Nigeria needs to cash in on the fact that the world’s last generation of professional miners will soon be all retired

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Nigerians always bemoan the fact that their leaders lack vision but we have to ask ourselves if that is surprising. Someone who assumes office because they are well connected or because they have been a loyal political lackey is not going to suddenly develop vision because they have been sworn-in as governor. What you do not have, you cannot give

(2) Last week, we heard that Bisi Akande’s son has been nominated to be the attorney-general of Osun State. Now, it may be that the young man is good but alas, if he is not good, he is not suddenly going to start performing miracles in office. Because of who his dad is, Governor Oyetola will not be able to sack him if he performs badly. This type of patronage is typical of how appointments are got in Nigeria, so expecting the system to produce visionaries is asking for a bit too much in my opinion

(3) As a people, are we actually politically mature enough to see developments elsewhere in the world and act accordingly? After World War Two, the US, Argentina and Australia acted swiftly, mopping up the best German scientists, offering them citizenship and granting them huge budgets to continue their work. Nigeria simply has not learnt from this because if we did, we would have a structure in place to poach the best brains from elsewhere as we search for that elusive technology transfer that we need if we are to industrialise

(4) Last week, Germany, an economy built on coal, announced that it will shut down all 84 of its coal-fired power plants over the next 19 years to meet its international commitments in the fight against climate change. Now, Germany has some of the most experienced and sophisticated coal miners on earth who will now be made redundant as their mines shit too. Nigeria should act fast and try to snap them up

(5) If you examine German coal extraction techniques, you will be gobsmacked at how high tech they are. Nigeria is planning to step up the extraction of solid minerals as part of her economic diversification programme to end this mad dependence on crude oil. Now is thus the time to move. Grant maybe the first 500 German miners citizenship with a mandate to get the Jos tin mine producing commercial quantities

(6) Coal plants account for 40% of Germany’s electricity, itself a reduction from recent years when coal dominated power production. This means that about $45bn will be spent mitigating the pain of the planned closures in coal regions. I am sure Chancellor Angela Merkel would welcome an offer from Nigeria helping her government reduce this outlay by taking some of the miners

(7) Over 40m tonnes of talc deposits have been identified in Niger, Osun, Kogi, Ogun and Kaduna states, while there are over 3bn tonnes of iron ore deposits in Kogi, Enugu and Niger States as well as the Federal Capital Territory. We have an estimated 10m tonnes of lead/zinc veins are spread over eight states of Nigeria but alas, we have no skilled miners. Germany’s recent decision to close its coal mines offers us a way out

(8) Africa as a continent has the largest mineral industries in the world but alas, our mining and extraction techniques remain primitive, labour-intensive and low tech. We desperately need an injection of skills and experience to improve things. I put to you all that the presence of skilled German miners in the Nigerian solid minerals industry will automatically attract investors

(9) Olamilekan Adegbite, our current minister of mines and steel development should be on a plane to Germany as we speak. He should be looking to seal the most ambitious mining deal Africa has ever seen, involving an unprecedented transfer of technology. Neighbouring nations can later be added to the pact as the programme expands

(10) I have repeatedly said that to get out of our current economic rut, we must be prepared to think the unthinkable. You simply do not get 10% GDP growth by doing things as normal. Organic growth will not get you more than a 5% increase so we must be prepared to defy conventional wisdom and delve into uncharted territory. With Nigeria set to become the world’s third most populous nation by 2050, we fail to do this at our peril!