No other ministerial appointment shocked Nigerians. On August 15, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu released the list of ministerial appointees assigning Oladele Alake, erstwhile Special Adviser, Information, Strategy & Special Duties to the newly separated Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. The naysayers, mostly political opponents, went to town. Their argument: Alake has spent over 40 of his professional life in journalism and would find it difficult to find his feet in the technical woods of solid minerals where geologists and mining engineers hold sway.
They were wrong. First, Alake’s forte isn’t just ferreting and disseminating information to audiences. His most critical asset, honed over four decades of engaging the public and private sectors, is strategy. This was the conclusion of the authors who x-rayed his profile when he clocked 60 eight years ago. In the book, The Writer as Strategist, the authors identified the minister’s infinitesimal capacity to develop sequences of activities to nip crises, douse conflagration or build counter-forces against imminent threats as the essence of his persona, and the core of his craft.
The ideological application of such a prodigious asset for progressive causes was witnessed by the whole nation when he held the hands of the opposition to the fire during the 2023 general elections. With the stories of corruption, mismanagement and lack of regulatory elan as the ills dogging the heels of the solid minerals sector, Mr President needed a man with integrity and strategic insight to clean up and position the sector.
Second, Nigeria had witnessed seasoned journalists who took such seemingly alien assignments and made good. The roll call: Lateef Jakande, Editor and later Managing Director of Nigerian Tribune newspapers, became the governor of Lagos State in 1979 and executed five cardinal programmes that delivered housing estates, free health and education and massive infrastructures. He later became the Minister of Housing that completed Gwarinpa, the largest housing estate in West Africa. To mention a few others: Olabisi Onabanjo, Olusegun Osoba and Christopher Kolade.
And truly, as soon as he was sworn in, the fallacy of the proposition, became more and more obvious. The Minister sat through presentations of every department, agency and unit, studied the handover notes and roadmaps of his predecessors and within one month declared a Seven Point Agenda as the strategy for positioning the Solid Minerals sector for domestic consolidation and international competitiveness.
Why a ministerial Agenda?
An agenda sets the content and direction of governance. The Renewed Hope Agenda, the manifesto of the ruling All Progressives Agenda, set general principles and programmes that the President planned to apply to meet the yearnings of the Nigerian people. By delegating the powers to manage the Solid Minerals Sector, the Presidency expects the Minister to drill down to deliverables.
The first component of the Seven Point Agenda is the formation of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, NSMC. Realising that attracting big investors is a major challenge of the sector, the SMSC is the face of the Nigerian Mining Sector in the global business space, the go-to company for transactions and deals to deepen the capital formation that will keep investors coming.
The Minister, through consultations, sought to avoid the pitfalls of the defunct Nigerian Mining Corporation in coming up with the structure by comparing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC with the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, company. Leaning towards the latter, he is proposing a NSMC with 25 percent shares held by the Federal Government of Nigeria, 25 percent by Nigerians through a public offer, and 50 percent by private corporate placement with the condition that no private placement exceeds 10 percent.
These are the fundamental principles that consultancy firms working on the formation of NSMC and in-house project committee are working on with the goal of delivering the corporation by fourth quarter this year.
Interestingly, the announcement of the structure has sent the investment sector into a swirl of speculations as firms take positions to get a share of what promises to be a cash cow in profits. The icing on the cake is the fact that the NSMC will take off with several juicy mineral assets reserved over the years and may be a holding company with mineral-based subsidiaries to harvest specialised expertise in exploration, mining and sales.
This leads to promotion of joint ventures. The establishment of the NSMC is expected to position Nigerian companies to invite and partner with foreign and local companies for joint venture agreements. According to the Minister, Nigeria is open for the business of mining and must lay the grounds for the ease of doing business in the sector. This requires strong regulatory enforcement to ensure a level playing field for all players in compliance with the law.
If the first is creating a buzz, the second component, the country-wide geological exploration of 10 key minerals, is generating tempting offers. The idea is simple. Today, the system for obtaining mining licence relies on the prospective miner to approach the agency in charge, the Mining Cadastral Office, of his or her intention to mine a particular place with evidence that the community has given him a letter of consent. He gets a reconnaissance permit or the three-year exploration licence to confirm his hunch that the mineral is there and is of commercial quantity. Then, if he is a Nigerian, he applies for a Small Scale Mining Licence or if a foreigner, a Mining Lease.
The Minister has reviewed this system and is convinced that, besides, being a waste of time and money for the investor, it puts the government at the curious disadvantage of relying on the prospective miner for geoscientific information. To de-risk investment and enable the government acquire the precise geological data, the Ministry proposed N70 billion to the National Assembly as the budget for the nationwide geological exploration. Investors would then buy the data to inform the acquisition of licences.
However, faced with other budgetary considerations, the National Assembly did not provide the funds, leaving the Ministry with no other option than to offer the opportunity for investment. In recent times, international geological exploration companies, such as GeoScan of Germany and Ecumene of United Kingdom are pitching to fund the exploration. This means, sooner than you think, the minister’s mission will be accomplished.
Securing the solid minerals sector manually and through technology is the third component. This includes the establishment of the Mining Marshals and introduction of satellite technology to monitor mining operations. The two boxes have been ticked. On March 20, the Minister formally inaugurated the Mining Marshals, drawn from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps,NSCDC following consultations with the Ministry of Interior. With 60 officers per unit per the Federal Capital Territory and each of the 36 states of the federation, the Mining Marshals took off with 2,220 units. About a month after, the NSCDC boosted the Marshals with 350 additional 350 officers. As more weapons and vehicles are supplied to energise the marshals, the enforcement of the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Act will get stronger.
