Hon. Adeyemi Abidemi Minority Whip KGHA 2011-2015
Abuja.
Apart for Democratic Republic of Congo DRC I don’t know of any other community that has been looted and ravaged of her natural resources like Kogi State. The whole world is free picking in Kogi State.
Inside our bush and our forest, you will find Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, West African citizens, Europeans, Americans and all, they are busy doing the damage!There are about Twenty (20) Known commercially viable minerals in Kogi State alone with a minimum of two in every local government. We have Coal, Dolomite, Feldspar, Iron ore, Tar, Limestone, Bauxite, Gold, Lithi
um and others. Ankpa alone can supply the Whole of West Africa with coal electricity for over 400 years.
Our lime stone is so enormous that we can have three different Dangote factories producing optimally at 15millon tonnes annually for 100 years. Recently Yagba West and Yagba East have been identified as potential spot for lithium which is one of the most expensive and most sort after mineral resource in the world.
The Mineral resources economy of Kogi State is worth $1 trillion yet in the midst of water we are still thirsty. Poverty has ravished the state. When you get into our forest you will shed tears that our once boisterous soil, woods and farm land has been ecologically degraded, the once green forest host to games and wonderful species is becoming a desert, our soil has been eroded, streams and rivers have dried up, you ask yourself at what price? Nothing but loss. The same land that has fed our ancestors and sustain their way of life for thousands of years and hundreds of generations is been looted and desecrated into nothingness in less than a decade what a shame.
One will ask is there anything been remitted to the state by the miners at all?What Oil is to Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta is what mineral resources are to Kogi State unfortunately the state has gotten little or nothing to show for it, based on her mineral resources Kogi State is far richer than Rivers yet see where we are.
Recently the Cement manufacturers declare N750Bn profit, a large chunk of this comes from Kogi State – so far there is no evidence that there is anything in it for Kogi State.
Personally, I think the people of Kogi State is not putting in enough fight to sustain the ecology and the environment and am sorry to say we are already paying the price for it already agricultural output in the state is dropping, income per head is low and the rural urban migration is alarming more than ever.
We must apply a sense of urgency to take broad actions against illegal mining and ecological abuse going on.First and foremost, Kogi State need an Impact Assessment Report (IAR) the illegal mining spread across the state how well and far has it affected the state in terms of economy, ecology and physical structuring, it is when we have been able to put this together that the true measure of impact can be monitored and evaluated.
How much of our soil has been degraded, how much of our forest has been destroyed, how much of our people has been displaced and how much we have lost economically.
Everybody is mining in Kogi State, the Chinese, The Indians, Europeans, Africans, Indigenes of different state except for Kogi State government, who says that active mining cannot increase revenue or create jobs for some of our teeming youths.
Create a Data base for all miners in the state Create a community action Programme at the local government level to protect ecology which all miners in the state must key into.
Invest in technology to track and monitor both legal and illegal miners especially in the bush.
It is time we annex all the opportunities that exist in our natural resources economy to solve our problems and create fresh opportunities, my sincere prayer is that the discipline and the vision to do so will not elude us.
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