'Harnessing mineral resources key to security' - Masari

Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, has attributed the persistent spate of insecurity in most parts of the country to the failure to fully exploit the solid mineral resources with which the nation is abundantly blessed.

Masari, in a statement, lamented that some youths found a calling in crime due to unemployment. The governor’s spokesperson, Abdu Labaran, who issued the statement to newsmen yesterday, explained that his principal said that when he visited the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, in Abuja.

According to Masari, one way to reduce challenges brought about by insecurity in the country is to harness the solid minerals sector, which would open opportunities for youths to become fully engaged.
“The governor also asserted that the agitations for resource control and restructuring would be out of fashion when the nation’s other resources, such as solid minerals, are fully exploited and harnessed.

“Governor Masari said that many youths have found a calling in criminality because of the failure to develop other sectors of the economy to keep them fully engaged in viable undertakings,” he stated.

According to the governor, every state in the nation is sufficiently endowed with one mineral or another, which, if fully utilised, will sufficiently engage the youth and make criminal activities unnecessary.

While soliciting the cooperation of the Mines and Steel Development Ministry in assisting Katsina to harness its huge deposit of various solid minerals, the governor told the minister that his administration had provided all the necessary ground to make Katsina an investor-friendly state.
In his response, the minister reminded state governments that mineral resources, wherever they might be found in the country, were for the Federal Government to exploit on behalf of Nigerians, adding that it was wrong for any state to claim ownership of mineral resources found within its jurisdiction.

He also cautioned state governments against enacting legislation vis-à-vis the mining of mineral resources, in addition to the ones enacted by the Federal Government.

There must be unified legislation across the board from the Federal Government down to the local council. Olamilekan also charged state governors to provide the enabling environment for investors to find the ease and confidence to do business in their state, even as he implored investors to always carry the host community along in whatever business they conduct.