Ebonyi State Govt To Revoke Illegal Mining Licenses

In this interview, the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Solid Mineral Development, Hon. Chidi Onyia, spoke with Alex Odeh of PanAfricreport on why the state government plans to revoke illegal mining licenses acquired by for more than ten years by unknown investors without paying royalty to the state government and host communities.
Excerpts:

Sir, you can start by telling us your name and your designation. Okay. My name is Chidi Onyia, the Honorable Commissioner for Solid Minerals Development, Ebonyi State.

Okay. Sir, come May 29th, the Ebonyi State Government, which you are one of the commissioners, will be marking two years in office. Within these two years, what is your assessment as a commissioner in the government of Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru?

Yeah, the administration of His Excellency, Right Honorable Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru came on the platform of People Charter of Need. I made bold to say he has been living up to that. One, he, first of all, handled what has been the yearning of many Nigerians. Of course, there’s a popular saying that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow. But to an extent, it’s as if the tomorrow has refused to come. But in Ebonyi, His Excellency decided to shift from the normal practice.

And that is why in his cabinet, you have over 98% of young men serving in his cabinet. I am not trying to say that we’ve all delivered excellently, but one thing is key. Whether we like it or not, the benefits of that paradigm shift will definitely be felt in many years to come. Because we discovered that the likes of His Excellency, Chief Martin Nwanchor Elechi , the Ojukwus, the Azikiwe, the Gowon, and the rest of them, started their journey some in their mid-twenties and thereabouts. And today, their records are still there.

So whether we like it or not, definitely a greater percentage of the Ebonyi youths whom the Governor has discovered will definitely take the stage in years to come. So it is a laudable achievement and it is quite commendable. Knowing fully well that the moment you are elected, so many interests come in, stakeholders and all that, but the stood his ground to insist that this is actually what he wants.

And I can assure you that before the end of his tenure, when he will be rounding off in 2031, we will see his handwriting written boldly on the faces of Ebonyi youths. That’s number one.

Can you identify areas where the administration of Nwifuru has distinguish itself?

We are seeing something different from what we’ve been practicing eight, ten years ago.Of course, we know the last time we heard of scholarship in Ebonyi was when Sam Egwu was Governor of Ebonyi State. But the Governor, as a young man, he saw the need to revive the scholarship sector of our education. And today, we have over thousands of Ebonyians who are on scholarship, fully funded in foreign countries and in our local universities.

And by the time they are done with their studies, I can tell you for free that a greater percentage of these beneficiaries will be useful to the society. Now, we are also aware that for so many years, civil servants in the state have not enjoyed promotion, recruitment. But immediately he came, less than six months in office, he employed so many Ebonyians into civil service.

Civil servants who were due for promotion enjoyed that benefit. Of course, that is what they should benefit as civil servants. We are also aware that there are so many interventions, infrastructure-wise.

What is your take on the governor’s strides in the areas of infrastructure and provision of other amenities?

The Abakaliki Capital is opening up Abakaliki City. Of course, you can attest to the fact that there are so many routes that he opened up that were not there when he came up. Now, the ones he met, he is doing everything to maintain those structures.

Away from that, he is doing everything humanly possible to revive the Ebonyi Water Corporation. And I am quite convinced because a lot of huge resources have been pumped into that. And in no distance time, I think the issue of scarcity of water will totally be a thing of the past.

The Ebonyi pipe production industry has been revived. It is back to life. After being abandoned for over eight years, it is now functional.

The pulverization plant at Umuogharu is now working. I mean, a whole lot of so many other interventions that the governor has carried out within these two years in office. Then down to my ministry.

The People’s Charter of Need is all encompassing. Can you tell us how it affects your ministry?

Yes, under the People’s Charter of Need, two key items were identified. That is, strengthening the existing policies on solid minerals. And secondly, enhancing full participation of the mining host communities.

Of course, when these two are achieved, definitely more investors will come in. We discovered when we came on board that so many investors left. In fact, investors left in droves in Ebonyi

But the administration has deemed it necessary to go back to the drawing board, revisit some of the policies that were not investor-friendly. And we’ve actually handled that, and that is why so many investors are coming back to the state. But where we are affected directly is the interest of the host communities.

We discovered that the attention of successive administrations were majorly on revenues. What the government should benefit. But through the directive of His Excellency, he insisted that we first of all have to get the people to participate in what is happening in their place.

How did you address it?

Before we now talk about the government benefiting. And we took it upon ourselves as part of our mandate to go back to most of these communities to sensitize our people. Of course, we discovered along the line that not as if the companies do not know that they should carry the people along.