Security technology is also being applied on a wide scale to monitor mining operations nationwide. With improvements in satellite and global positioning systems, the Ministry is working with experts to set up remote monitors that will track movement of minerals nationwide.
Reporting the fourth component, the international promotions of Nigeria’s solid minerals potentials to attract investment, and the relentless marketing of the sector across continents by the Minister and his team, would make you wonder where Dr. Alake sources his energy. International conferences are smart venues for marketing because they bring prospective investors under one roof. They save the country the cost of visiting prospects country by country and enable you to develop a network that you can continue to persuade to do business long after the conference has ended.
The Minister has put this intelligence to great use in the course of his first year in office. Beginning with the Africa DownUnder Conference in Perth, Australia in November, 2023, he has traversed London, Riyadh, Cape Town, Doha and other conference destinations marketing the Nigerian solid minerals sector to the world. (For more details, read Chinemerem Nancy Nwaka’s Investment Report).
The marketing did not start from those far-away cities. It began right from his office where he assembled a crack, highly responsive and vigilant crew comprising thorough- bred professionals as soon as he settled down. Tope Ajayi, Special Assistant to the President on Media, who also worked with Alake on the presidential campaign recruited most of the team comprising Twitter influential and blogger, Kemi Asekun as Special
Segun Tomori, until recently on the media team of former Minister of Youth & Sports Sunday Dare, as Special Assistant, Media; Emmanuel Osodi and Idrees Olanrewaju, photographer and videographer on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign, continue their specialty in the new dispensation. Later, Lara Owoeye-Wyse, formerly Special Assistant, Broadcasting to former Senate President Lawan, joined as Special Assistant, Broadcast.
When working with this team, Dr. Alake puts on his editorial garb and dons his cap as communications strategist. Events are meticulously curated to deliver the most effective impact. Take for instance, a courtesy visit. As soon as the visitor enters, he is treated to the establishment shots. The door is closed to enable both discuss in privacy. Afterwards, the door opens, the crew takes group pictures and does the interview.
Then begins the editorial framing. What should be the peg of the news? Which picture to use? The headline to craft? Is Tomori ready with the draft? Kehinde, (that’s me) have you edited it? The Honourable Minister signs off the copy after taking the final decisions on the deadline and the pictures. He decides when to embargo and release. In short, we are back in the newsroom!
In June, he broke new grounds, launching t w o r a d i o programmes and the Twitter Space. The first, Solid Minerals Update, to enlighten the
domestic audience on Radio Nigeria, on Thursdays; and Uncovering Hidden Gems, on Voice of Nigeria for the international audience, on Mondays and Saturdays. The debut on Twitter Space attracted over 300 participants and the shared version is gaining listeners in gallops.
This is a peek of how much the Minister puts into creating the marketing that has pushed the solid minerals sector into the consciousness of Nigerians and generating immense goodwill.
There has been some misrepresentation of the fifth component because it is actually two in one. The idea seeks to solve the problem posed to the sector by artisanal miners estimated to constitute 80 percent of the sector’s labour through a carrot and stick policy. Many of them grew up in lands rich in minerals where mining is secondary to farming. Through practice, they develop the sharp eyes to identify mineral veins and the skills to dig out minerals which they sell to live. In the absence of nationwide scientific geological data, they are the “experts” on the ground. Even educated researchers rely on their trained eyes to collect data.
However, their activities violate the law that compels mine. This is why they are referred to as illegal miners. Since the enactment of the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Act 2007, the government has made efforts to integrate them within the law. The law set up Artisanal Mining, as a department in the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to achieve this transition by encouraging them to form co- operatives. The Minister’s call on artisanal miners to form co-operatives seeks to intensify the efforts of the department. The threat to treat miners who fail to form co- operatives as illegal miners seeks to demonstrate the risk they run by failing to comply.
So far, the policy is working. While the ASM department recorded less than 40 new co-operatives between January and August, 2023, following the 60-day threat, the number from September 2023 to March 2024 rose by 152!
The sixth component of the Seven Point Agenda is Local
Value Addition through the establishment of processing centres and factories. According to the Minister, value addition is also critical to youth and women employment because by domesticating the transformation of raw minerals to Semi-Industrial commodities, employed youths and women can learn new skills and apply them for sustenance. Similarly, the value of exports will increase because the exports of processed minerals will attract higher foreign exchange.
Locally, the Minister has encouraged companies starting processing centres by fast tracking approvals and personally attending the turning of the sod. For instance, recently in Apo,
Federal Capital Territory, the minister laid the foundation of a lithium plant
A few weeks later, he was in Nasarawa state to witness the take-off of a multi- million naira lithium factory. Beyond his expectations, his efforts to canvass fellow ministers of mining, first in Riyadh and later, Cape Town brought a torrent of goodwill. In Riyadh, the ministers formed the African Minerals Strategic Group and elected him the pioneer chairman!
Protecting mining communities from exploitation by companies is the thrust of the seventh component. Although the law compels mining companies to sign a Community Development Agreement, CDA with the community before commencing mining, the Minister was shocked that fewer than 45 of licensees of Small Scale Mining Leases and Mining Leases had negotiated and signed CDAs with the communities where they were mining. The Minister had to read the riot act: failure to sign CDA will, thenceforth be a condition for revocation of licences.
Leadership is vision matched with action. There is no doubt that the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development under Dr. Oladele Alake is a compelling case study for public officials and academics to follow.
Source: ALAKE ON RESCUE MISSION, a publication of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, MoSMD.
