr Okengwu, equally expressed regret that not much is heard now about the 2,500 cooperatives registered some time ago for artisanal miners to leverage and do mining business with ease in a coordinated, controlled, and more profitable manner.
“I think 2,500 of such cooperatives were captured, infact, database for them created, funding even provided. Now your question should be what happens to the 2500 cooperatives created? Who are they, who was supporting them, and why did they stop supporting them? What is now the role of the ASM department of the ministry?
“These are the people to guide you so that when you have a cooperative of miners and you have somebody who wants to play, you can actually aggregate 10 or 20 of them and cluster them around a commercial programme where somebody who now has the fund, the equipment, the technology, the market can really begin to use them as a base, as a staff. That is the basis, what I call the elemental,” he said.
Responding to the allegations of undue revocation of mining licences, Mr Shegun, the media aide of the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Dr Dele Alake, said all procedures were followed to the latter in line with the dictates of the Mining Act 2007 before the revocation was executed.
“There was a 30 days notice, and as specified by the minerals and Mining Act of 2007, that it has to be published in the federal government gazette or by any other means. It was published in the gazette on 10 October, and the expiration was 10 November, 2023.
“And it is Annual Service Fee, not ground rent. Those that were defaulting in the Annual Service Fee were over 2200. After they got the notice, only about 580 complied, then there were 1633 left that did not comply thereafter. And they were still given almost 3 weeks grace for them to go and make up, before the announcement of the revocation. So the due process was followed as stated by the Minister at the press conference held to announce the revocation,” he said.
Speaking to The Rock Post on the matter, National President of the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) Dele Ayanleke explained that licence revocation is a normal periodic exercise carried out by the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) to sanitise the system either for non-remittance of Annual Service Fees or in fulfilment of its the principle of ‘Use It or Loose It’.
According to him, it is not all those affected that are members of MAN, but any one whose license was revoked in error has the right to approach the MCO for redress.
“Anyone whose licence is revoked in error has the right to approach the MCO for redress. Our members who followed this advice are being attended to,” Anyaleke said.
A check by The Rock Post on the Official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, confirmed that ‘Statutory Notice No. 136’,directed at mineral title defaulters pursuant to section 11 and 12 of the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act 2007, was published on the 9th day of October, 2023 by the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO).
The notice directed the listed defaulters, companies or mineral title holders to pay up their outstanding Annual Service Fees due and accrued to the federal government within 30-days or have their license revoked, even as they are also urged to pay up all their outstanding liabilities prior to the revocation of in line with Section 155 of the Act, or face legal action.
The notice which was signed by the MCO management however provided for redress in the event of erroneous revocation of licenses.
It said, “This list is not exhaustive, Mineral Title Holders erroneously included in this list should take
necessary steps to reconcile their records with the office.”
Update about the over 2,500 ASM cooperatives could not be ascertained as efforts made to get response from the ministry at press time failed.
