In 2012, Michael L. Ross published a book entitled: THE OIL CURSE: HOW PETROLEUM WEALTH SHAPES THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONS. The book turned out to be a landmark. It made waves and it elicited rave reviews and comments. The book generated more than casual interest because of the painful paradox it aptly captured in the oil, and by extension, the extractive eco-system. THE OIL CURSE argued that oil wealth creates less economic growth than it ought to; that it creates more jobs for men than women; that it creates more challenges for the poor than the affluent; that oil companies drill more in poor nations thereby spreading the curse; and that “good geology often leads to bad governance”. Additionally, countries flush with petroleum dollars are hardly democratic. They are usually less stable economically. And they are prone to frequent upheavals and civil wars. A cursory look at the countries blessed with petroleum, from Saudi Arabia to Venezuela justifies Ross’s arguments. By the same token, the same incubus that afflicts the petroleum sector appears to be the case with Africa’s mineral-rich countries. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the most blessed with solid minerals on planet earth, is a basket case. Niger Republic, in spite of its endowment with the highest grade of uranium, and now petroleum, is merely struggling to survive. Until now, it lived on aid, niggardly dolled out by donor countries. Nigeria, another intriguing case, is said to be blessed with 44 solid minerals across its 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Its major minerals are: oil, gas, tin, columbite, tantalite, gold, coal, limestone, iron ore, kaolin, barite, bitumen and lately, lithium in Nasarawa and Kaduna states. In the past two years, the mineral sector has contributed significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to previous years. In 2026, the mineral sector, as at March, had contributed 1.8 per cent to GDP, all thanks to localised processing investments and regional value addition strategies. Part of this dramatic growth is related to limestone, which accounted for nearly 69 per cent of total mineral production. With companies such as Romolus Mining scaling up their gold and lithium portfolio investments to $150 million and other domestic beneficiation plants, including the $600 million plant in Nasarawa State and another $200 million in the FCT, the solid mineral sector is surely going to get a shot in the arm. Its contribution to GDP is also expected to increase, by leaps, in the coming years. Matters are also helped by the government’s resolve to subscribe to the high-minded control of these minerals by way of local processing and refining as being canvassed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). This is, incidentally, in tandem with the Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso models. Even before the advocacy of mineral control by the AfDB, Zimbabwe, which has significant lithium deposits, and Burkina Faso, which has gold aplenty, have insisted that their endowments will not merely be extracted, in raw form, and shipped abroad. Instead, they would have to be processed in-country, thereby creating jobs, adding value to the minerals and transferring technical know-how to their compatriots. By so doing, Burkina Faso, in the past three years, has raked in a whopping $18 million from gold. In the first six months of 2026, it has made over $6 million. A tidy sum, by whatever account.a It is salutary that the Nigerian government has set up the MINES MARSHALS, an elite unit from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to guard our mines. This has helped to mitigate, even if it has not completely solved the criminality being perpetrated at Nigeria’s mining sites, particularly, in Zamfara, Plateau, Kaduna and Niger states. In spite of these modest gains, the solid mineral sector remains fragile and in great peril. And in spite of some of the investments and measures taken, aforementioned, they may not, after all, lead to a narrative that has a happy ending. Consider: Some of the mineral bearing states are entering into Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with foreign entities in clear contravention of Section 44(3) of the Constitution which vests the federal government the management of these minerals through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. In Zamfara State, where gold is being extracted by big time politicians and deep-pockets, there is no clear picture as to how much is being processed and how much is going to the public treasury. This is in spite of the fact that gold bars were once presented, with fanfare, at the presidency as coming from that state. In the same Zamfara State, proxies of these deep pockets maim and kill each other in order to take over prolific mine fields. The same thing is occurring in Niger and Kaduna states, thereby fueling and adding to the insurgency in the three states. The same criminality afflicts the mines on the
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