Nigeria remains a country blessed with mineral resources including gold, iron, lead, zinc, barites, gypsum, kaolin, marble, coal, titanium, tungsten, lithium, cobalt, natural gas, petroleum resources etc. According to research, “Nigeria is endowed with more than 44 mineral resources deposited in over 500 locations across the 36 states of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory.” – TrendsNAfrica. 

Unfortunately, the blessings that we should be celebrating as the source of our progress are the very things that threaten to tear us apart due to a lack of proper management and the struggle for resource control. How can one even imagine that a country as ours with a rich mineral sector, continues to fail in meeting the public expectation of accelerated economic growth and job creation for its teeming population?

Just recently, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State raised alarm over why Zamfara State should not be allowed to control and manage its gold deposits as it is has been widely reported. 

Not only is it wrong for the state to control its resources in a country where the law explicitly states that resource control is the sole prerogative of the Federal Government – (“The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) section 44 (3) and item 39 Schedule II of the Exclusive Legislative List vests the control and management of the natural resources and hydrocarbon operations on the federal government for the common good and benefit of the citizens”) –  it is also unfair to other states and regions in the country, especially the Niger Delta which produces significant amounts of petroleum resources under the control of the Federal Government and not the states themselves.

It is not even news that these oil-producing states are among the least developed in the country, if the high leveled environmental degradation going on there, from the early 80s till date is anything to go by. More than ever, this constitutes one of the major reasons for the generation-old argument of resource control which has now assumed the form of conversations on restructuring as a panacea to the region and country’s problems.

Civilisation and progress is not far from innovation and evolution. Nigeria needs to return to a more federal structure with appropriate devolution of powers and considerable autonomy, that will be of benefit than this current system that continues to fail us.

Do we perhaps need a sorcerer to show us that there is something wrong with the way we run government in 2020 or else, why should the same resource control clause not apply to all states/geo-political zones?

Only a few can argue that the regional system of government didn’t only work for Nigeria in the past (inspite of the ills of ethnic loyalty it breeded), but accelerated the country’s development through healthy competition among the different geo-political zones.

With this unpatriotic reluctance we’ve seen on the part of this administration to restructure the country or at least, set the process in motion; we may be in for continued disenchantment and economic stagnation. In addition, should the Federal Government continue to look away while Zamfara controls its gold resources yet other regions are prevented from doing the same, a bigger problem that will further threaten the peaceful co-existence of Nigerians may just be brewing.

The right thing for government to do while it makes up its mind on ‘when’ to start the process for restructuring, would be to promote the rule of law, equity and genuine unity among Nigerians.

Uroupa Kiakubu