The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, yesterday lamented that no provision was made in the 2023 budget proposal for his ministry to fight illegal miners.
Adegbite who made this known while presenting his ministry’s 2023 budget proposal before the House of Representatives Committee on Mines and Steel, said the minister was handicapped.
While regretting that a proposed mining police mulled in 2017, by his predecessor was yet to take off due to lack of funding, the minister said it was within the purview of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to give necessary directive.
He said illegal miners carry gold through the borders and his ministry was liaising with the Nigeria Customs to help put a stop to it.
He added that there was a success story on artisanal mining in Nigeria as over 2000 cooperatives have registered with them. The minister said: “If you look in our budget, there is no single appropriation for security. That’s why we will go back to the national security adviser.
“Yes, my predecessor with the president set up what you called the mining police in 2017. Essentially, the minister sits as the chairman of that mining police and it had the chief of army staff, the IGP, the commandant General of the Civil Defence people, the NSA, the Director, DSS. But that committee has not been funded since.
“That committee proposed to have personnel on the ground. So, we are not reacting to situation. We prevent situation. If we have all those, we can prevent occurrences of illegal mining. But that committee is not funded. It’s just there.
“If you put soldiers on the ground, they must have ration. They collect a daily ration. There is not funding for that.”
Adegbite responding to a question on Ajaokuta Steel company in Kogi State, said the COVID-19 in 2020, was essentially responsible for the non-resuscitation.
According to him, he had after participating in a Summit in Russia in 2019, announced that within two years, precisely in the first quarter of 2022, the company would come back on stream. But he said the pandemic struck and stopped the Russians technical experts from coming.
While noting that $2 billion was estimated for the fixing of the company, he assured that its concession was on course.
The minister said, “Essentially, what you have seen in the budget on Ajaokuta every year is just personnel cost and maintenance.
“If they have anything capital, I am sure it’s very insignificant which can be taken away. When I came to office in 2019, I thought why should anybody be budgeting so much for Ajaokuta when it’s not producing. But I went to see Ajaokuta first time myself and I quite understood what the personnel were being paid.
“If anybody has ever visited Ajaokuta, you know how vast Ajaokuta is. It’s a city on its own. If we don’t have personnel there who are keeping vigil and maintening the place; they will do a dummy run for you, for something of that magnitude, it would have gone stiff. You won’t be able to run it again. But to do a regular maintenance.
“So, what we hope to do before we leave office is to set Ajaokuta on a solid foundation, on a trajectory that in another year or two, it will start running.”
Speaking further, Adegbite bemoaned the N3.2 billion allocated to the ministry as 2023 budget, saying it was poor.
Reacting, a member of the Committee, Hon. Victor Mela accused the minister of not doing enough to get the steel sector working.
According to him, the minister was also not doing enough to curb illegal mining, saying foreigners were taking away billions of naira, which are not being captured.
