Re: Mining Cadastre Office, a threat to national security

BY TAFA BAKORI

I came across an opinion article penned by Biliyaminur Surajo titled, “Mining Cadastre Office, A Threat to National Security”, which by all intents and purposes was crafted to not only diminish the great job the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) is doing but also to cast aspersion on the foremost cadastral agency and bring it to disrepute. As a mining stakeholder for over 15 years, I am an insider conversant with the inner workings of MCO, and I’ve been following with keen interest ongoing reforms by the present administration to reform and reposition the mining sector. It is therefore beggars’ belief that anyone can seek to denigrate such efforts with patently outlandish claims as encapsulated in the jaundiced article.

The writer claims that the MCO “has become synonymous with corruption, bribery, and unprofessionalism” without any shred of evidence but rather put together a contraption of conjectures to justify his warped conclusion. Reading through the piece, I saw a desperate attempt by the writer to allude to outrightly preposterous postulations by “faceless industry stakeholders”, more like an attempt to “give a dog a bad name, in order to hang it”.

He cited a crisis of overlapping titles, alleging that “for a fee, fake community consent documents can be obtained through MCO channels”. This is not only far from the truth, but a blatant lie. With my vast knowledge of the mining sector, I can assert that the allegations are totally baseless and unfounded because MCO does not get involved in obtaining land owner/occupier consent, which is the responsibility of the applicant after the successful submission of the application, and the receipt of their priority number.

If Surajo knows those purportedly claiming to be MCO agents or officers carrying out such nefarious activities, he should bring them forward or submit details of such unscrupulous individuals to the security agencies for necessary action. The onus of proof falls on those who allege. One would have expected some “naming and shaming” at the least.

Claiming that public complaints on overlapping titles fell on “deaf ears” is also disingenuous to anyone conversant with happenings in the sector. While it is a known fact that during the process of migrating the cadastral system from computerised to the online electronic mining cadastre plus (eMC+), some of the valid titles couldn’t be moved due to some systemic issues, several efforts have been made to correct the anomaly. I am aware that the rectification took some time, which might be responsible for instances of overlapping titles that were hitherto seen on the eMC+ platform.

During that period of glitch, it was reported that applicants saw free mining areas on the platform which already had valid owners before the migration, and these caused a few incidents of overlapping titles. From my investigations, it was gathered that a standing committee has since been at work resolving the issues amicably, and it is pertinent that those who are facing similar challenges reach out to the agency. I have it on good authority that the cases that have been brought to the attention of the agency have been resolved till date. It is also pertinent to note that the MCO has never lost a single case in court, which implies that the agency is guided at all times by extant provisions of the law and the statutes guiding the operations of the agency.

The writer also erroneously alleged that “beyond official fees, industry sources report a pervasive culture of additional payments to individual MCO officers”. From my experience over the years, this is likely a case of itinerant fake consultants posturing as MCO staff. An instance revealed by the grapevine is a case of a suspect presently cooling his heels in the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Garki, Abuja, for impersonating the special technical assistant (STA) to the DG, Madaki Joseph. The suspect, one Shehu Bokane, operating from his base in Niger state, allegedly duped his victims of several millions of naira. This is just one instance, and there could be many more at large. What anyone privy to such malfeasance should do is to report the culprits to the authorities instead of tarring an entire agency with the brush of corruption based on false premises or spurious allegations.

The writer also described that the Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification Project (MINDIVER), funded by the World Bank and designed to prevent duplication of titles, as a failure. While the eMC+ system faced initial hitches, the system has largely digitised the application processes, as all mineral title applications are now submitted exclusively through the system. Like the DG MCO, Engr. Obadiah Nkom said at some fora, “it’s an entirely online platform that offers transparency, efficiency, and real-time access.” Feedback from industry stakeholders backs this assertion.

From an informed perspective, the initial glitches that affected the migration of the cadastral system to the eMC+ platform might have been averted if the MCO technical staff had some input in the building of the electronic system. That was not the case as I learnt the agency only made inputs and modifications after the system, funded by MINDIVER, was delivered.

I was privileged to attend the recently held African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS) in Abuja, graced by some African ministers of mining and energy, amongst other global and continental mining players. The robust engagements I saw, the Ministerial roundtable convened by the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) and chaired by the solid minerals development minister, Dele Alake, is a sharp contrast to the picture of purported “wasted foreign trips to mining conferences” painted by the writer. It was also recently widely reported that some Nigerian mining professionals went on a capacity-building training at Murdoch University in Australia. If that doesn’t represent the fruits of Nigeria’s proactive engagement with the global mining community, I wonder what it is.

While there might be a need for improvement in some areas, like any other human endeavour, it smacks of utter mischief for the writer to paint a gloomy picture of the operations of MCO and by extension, the mining sector. For the first time in our nation’s recent history, the mining sector is experiencing a resurgence on account of the renewed focus of the Tinubu administration in developing solid minerals alongside the tenacious passion of Minister Alake in carrying on with reforms.

It is quite ludicrous that the writer will attempt to describe an agency that is renowned across the African continent as leading a very efficient cadastral system as a threat to national security. Unlike the bogus conclusion of the imaginary stakeholder, “the future of Nigeria’s solid minerals sector—and potentially the nation’s economic diversification” is bright and on course. No hatchet job or sponsored machinations of those frustrated by laudable efforts to reposition the mining sector must be allowed to stand or mislead the public. All Nigerians and responsible stakeholders should join hands with the government to take our mining industry to greater heights.

Bakori, a mining stakeholder, writes from Niger state.