Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake has given the chairmen of the Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO) in states a 90-day ultimatum to improve their performance or face severe sanctions from the federal government.
Dr Alake gave the marching orders while speaking at Monday’s 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of MIREMCO chairmen in Abuja.
In a statement by his special assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, the minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the agency’s current performance, emphasising that it is MIREMCO’s core responsibility to interface between subnationals, local communities, operators, and the federal government to minimise cases of conflict.
Alake told them: “The federal government is supposed to rely on your reports on the activities or inactivity of operators and whether they comply with environmental regulations and all other sundry regulations governing the sector. We are not impressed by the execution of that mandate, and we will not hesitate to wield the big stick if, after 90 days, the committee fails to turn a new leaf.”
Quoting the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA) 2007, Section 19, sub-section 3g, which makes it mandatory for MIREMCO to act as a liaison between the subnational authorities, the local governments, the communities, and the operators, Alake stressed that the committee had not effectively executed the provisions of the act.
He went on: “If MIREMCO had affected provisions of the act, the spate of interference that we witness by the subnational, in some instance, local governments shutting down mines, making policy pronouncements that are outrightly unconstitutional would have been minimal. It is the failure of this body that has given rise to states dabbling into areas that are beyond their constitutional purview. ”
Dr. Alake stressed the role of subnational authorities in MIREMCO’s operations and noted that state governments nominate the chairmen and five out of ten committee members to ensure their interests are already represented under the committee’s statutes.
The minister urged the chairmen to rally their members and improve their performance, warning that if they fail, the federal government would have no other option than to act appropriately to restore effective management of the nation’s mineral resources and its attendant environmental concerns.
Responding to issues raised by the MIREMCO chairman, Alake assured the committee of periodic engagements whilst also promising to push for improved funding for the agency in the 2025 fiscal year to bolster its capacity to fulfil its mandate effectively.
