For decades, the story of Nigeria’s mining sector has been one of untapped potential, squandered opportunities, and silent suffering for the communities that host the country’s vast mineral wealth. In nearly every corner of Nigeria, from the gold-stained soils of Zamfara to the limestone hills of Kogi, host communities have borne the environmental, social, and human costs of extraction — while receiving almost nothing in return.
This year’s West African Mining Host Communities Indaba, holding in Abuja from 24 to 26 September 2025 under the auspices of Global Rights, an NGO that advocates for sustainable rights and sustainable development, was not another ritual of empty speeches and vague promises. It was a clarion call for urgent, sustained, and people-centred reform.
With the title, “Contextualising Green Mining Within Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC),” the fifth annual Indaba brought together voices from across the region—civil society advocates, government officials, lawmakers, and community leaders—united in their demand for a mining sector that delivers justice, equity, and prosperity for all, in which communities bearing the goods are seen as partners in the wealth derived from their land.
Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), was a most compelling voice at the forum’s opening day.
Our Minerals, Blessing or Curse?
Addressing participants in a keynote speech, Dr Orji did not mince words about the urgency of the moment.
He said: “We gather at a moment when Nigeria must decide whether its vast mineral wealth will be a blessing for generations or another story of squandered opportunities. The time for lamentation is over.”
His gave sobering statistics: despite possessing over 44 mineral types across 500 locations, Nigeria’s solid minerals sector contributes less than 1% to the country’s GDP. According to NEITI’s 2023 audit, the sector generated ₦401 billion, amounting to just 0.83% of national GDP—figures that highlight both the neglect of the sector and its enormous untapped potential.
Dr Orji was unequivocal in his call for a comprehensive reset of mining governance. He laid out a reform agenda that included a complete overhaul of Nigeria’s outdated mining laws, describing them as “relics of a different era.”
These laws, he argued, must be rewritten to protect the environment, empower communities, ensure transparency, and attract responsible investment. He proposed the creation of a National Minerals Development Council chaired at the highest political level, alongside introducing a real-time Mining Cadastre Portal to make licensing transparent and accessible to all citizens. Above all, he called for the legal embedding of FPIC—Free, Prior, and Informed Consent—as a tool to make host communities true partners in mining projects rather than afterthoughts.
NEITI’s roadmap also urged a shift from raw mineral exports to domestic value addition, tighter enforcement of environmental obligations using digital tools, and the formal recognition of community development funds.
“If Nigeria seizes this moment,” Dr Orji stated, “our minerals will not just power batteries and electric cars abroad; they will power prosperity, justice, and hope here at home.”
While the NEITI boss presented a policy framework for reform, the personal testimonies shared by civil society leaders revealed the painful human cost of the sector’s dysfunction.
Abiodun Baiyewu, Executive Director of Global Rights, delivered an emotionally charged speech that reminded everyone why the Indaba was conceptualised in the first place.
She recalled her first meeting in 2011 with Adamu Kotokorshi in Zamfara State, during the height of a gold mining-related lead poisoning crisis.
“We watched children die while politicians bickered over whose job it was to remediate the communities,” she said. “Zamfara’s children were the cost of gold mining—wealth that would never transform their lives or their state.”
Baiyewu’s speech highlighted more than a decade of frontline advocacy, from the oil-polluted creeks of the Niger Delta to the legal battles of Komta in Gombe, the water-deprived village of Awo in Kogi, and the ravaged communities of Ezza and Ivo in Ebonyi.
According to her, in Niger State’s Shikira, she met a mother who had lost four children to mining-related lead poisoning—a community now overrun by terrorists who control illegal mining operations.
Baiyewu speech resonates across most mining communities: across Nigeria and indeed much of West Africa, mining has left behind a trail of destruction, displacement, and despair.
“The only thing that divides mining host communities across Nigeria, West Africa, and the rest of Africa is the availability of a platform to jointly craft their own agenda,” Baiyewu said, adding that it was precisely why the Indaba was created. It has become a vital forum where communities can speak in one voice, shape the policies that affect them, and demand accountability from those who profit off their land.
Speakers from Ghana and Sierra Leone, and traditional rulers from Zamfara, Ebonyi and Ondo spoke of how mining has adversely affected the health and economy of inhabitants in their respective domains and called for solutions.
Baiyewu also raised a warning flag about the global race toward renewable energy and its implications for resource-rich countries like Nigeria.
She said that as nations rush to secure lithium, cobalt, bauxite, and other minerals essential for green technologies, there is a risk that the push for a cleaner world will replicate old patterns of exploitation.
“You cannot talk about a just energy transition without the people whose heritage is being traded under its guise,” she said. “FPIC ensures that communities are not passive victims of extraction but active participants.”
Her appeal was not just a cry for recognition—it was a call for inclusion, justice, and sustainability. “Let this gathering not only be a forum for dialogue but a catalyst for collective action—where communities stand at the centre, their consent honoured, their rights protected, and their futures safeguarded.”
“We Have To Address Human Cost Of Mining; Time For Voluntary CSR Over – Hon Gbefwi
Echoing this sentiment, Hon Jonathan Gbefwi, Chairman of the House Committee on Solid Minerals, represented by his aide, Mr Nandon Rimdan, acknowledged that the legislature has a critical role to play.
“For some time now, the narrative around mining has focused solely on economic output and foreign investment,” he said.
“We’ve talked about tonnes of ore and millions of dollars, but we’ve often failed to adequately address the human cost.”
He called for a new approach that sees host communities not as passive recipients of corporate charity but as legal stakeholders with enforceable rights.
To that end, Hon Gbefwi said his committee has advanced several key legislative initiatives. These include laws to guarantee land rights and ownership for indigenous communities, mandate FPIC at every stage of mining, and create a fair framework for benefit-sharing.
The Committee has also worked to tighten environmental accountability, provide accessible legal redress for affected communities, and promote local content within the mining value chain. Rimdan stressed that these reforms are not merely aspirational.
“The time for voluntary corporate social responsibility is over,” he declared. “We need mandatory legal frameworks that guarantee the rights of our people.”
The urgency is particularly acute given the rising interest in African minerals driven by the global energy transition. Without safeguards, host communities may again find themselves sacrificed for the profit of a few. But this time, civil society, government actors, and communities themselves are beginning to resist. As the Indaba demonstrated, there is growing consensus across the region that mining must be green, yes—but also just, inclusive, and transparent.
As the fifth Indaba, there is a palpable sense that a corner may have been turned. From NEITI’s data-backed reform strategy to Baiyewu’s moving advocacy, to the legislative efforts of the House Committee, all elements are converging toward a new mining future—one that prioritises people, protects the environment, and delivers real development.
Dr Orji’s closing words captured the spirit of the forum and its promise for the future: “Let us leave this Indaba with a shared resolve: no more lamentation, no more preparation without execution. The time is now—to reform, to legislate, to implement, and to deliver.”
The highlight of the opening day was unveiling the book Violent Earth: Mineral Governance and Endemic Violence in Nigeria, a report compiled by Global Rights, which underscores the interconnection between mineral extraction and heightened insecurity in the affected areas.