But for obvious reasons, for business sake, they decided to deal with some selected individuals in some of these communities. Now, we made sure that that barrier is no longer there. That the company must, as a matter of seriousness, interact with the host community. With whoever, the big and the small. And I can tell you that we now have Ebonyi Where the communities are holding miners, investors in their various communities accountable. Which was not the practice in the past. Because of the interference of the strong within these communities. Of course, you know it’s not an easy one.

Don’t you think this will affect the relationship between the communities and the investors?

Most of them are not happy with us. Because it’s more of we are taking back what they collected from the people. unlawfully or wrongly. And we are not giving it back to the people. While we were walking in, you saw some of the communities that were here. Why they were here was to discuss some of the interventions, some of the projects we attracted to their community through the company. We made the situation where the company would have agreements with the people. But they would go back to do a different thing. We made the situation where the companies were to provide scholarship. But in practice, they would rather choose to negotiate with the big stakeholders from these communities. And you know monetize this scholarship. Which at the end of the day doesn’t get to the targeted persons. We saw a situation where there were to be provisions of health facilities, classroom blocks, electricity, roads and other projects. Water and all that.

What is indeed the interest of these stakeholders?

Some of these stakeholders would rather collect peanuts in exchange of these projects. At the expense of their people. But we insisted. Like I have some of the companies. For instance, Shenlong was to construct a health center for the Ezillo people. That’s before we came on board.

Jinxian was to construct a health center for the Ezillo people as well. But the stakeholders of this area decided to collect money in exchange of these facilities. We have a situation where the company agreed to sponsor some individuals from the community on overseas scholarship. I have a case of Anlly accepting to sponsor some individuals from the community in Africa on scholarship to China. But some persons decided to collect money in exchange of this scholarship. And we are not saying no.It’s not going to happen again.

Are you sure you have succeeded in ending this sharp practices by stakeholders?

We now have a functional and workable CDA. Because before you operate as a miner, you must have what we call community development agreement.And that is where the interest of the host community, the village, the landowners are being discussed. Of course, we all are aware that mining is in the exclusive list. And by that provision, it’s to be handled by the federal ministry or the federal government.

But then, we are coming in by way of the owners of the land. We are aware that provisions in the Nigerian constitution empowers, gives the government of the state full ownership of all lands within his territory. So with that, we as well partake in the land.

And that is where we are coming in. And we are not insisting that if you had watery community development agreement, you must drop it and have something tangible for our people. And through our intervention, I can assure you that we are witnessing so many things different.

What have these host communities benefited so far?

We have companies building houses for affected landowners, which has never happened in Ebonyi. For instance, Dove Metal relocated about three compounds. He built three bungalows for some of his landowners. He’s building more. Good News built two. He’s still building more. And these are modern bungalows. He has to build it to our standard. All the necessary amenities must be provided in this building. Then Komezin built about three, somewhere in Okposi.

We have companies constructing concrete pavement for the host community. Pioneer Chinoshinonan Lanzan Intercontinental Quarries built one kilometer concrete roads for Ishiagu people. Arab contractors built one kilometer road for Ishiagu people.

China Oriental was to build one kilometer road, but the community intervened, or they stopped the company that they needed drainage and all that. Which we are still battling with the company, because that’s not what we wanted. Because each of these roads comes with drainage. So for the community to have diverted it, but to an extent, it covers so many kilometers. So we are still considering whether to consider the company and pardon them, or to still hold them accountable. Because we do say agreement, it’s agreement.

Then we have companies that have installed electricity for their host communities, like Woda, Setraco, and some other companies. We have companies building motorized boreholes, like Fespetraud, Woda, Satraco, and so many of them. These are what we’ve been able to achieve within this period, because all these were not there.

So for the first time, the host communities are having a feel of the activities of these miners in their place. And I would also want to inform you that the company that you’re working in these places is away from whatever is contained in the CDA. There are also some provisions for social responsibilities, and we are coming in as well as ministry.

We are enforcing it. In Ezillo, we discovered that the entire Ezillo, not minding the operations that have been ongoing there, has no civic center or town hall where the people meet. And these companies have been operating there.

So this ministry took it upon itself to insist that the companies within Ezillo must give the Ezillo people a befitting town hall. And it wasn’t just saying it. We are working on our talks.

Of course, I personally donated 100 bags of cement to this effect, because I want the company not to feel that maybe after saying it, I won’t enforce it. That was why I had to show that commitment so that they would know I’m serious. Because you can’t tell me that after giving 100 bags of cement, then you fail to do your own part.

Not as if I have a company there, but I feel it’s also part of my commitment. I am a politician, and I courtesy demands that we should also contribute where necessary. So these are some of what we’ve been up to.

It is no doubt that Ebonyi State is blessed with enormous mineral resources. What challenges are you facing harnessing them?

