From Fred Itua, Abuja
Issues surrounding fiscal autonomy and resource control, yesterday, resurrected on the floor of the Senate, following a motion sponsored by the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu.
Kalu in a motion titled: “Urgent need to investigate the loss of $9 billion dollars annually due to illegal mining and the smuggling of gold in Nigeria”, sought to address indiscriminate mining and loss of $9 billion from the solid minerals sector.
During the course of explaining to his colleagues the economic benefits of conserving the revenue accrued from the nation’s gold reserve, Kalu brought to fore Nigeria’s constitutional provisions for resource control.
Kalu quoted section 44 (3) of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining law of 1999 which states that ‘ownership and control of all minerals in Nigeria is vested in the federal government, which is mandated to manage such natural resources in a manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.’
He said: “Nigeria lost close to $54 billion from 2012 2018 due to illegal smuggling of gold. The country is said to be losing about $9 billion yearly to illegal mining and gold exportation, a huge amount of money unaccounted for through under the radar sales of the expensive commodity
“Activities of unlicensed miners were becoming prevalent within the industry and the incessant smuggling of the solid mineral out of the country by middlemen and smugglers, is leading to loss of government revenue
“Concerned that gold mining operations in Nigeria is capable of providing no fewer than 250,000 jobs and over $500 million dollars annually in royalties and taxes to the federal government and as mineral resources
“This would further diversify our economy and improve the foreign exchange reserve. Given our current estimated gold reserves of over 200million ounces, most of which have not been exploited, developing sustainable programmes that will catalyse increased investment in the extraction and refining of gold sourced from mines in Nigeria, is indeed vital
“Data from the Ministry of Solid Mineral Development show that there are gold deposits in Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Edo, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, Oyo, Kogi, Zamfara, Osun and Kaduna states
“If the country conserves her gold reserves, and ensures effective exploitation, the accruing revenue would surpass that of oil and gas.
“llegal gold mining has been a reprehensible activity and has continued to thrive despite government’s threat to prosecute culprits. Unofficial figures from various open source websites such as the U.S. Geological Survey estimate that some 18,000kg of gold valued at about $9 billion was smuggled out of Nigeria between 2018 and 2019 alone.