The Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, has emphasised the need for Nigeria to adopt smarter methods of harnessing its vast mineral and material resources for national development.
Speaking on the Public Conscience show, hosted by PRIMORG in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, Onyekpere underscored the untapped potential within Nigeria’s natural endowments and the failure to leverage them for the common good.
According to him, “There is no part of Nigeria, in fact, no part of the world, that God, the ultimate Creator, has not blessed with resources. But the problem is that most of us, like in the Bible, hide the little talent we are given, while eyeing what was given to another person.”
Onyekpere lamented the lack of proper accountability in Nigeria’s solid mineral sector, pointing out that valuable resources, particularly gold, are being extracted without contributing meaningfully to national development. He highlighted reports from top-level journalists linking ongoing insurgency and violence in certain regions to the struggle for control over mineral-rich lands.
“Everybody has seen that there are so many solid minerals in parts of Nigeria, including gold, and there is documentation showing that even the insurgency and killings in that part of the country may be related to the control of lands for mining activities,” he said. “And they’re not accounting for it at the centre.”
Beyond minerals, Onyekpere drew attention to Nigeria’s underutilised agricultural potential, particularly in states like Niger, which possesses vast arable land and access to major dams for irrigation.
“Niger State alone is double the size of the entire Southeast,” he explained. “They are not like the far arid states; they have water, they have land—what else are you waiting for to do agriculture? You’ve got everything.”
He stressed that with strategic investments in agriculture, the state could not only feed the entire country but also become a major exporter of meat and milk, generating revenue between N6 billion and N10 billion annually.
“In essence, it’s not about not having resources—it’s about not tapping into your resources for the common good,” Onyekpere concluded.
His remarks come amid growing calls for the Nigerian government to strengthen policies that promote transparency in the mining sector and ensure that the country’s mineral wealth benefits all citizens rather than a select few. As debates on economic diversification intensify, experts continue to advocate for a well-structured framework that maximises Nigeria’s vast natural potential while addressing the underlying governance challenges hindering its full exploitation.
