The Nigerian managing director of Plembeck Emirates Limited, a Global Renewable Energy Company, Germany and Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Abdulsalam Abdulkarim Zaura, has said the main problem retarding Nigeria’s economic development is the failure to understand that there are a lot of resources in the country other than oil.
Zaura who is also the chief executive officer of Brainscom Limited said the solid minerals sector holds potential to economic prosperity of Nigeria even more than oil if a conducive environment is created for both local and foreign investors.
The business tycoon who stated these in an interview with journalists in Abuja, said as at the time he ventured into mining in 2004 there were no security issues until politics took over the sector, saying only government intervention can save the situation.
“I can tell you that far back in the year 2003/2004 we do mining and the mining we did was not gold mining, we are into tantalite and tourmaline mining.
This is something we go as far as Niger and Zamfara, by that time, there was no violence, no kidnapping, nothing, you can even travel there alone. In the mid night, we take products from there and we pass to Jos (Plateau State) for testing and after testing, we ship them to Germany or Belgium where it gets tested and we get our money.
“I can categorically tell you that in my own opinion, it is my own believe that what brought insecurity in those areas has to do with politics. These are areas that are full of potentials, let me tell you, in those days, you can go in there and mine, even if you are alone, nobody will attack you. Nobody will come for you.
“But with time, people started discovering that there are hidden resources in Nigeria, go to Niger, go to Zamfara; that Zamfara you see, people have been mining there, you see Chinese there, a lot of people were coming there, I had partners from Milan Italy, we explored a lot of resources in Zamfara State.
“The resources are no longer going to be important, nobody will be there; this is my own opinion, we can as well call it economical, when people see that there is economic activity going on in a place and they think they can go after those people and get money, it happens. But the insecurity there, I do not think it is natural, it is political.
“The way to address insecurity is to let in the hands of government; the resources lying there belong to the government, it does not belong to individuals, government needs to derive revenue from those resources.
“If government is to derive revenue from those resources, it is the full responsibility of government to deploy security in order to protect the revenue, the people, investment, in order to attract more investors to come into mining. These are simple logics.
“The only problem we have in Nigeria is that, we fail or we refuse to understand that we have a lot of resources not only oil. We are solely dependent on oil, there are lots of resources that will equally give us a large some of income if we diversify into them,” he said.
Zaura called on the federal government to open a gateway where investors will come and invest more in solid minerals, adding that before doing that, it should focus more and give more attention to solid mineral exploitation or exploration.
“Before that is done, we have spoken about security and insecurity, are those areas where the mineral deposits are secured? Are investors comfortable and feel secured to come and invest, go to those areas and do mining and to export the resource? Those are the parameters that government should look at, I am sure that if that is done, we will see the difference,” he said.
