Nigerian miners have called on the federal government to support them financially in order to boost their activities and concomitantly revitalize the nation’s economy.
The chairman Miners Association of Nigeria Bauchi state chapter, Alhaji Musa Santuraki Pali, made the appeal in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Gombe.
He asserted that mining contributes to the economy more than farming saying excavation of minerals can be used in economic diversification and in complementing the revenues generated from oil as well as providing jobs to teeming citizens.
He lamented that the federal government gives farmers more priority than miners claiming that his members contribute towards the economic growth of the nation while farmers only provide foods to the nation.
However, Pali commended the federal government for allowing only the indigenes to engage into small scale mining in parts of the country.
The association chairman said Bauchi and Gombe states were endowed with abundant minerals including gypsum, coal, kaolin, uranium and lithium used in producing battery.
“Apart from the oil sector, there is no activity that helps the society and government economically other than mining. No development will be achieved without harnessing the mining sector.
For example, we have lithium which is used in producing batteries. That is why you see the white men in parts of the country looking for lithium.
“The mineral resources endowed in Bauchi and Gombe alone will suffice the entire African continent if properly harnessed. The locals know where they are but the problem is that they do not have the financial strength to excavate them. There is need for the government to give intervention to the local miners just like they give to farmers,” he said.