And then we also discovered that Ebonyi has so many minerals. But unfortunately, we met a situation where the entire state has been encumbered. What I mean by encumbered is that so many investors have acquired licenses for all the minerals in Ebonyi from the federal government. It is difficult for you to search anywhere in Ebony that there is mineral and it is free. It’s as bad as that. We even discovered that a state government, Osun state government, acquired license in Ebonyi here.

And we feel the successive administration didn’t do much. Their attention wasn’t on the solid mineral sector. Because if their attention was on the solid mineral, they would have secured these licenses.

Then we will now be properly placed to bargain, to go into business with investors when they come in. Just like some other states are doing. But we discovered that there is a way out. There is a policy from the federal ministry of solid mineral presently. Because we find out that most of these investors acquired these mineral titles for like 5-10 years ago. And they are not doing anything with it.

What they normally do is, you know, you wait when an investor, maybe a Chinese or any foreign national comes in. You already have the bargaining strength. You know, you have the license.

So what the federal government is now saying, it is either you lose it. And I secured approval of his excellency to work it out with the federal ministry, which we are doing. So we are getting all the details of some of these licenses that people acquired and they are not using it.

And by the moment we conclude, the next line of action is to approach the federal government so that these licenses will be revoked. Because, of course, if you have minerals in your land and you already know that someone has license in it, you already expect that something is coming. And imagine a situation where you’ve convinced that person that you’re coming to start paying him royalty and all that.

For 5 years he has not seen you. For 10 years he has not seen you. Both the owners of the land, the state government, the federal government are losing huge revenue.

So we are saying these practices won’t be there again. And we also came up with the idea that since these people, because the way they acquired these licenses are dubious, what they normally do is, maybe if they discover there are minerals here, they will connive with some persons from that community, get consent, quickly run to cadastral, federal ministry and get license. But we are now saying, for you to acquire license in Ebonyi, you cannot any longer approach the host community.

What are intending investors expected to do?

You must notify the state government of your intention to engage any of the host communities. So you must first of all seek consent from the state government. By doing that, we will be properly equipped to check what you are doing.

If you are deviating, we will know. And this has been the practice since we came on board. You can’t know whose community gives out consent again, without first getting consent from the state government through the ministry.

Are you disturbed by illegal miners?

Yes, it’s a national issue. It’s not just applicable in Ebonyi. But we are working seriously on that. First of all, we have to define who is an illegal miner. Like I said, most of these companies acquired these licenses and abandoned it. Now, some of these people who are now illegal miners are actually working on their land.

Because to an extent, they’ve discovered there is something in their land, since an investor came and got consent from them. So they decided to go and start mining on the same land. So it is difficult for us to actually call them illegal miners.

Because the real title owner has actually deviated from what he was supposed to do. Of course, if he was working there, there wouldn’t have been an opportunity for them to come in. But that is not in any way saying that there are no illegal miners.

There are. And they are posing a serious challenge to both the state and federal government. Of course, we are losing serious revenue through illegal mining.

Like how much do the state lose to illegal mining?

I can’t tell for sure. Because we call them illegal, so how can I quantify what… Illegality. But to be honest with you, most of them, what they do, these illegal operators, is to move their materials in the midnight. So that they will not pay the haulage fee, the peanuts that the state government generates from the activities of the miners. And what we are doing now is, of course, we’ve informed all the operators, whether you are an artisan or whatever.

And don’t forget that during last administration, they actually formalized the activities of these small-scale miners who are majorly the illegal miners. The past administration designed it in a way that they should register under the state government that they are operating, which most of them did. But we discovered that away from the revenue that the government is supposed to be generating, the way they handle the environment, the way they handle their communities, is not what the government will condone.

And we are not saying you must come back and give us a design of how you want to mine. If you are not comfortable with it, we will stop you from mining. Because there are cases… As journalists, I know you may have visited so many places and I know to an extent you may not be very okay with what you saw.

But I can assure you that this ministry is working seriously to arrest those situations. Of course, because our people were not aware. While we were taking the pain to explain to them why this shouldn’t be there, most of these communities were attacking us.

Because they felt we were coming to deprive their children their means of livelihood. But to an extent, some of them are now understanding that these people they are protecting are actually their real enemies. And now that we are done with the content of the paper which I thought of, the next thing is to move to the next phase, which is enforcement.

And I can tell you, with God and if we are still here, the next phase of our activity is to start protecting our environment. Making sure you mine responsibly. We’ve been enforcing that on the legitimate miners.

But our problem has been the small-scale miners who are Ebonyians, who are our people. But whoever fails to do it the proper way, we have no other option than to show the person the way out. Thank you, Commissioner.