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When Generals Become Predators

By Rotimi Fasan

Senator Adams Oshiomole’s frank allegation that retired military generals are behind the many cases of illegal mining in the country came across to many Nigerians as earth-shaking. But in fact, the senator said nothing new. He only repeated what others in the know have said and what many in government, including some of our present and past rulers, presidents, governors and national assembly members, are aware of while lacking the courage to move against the criminals among us. That Oshiomole could as a senator make such remark is, perhaps, what makes it appear as an unprecedented act of courage. Until now, not many could bring themselves to say these things openly. 

The likes of the former militia leader, Asari Dokubo, that have spoken in similar vein were viewed as interested fringe elements, far too immersed in the situation they came out to criticise. They were apparently considered to be outlaw figures, having once taken up arms against the Nigerian state. Otherwise, Asari Dokubo sometime in October 2024 accused senior military officers of complicity in bunkering in the Niger-Delta. This was during a brief interaction he had with the press at Aso Villa after his visit to President Bola Tinubu. Dokubo ought to know and at least twice before that visit, he had had reasons to accuse the military of stealing crude oil in the Niger-Delta. This was in June 2024 and June 2023. 

In the words of Dokubo, ‘’The military is at the centre of oil theft and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 per cent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military. The Army and the Navy especially’’. He went on to add an important detail about the modus operandi of the VIP criminals that link their illicit activities in the Niger-Delta to the activities of illegal miners in the north-west and other parts of the country: ‘’It’s not Ijaw, Ikwerre, or Ogoni boys that are involved in bunkering. It’s the people in the military that pay them to carry out bunkering, they collect their own and give the boys peanuts’’. Like the herders, bandits and kidnappers, the miners of the north look too poor for their kind of trade. Who are their godparents? 

What Senator Adams Oshiomole did not add to his claim, a detail that highlights even more the complicity of military personnel (retired or not) among other respected institutions and groups in the general atmosphere of insecurity in the country, is the connection between the activities of the illegal miners and the widespread incidents of banditry, kidnapping and armed violence involving sectarian groups like Boko Haram across vast swathes of communities in the north-west, through the north-central to the north-east. Of late, there have been reports of these outlaw groups trying to make their way into parts of Osun and Oyo in the south-west where they engage in illegal mining, banditry and kidnapping. 

In these latest incidents as were those before now, the crowned heads, so-called royal fathers and other wealthy business people in the affected communities, in short, the elite, have a lot to answer for. In the last one and a half decades, precisely since 2010, illegal miners started establishing themselves in several states of the north-west- Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina and parts of the north-central states like Niger, Kaduna, Kogi, Plateau and Nasarawa. With the joint effort of criminal foreigners from China and other parts of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso), the illegal miners and their highly-connected sponsors in the military and the political class participate in the mining and smuggling of solid minerals including silver, copper, tin and especially, gold, using women couriers.

Mining ought to be one of the country’s highest revenue earners but according to one study, the component of Nigeria’s GDP that came from mining was not more than 0.26 per cent in 2019. Between 2016 and 2018 alone, the country incurred a loss of about N353 billion (US$900 million) to illegal artisanal and corporate miners. The artisanal miners are often the paid agents of the corporate miners who operate with sophisticated equipment. They provide arms to criminal groups for the protection of their loot that is often freighted away by aircraft (helicopters). 

Sometimes the armed groups are attracted to the mining sites (frequently in remote locations) where they dispossess the miners of their illegal possession. At other times, the armed groups are encouraged to turn their weapons on the local communities that are sacked and displaced in order to turn their communities to mining sites. This is the explanation behind the many cases of banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling that are accompanied with violent destruction of entire communities.

We must have the courage to condemn these criminal activities. The Chinese that are mostly behind illegal mining and the Nigerian big men and big women who sponsor them know that in China their acts of economic sabotage will fetch them nothing less than the capital punishment. But in Nigeria where foreigners are provided cover to commit high crimes against the state, it’s the likes of Oshiomole that are being intimidated with demands to retract their allegation. Yet, Oshiomole spoke in collective terms without mentioning a single name. 

Nigerians stand with Adams Oshiomole on this. If they are not involved in illegal mining, Generals who feel tarnished by his allegation should bear with us all and be consoled by the fact that they are not involved in such criminalities. To the extent that they can vouch only for themselves, they should be content to hold their peace and leave the illegal miners among them to worry about being defamed. Meanwhile, Nigerians expect the government to muster the courage to act on the information at its disposal. Not in the manner of President Muhammadu Buhari, who upon receiving intelligence about the sponsors of terrorism from the UAE government sat on it and did nothing.

The NNPC has announced the discovery of 55 illegal refineries and 29 illegal pipelines in the Niger-Delta. It was right under the nose of those who blithely proclaim the end of Nigeria (Nigeria is finished! they scream) that we saw nearly 900 fraudsters, Nigerian youths, employed by foreigners such as the ubiquitous Chinese to defraud foreigners (Americans, Canadians and Europeans) right in a 7-storey building in the corporate environment of Victoria Island. Since the arrests were made in December, 2024, we’ve heard pretty little about that incident. 

Many Nigerians praise Donald Trump’s attempts to make America great again not minding instances of criminalisation of foreigners. But we don’t think twice about inviting criminals into our homes. We Nigerians are among the most unpatriotic people on earth. Otherwise, our ruling elite won’t take the lead in bankrolling acts of economic sabotage against Nigeria. 

Rotimi Fasan is a columnist with Vanguard

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