By BASHIR ADEFAKA
…Continued from last Friday January 13, 2023
Wealth Nigeria deprived of by religious and ethnic fights
On November 17, 2015 it was all over the news in Nigeria that the country’s Ministry of Solid Mineral Development said 44 different types of minerals had been newly discovered in 500 locations across the country. Mr Sanusi Jubril, Head of Mineral and Metal Promotion Centre of the Ministry at that time, announced this in an interview in Abuja.
Jubril said the minerals could be used for industrial and domestic purposes, adding that more would soon be discovered as research continued. According to him, Nigeria is blessed with coppers that can be used for electrical appliances. Whether or not Rhodium was part of the 44 newly discovered minerals is an argument that can always be defeated by the glaring fact of the mineral’s existence in large quantity in that part of the country and that the Western agents have been exploiting it for a long time and this, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to the Head of State during the military regime of late General Sani Abacha, confirmed. Al-Mustapha stated this with well expatiated proofs (what happened to a box he repeatedly asks question about is not focus of this report) as to the connection of the exploitation of that branch of solid mineral with creation of Boko Haram in the North East region. And the retired Army officer does never stops to accuse the West as responsible for this. See Link: https://dailypost.ng/2022/11/22/al-mustapha-accuses-western-nations-of-plot-to-prolong-boko-haram-insurgency/
The Presidential Candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the 2023 election has been alleging that there is a grand plot by western nations to prolong the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. Al-Mustapha reiterated this allegation on Tuesday November 22, 2022 in Abuja at a roundtable about the 2023 general elections.
He claimed that while insurgency was hatched on November 1, 1999, it was conceived in 1972 after the discovery of oil and gas and then accused the western nations of ensuring that there was an unending crisis in African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Libya, among others, where there are high deposits of mineral resources.
Questionable presence of NGOs in Borno despite insurgency
The former Presidential Chief Security Officer said that the federal government discovered oil and uranium in large quantities in 1996 in the North East and North West, which he said was being mined illegally now while insurgency raged on. Al-Mustapha said despite the fact that Borno State was the epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency, surprisingly, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) paid between 10 and 20 years’ rent, an indication that there was a plot to elongate the crisis.
His words: “Borno State is a place ordinarily to be feared because of bombs in wrong places alone. But one may ask, NGOs in Borno State, particularly the capital, are too many. Houses for rent are difficult to find. They are renting houses from 10 years and above; 18 years, 20 years. That is to say there is a plan to stay longer.
“One may ask why? Who are these NGOs? Who certifies them and send them to Nigeria? How come soldiers and police and all uniform men and women are scared of Nigeria and scared particularly of Borno State. How come NGOs are much more friendlier? The weather is not friendly, the weather is harsh. How come they love Borno? How come they don’t go to other peaceful countries with better weather? What are they doing there? One may ask.
“Why are soldiers running away from the locations of Boko Haram? And why are the white men and women going there even at odd hours and coming back and unhindered? Why are we not asking them questions? Is Nigeria a jungle? Do we know who we are? What are the names of these agencies giving them clearances at home? How do they enter Nigeria? Immigration, Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, Presidency. What are they engaged in?
“What is that lucrative thing that makes them not to be afraid of the danger zone in the eyes of a typical Nigerian? How come a typical Nigerian cannot go to where they go to? How come they hold meetings with these people? How come they have telephones and internet interactions? How come we are not aware?
“The question here I ask is: Is it the security managers that are compromising? Or are these civil institutions that are compromising? Or is it ignorance? Or is it negligence?”
Al-Mustapha recalled that in January 2022, one of the countries who allegedly took Africa’s resources proposed an agricultural investment and cooperation with Borno State.
Thanks to President Buhari’s resilience
All the aforementioned are a summary of the situation bedeviling Nigeria and why innocent citizens of the great nation appear not to have access to go standard of living. If truly Uranium was discovered in 1996, during the military regime of late General Sani Abacha of which Al-Mustapha was a member and lately we are told that Rhodium that has been priced at no less than $320,000 per kilogramme at the international market is also one of the solid mineral that Nigeria’s Borno State is sitting on, there is a task ahead for the next generation of Nigerian leaders to unravel the whole of these mysteries and let our people of Nigeria go to the move from the wilderness that they currently live in unto to the promised land that is the dreamed Nigeria for the good of all Nigerians.
Nigeria has Kaolin deposit across the country in abundance for industrial use, which use includes for the production of papers, paints, rubbers, drugs, tyres and pen, among others. So also the country has Gypsum that is also a mineral meant for industrial use such as building plaster, prefabricated wallboard, cement manufacture and agriculture. Nigeria has limestone, coal, lithium, platinum, granite and gold, among others. Coal, according to the government report, could be converted to coal-briquette, which is environmental friendly as it neither suffocates nor smokes, to warm the rooms during harmatan and could also be used for cooking and could generate heat higher than charcoal.
All of these minerals put together could boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s diversified economy policy that has set Nigeria now miles apart from crude oil based economy. With these on ground and Ajaokuta Rolling Steel Company, the largest steel rolling company in Africa, if revived, Nigeria will step up and forward from being Africa’s largest economy to being one of the Groups of World Economies (G7, G20, of what have you) and the country will be feared and respected, away from the backwardness the West thinks of it like of other fellow African nations daily.
If for instance Nigeria has Uranium and we know what that mineral means in today technological world of superpowers and it has Rhodium that costs $320,000 per kilogramme current price having hit $735 million per ton (1,000 kilogrammes) as at February 20, 2021, it means there are favours that Almighty Allah has done to this country than the citizens are being told. It means there is no single Nigerian who deserves to suffer. It means, every citizen born Nigerian on the soil of Nigeria is entitled to better welfare packages including monthly credit to individual’s bank account, quality accommodation for better living and other social amenities including state funded education and healthcare delivery system. Rhodium alone, if well administered, can take of all of these. The next generation of Nigerians need to explore that sphere of solid minerals in addition to oil, and when added to agriculture and legally allocated and mined gold, marble, and so on and so forth, and holistic effort is made to ensure local processing of all of those things including refineries aside mere raw materials exports, Nigeria will get its bearing back industrially, its Naira will regain its strength, sincere Cotton-Textile-Garment Revival programme will see the moribund textile sector of the nation’s economy back on feet, because the best approach to solving the problem of unemployment overnight is to revive and actively make the textile industry work again.
The next generation of Nigerian leaders that will take over from President Muhammadu Buhari and his team May 29 of this year 2023 must ensure strict adherence to the good legacies the outgoing President has laid down. A major legacy is the fact that he freed Nigeria from the imperial hegemony of the West. The order is infrastructure-driven economic diversification that sees agriculture taking care of food security with a view to conquering hunger, unemployment and insecurity in the land. Nigeria is still better than many projected super nations of the West and the Asia. With appropriate government policies, political will to ensure those policies work, institutionally, and citizens’ patriotism that is unalloyed loyalty to the country and its government, all things being equal, it will take the country not up to another four years from May 29, 2023 to be back on its feet. It is possible! It is doable!! It is achievement!!! Every Nigerian should get INVOLVED!!!! Go bless Nigeria!!!!! God bless the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!!!! And God bless them all, who have made contributions or conceive positive thought for better living standard, peace and unity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!!!!!
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