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By Pius Mordi

A trending video featuring Senator Adams Oshiomhole lamenting the havoc wreaked on the economy by illegal solid mineral miners and the response by the federal government to the sabotage elicited resignation from Nigerians in apparent acknowledgement that nothing will change is another demonstration of lack of faith in the government to remedy the situation. But the bigger picture of the scenario was lost on many.

According to Oshiomhole, while the Federal Government unleashes its full arsenal on combating oil bunkering, a euphemism for oil theft, illegal miners get a pat on the back as their operatives are merely labelled unknown gunmen as the barons utilise even the machinery of government to carry out their nefarious activities. The former labour leader said the double standards deployed by Abuja has exposed the country to the ineffectiveness and shoddiness orchestrated by double standards.

Elsewhere, the director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola, lamented that despite the huge investments to curb attack by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, the imposition of war risk insurance premium on cargoes bound for the Nigerian ports has continued. In 2021, $195 million was spent to acquire boats, vehicles, aircraft and maritime domain awareness platforms to spearhead the country’s fight against piracy in the Gulf.

But according to TRT World, a Turkey- based agency that focuses on issues in West Asia, South Asia, Europe, and Africa, $500 million is spent annually to keep piracy at bay in the Gulf of Guinea. It estimates that financial sums lost through ransoms are a small share of the total costs suffered by African nations in the Gulf of Guinea which it labelled the “world’s maritime piracy hotspot.” In the past five years, NIMASA spearheaded a concerted attack on piracy in the Gulf in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy. The effort won global acknowledgement by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). But despite their efforts, ship owners have retained their war risk insurance premium on Nigeria.

In 2023, the International Bargaining Forum (IBF) delisted Nigeria from the countries designated as risky maritime nations following significant progress in anti-piracy war on Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea and the declaration of the country as piracy-free by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). So why has the international shipping community sustained its war risk insurance premium on Nigeria-bound cargoes? This is where Mobereola missed the big picture. Between 2020 and 2023, an estimated $620 million was paid on the surcharge on premium on Nigeria-bound vessels. Contrary to the stand by the maritime authorities in Nigeria, that the premiums which significantly elevate freight costs for imports and exports, are being artificially sustained by insurers, who are well aware of the improved security situation, there are other factors interconnected with piracy and security rating.

Back to Sen. Oshiomhole’s allegation of double standards in the way the federal government battles illegal mining in the northern part of the country. Unlike oil theft in the Niger Delta where the actual loses are fairly accurately determined due to the international connection, illegal mining of precious minerals in the north is devoid of monitoring by the federal government and independent agencies.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior made a rare inroad into the little known and little monitored sector where yet to be determined resources are stolen and exported by an exclusive class of the wealthy. “The ongoing illegal mining across the country is being carried out by retired generals, and we know them. They use helicopters to cart away gold, making billions of dollars, while the country suffers”, Oshiomhole calling on President Bola Tinubu to address the alleged illegal mining activities by the retired military generals.

The illegal mining is believed to be the oxygen for the intense deadly attacks on communities in the north. The attacks have taken the form of sectarian killings, including kidnap. Whole communities have had to abandon their homes and farms to become internally displaced persons elsewhere, exactly what the perpetrators of the crime wanted. The killings are some times given a religious colouration as with the case of the recent killing of Rev. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu in Kaduna. But the impact on Nigeria was lost on the authorities in the country. For the American embassy, it was nothing to be glossed over. “The U.S. Mission is distressed by the brutal and senseless killing of Rev. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu in Kaduna State, Nigeria. We strongly condemn this horrific act of violence. We extend our deepest condolences to the family, congregation, and community of Father,” the embassy stated in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and called on the federal government to bring the perpetrators to book. Of course, nothing will happen, nobody will be apprehended until another fresh high profile murder occurs.

The prevalence of such unresolved killings are part of the factors taken into consideration by the international business community in the security rating of countries beyond piracy or lack of it. Data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime revealed that a total of $800 million was paid to pirates in 2017 alone as ransom in exchange for seamen abducted from seized vessels. These are costs the ship owners ultimately recover from Nigeria, one way or the other.
Unfortunately, the response from the authorities seem like mere distractions routinely described as something not peculiar to Nigeria. The pain inflicted on the country and the cost on the people is yet to be evaluated by the government. While the woes from piracy, oil theft and maritime may be huge, that of illegal mining may even be more than what obtains in shipping.
Oshiomhole’s allegations did not come out of the blue. As chairman of the Senate committee on Interior, veteran labour leader and national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he certainly has access to privileged information. Unfortunately, what he said at the presentation of the Ministry of Solid Minerals is being treated as a political gimmick by the people he alleged are the main perpetrators.

If the government had dispassionately undertaken an examination on the price Nigerians pay as part of living, a state of emergency would have been declared on insecurity before now. As the current security system continues to prove inadequate in building a safe society, we continue to double down on the system, preferring to sink more money into the dead horse. Security or lack of it have profound effect on the economy, especially on the cost and standard of living.

Every new day, it becomes clear that the federal government which has the monopoly of managing all the security agencies is grossly incapable of doing so. After former president Muhammadu Buhari failed repeatedly to disperse his murderous kins throughout the country under Ruga and several other dubious initiatives, they found a way of doing so to make the forests and farms unsafe. The already manifesting food insecurity is one challenge Nigeria can deal with except the security architecture is rejigged.