By EricJames Ochigbo
Experts and environmental activists have raised fresh concerns over Nigeria’s worsening deforestation and extractive mining activities and their subsequent threat to human security, livelihoods and ecological sustainability.
They raised the alarm in Abuja on Tuesday, at the 3rd Nigeria Socioecological Alternatives Convergence (NSAC) with the theme, “Deforestation, Mining and the Crisis of Human Security in Nigeria.”
In his remarks, the Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) Dr Nnimmo Bassey, advised Nigeria to rethink its development model, warning that forests, rivers and communities were increasingly being sacrificed in pursuit of short-term economic gains.
He said that the call became even more urgent following the recent announcement by the Federal Government on the discovery of a world-class polymetic mineral province in Kaduna state.
Bassey said that the announcement has been greeted with much excitement as the province is said to contain platinum groups of metals, gold, nickel, copper, lithium and rare earth elements.
He said that records show that forests in Nigeria are disappearing at the rates of 250,000 – 300,000 hectares annually while primary forests currently cover only 1.3 per cent of the nation’s landmass.
The director said that it is believed that at the present rate of deforestation, there may be no forests in Nigeria by the year 2052.
According to him, ecological crises are fundamentally crises of governance and values, insisting that environmental degradation can only be reversed by ending destructive human activities.
“Forest ecosystems that once protected biodiversity, regulated rainfall, and sustained livelihoods are steadily shrinking under the pressures of commercial logging, agricultural expansion, infrastructure projects and mining.
“Every forest loss weakens our ecological resilience and increases our vulnerability to effects of climate change.
“We are witnessing major investments in lithium exploration, processing plants and mineral beneficiation as Nigeria seeks to position herself within the global drive for so-called critical minerals.
“Overall, there appears to be growing optimism that solid minerals will diversify the economy and create new opportunities for national development.
“Meanwhile, we are yet to have serious conversations on what sort of development we desire. Have we learned the lessons of almost seven decades of oil extraction in the Niger Delta,” he said.
Also speaking, the Emir of Nasarawa, Alh. Ibrahim Jibril said that insecurity is one of the most pressing challenges confronting the country.
He said that across Nigeria, the relentless exploitation of natural resources is
accelerating environmental degradation and deepening human insecurity.
Jibril said that forests that had sustained livelihoods and preserved biodiversity for generations are disappearing at an alarming rate.
According to him, the poorly regulated and often illegal mining activities are displacing communities, contaminating rivers and farmlands, destroying livelihoods, and intensifying conflicts over land and natural resources.
“As a traditional ruler from Nasarawa which is a state richly endowed with mineral resources and vast ecological assets such as lithium, tantalite, rare earths, etc.
“I have witnessed both the opportunities and the challenges associated with natural resource exploitation such as deforestation, charcoal production, bush burning, etc.
“While these resources hold immense potential for economic growth and national development, they must be managed responsibly, transparently, and in ways that protect both the environment and the dignity of host communities,” he said.
A former member of the House of Representatives, Dr Abdul Oroh said that Nigeria is fast becoming like Congo which is in constant crisis as a result of its mineral resources.
According to him, more coal and other minerals are currently being mined in Nigeria than it was in the 1960s and are sold in the international market.
He said that these minerals are freely being transported through roads which traveling citizens are often kidnapped for ransom.
The former lawmaker said that areas gazetted as forest reserves no longer exist and there are no attempts to revive them through afforestation or reforestation.
Oroh said that Nigerians must, through democratic processes, take controls and management of its natural minerals.
He recommended that communities should be equipped with modern weapons to protect themselves against sponsored bandits and illegal miners.
On his part, King Bubaraye Dakolo of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Bayelsa said that those occupying government or leadership positions must know their onions.
He said that educating people in high and low places is very paramount when it came to protection of the environment as there is high level of ignorance.
Dakolo said that what affects the south affects the north and vice visa saying that there is need for joint effort to protect the environment.
In a keynote address, Prof. Omolade Adunbi said that critical minerals may be the new oil, but they do not have to become the new curse.
“Nigeria faces a choice to become a place from which the world extracts raw materials while value is added elsewhere, a place where forests fall, rivers are polluted, communities are displaced, and resistance is silenced so that others may call their economies green.
“Nigeria can also be a country that enters the energy transition with memory, discipline, sovereignty, justice, and imagination.
“A country that says yes, the world must decarbonise, but not by dispossessing the poor; yes, critical minerals matter, but communities matter more; yes, development is necessary, but development without consent is domination; yes, we will build the future, but not by destroying the people who must live in it.
“The real transition, therefore, is not simply from oil to minerals. It is from extraction to restoration, from sacrifice zones to living territories, from secrecy to accountability, from elite capture to community power, from resource curse to ecological democracy.
“The energy transition must be more than a change in technology, it must be an act of repair: repair of forests, rivers, land, livelihoods, institutions, and trust.
“If the transition does not repair, it will repeat, and if it repeats, the minerals of the future will carry the ghosts of the oil age.
“Let us choose consent before extraction, restoration before profit, and a future that centers forests, watersheds, women, youth, indigenous peoples, and forest-dependent communities,” he said.
