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Despite the reported
out break of Lead poisoning associated with the activities
of some Miners in 5 villages of Zamfara State. The Minister
Mines and Steel Development, Ach. Musa Mohammed Sada has
assured the Embassy of the United State of America that with
the on-going baseline survey being carried out a lasting
break through is under way to forestall future occurrence of
such cases from any part of the country.
Arc. Sada made this
known while charting with the Deputy Chief Mission to the
US-Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Dundas C. McCullough when he paid
a courtesy call on the Minister in his Office.
Briefing the Envoy on
the involvement of his Ministry in arresting the Lead
Poisoning situation, the Minister revealed that with the
prompt measures taken by the Federal Government in
constituting an inter-Ministerial Committee comprising
Ministries of Mines & Steel Development, Health &
Environment which among other things prompted the immediate
suspension of all further mining activities in the affected
areas, inspection visits to all the affected zones,
awareness creation of all the communities on the dangers
inherent in illegal mining, meeting with various mining
communities and traditional rulers as well as
identification and discovery of what caused the lead
poisoning and the immediate ways to control it, were all
part of Federal Government’s efforts through the
inter-Ministerial Committee headed by him to rid the
affected areas of the Lead Poisoning, which had since
brought the situation under control.
The Minster stressed
that Mining as a veritable venture started about hundred
years ago when authorities at that time had Mining Police
Officers and who ensured that human activity of any kind
were not only regulated but corresponded with Rules and
Regulations to collectively realize a set of aims.
Therefore, he said,
there was need for the involvement of security agents for
the good of the people, the immediate communities and the
larger Nigerian society to enable the country‘s march
towards the diversification of its economy a reality in the
area of full scale development of the solid mineral
resources.
Arc. Sada also
informed that the Ministry was in active collaboration
through its Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) with
the US-Geological Survey Agency in areas such as capacity
building and other Non-Governmental Organizations like the
World Health Organization (WHO) on Lead Poisoning as well as
the World Bank through its Sustainable Management of Mineral
Resources Project(SMMPR) catering for the needs of all
mining communities and facilitating most activities of the
ministry like awareness creation through out the
federation.
He said, “ our fears
as expressed in some quarters as to whether the scourge
might likely spread to some areas, what we did was to have
a working group headed by the Director of Artisanal and
Small Scale Mining in the Ministry and we are very
determined to bring in a kind of sanity in what these miners
do even if what we are witnessing today was as a result of
the rush for gold ”.
On coal for power
generation, the Minister pointed out that “in as much as Mr.
President has vowed to ensure that the perennial power
problem becomes the thing of the past, my ministry is ready
to explore all avenues of coal power generation with all
investors so that the industrialization drive of Nigeria
being one of the top 20 developed economies by 2020 remains
far above rhetorics as we are committed to it”.
Also contributing, the
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engineer Goni Musa
Sheikh explained that the incidence of Lead Poisoning
occurred t due to the poor processing techniques and
handling.
Engr. Goni revealed
further that the processes used by the local miners in
treating the ores that contain Lead, Zinc and Gold was
unconventional which resulted to the waste from the
processing of the Ores dumped within residences where
Children ingest in the course of their playing.
He further said that
majority of the villagers were affected due to lack of
compliance with the set standard as the urge for gold made
them not to be mindful of the environmental and health
implications of crushing these Solid Minerals at their
houses using cooking implements.
The Permanent
Secretary who has been deployed to the Ministry of
Petroleum Resources by the Latest Circular from the Office
of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation had also
intimated the US-Envoy on some of the Ministry’s commitments
and areas of collaboration with some coal power exploration
companies on coal for power generation.
He further disclosed
that based on research carried out on feasibilities of coal
power exploration and studies on water, environmental and
other infrastructures supplied to them by the Ministry the
companies had indicated interest in generating 250-300
mega-watts of electricity in the country.
On the World Bank
assisted Sustainable Management of Minerals Resources
Project (SMMRP), the Project Co-ordinator, Mr. Linus Adie
informed that the Project had made a tremendous achievement
on public awareness creation on the solid mineral resources
in the country.
He added that the
Project was able to provide quite a number of publications
on areas of needs of the Ministry particularly on the need
for clusters for over all development of Coal.
Speaking Earlier, the
Deputy Chief Mission to the Embassy of the United States of
America in Nigeria, Mr.Dundas C. McCullough congratulated
the Minister on his appointment and praised the Minister for
the wonderful job he has been doing particularly in the area
of bringing the Lead Poisoning incidence under control.
Mr. McCullough said
though his visit was to explore possible ways of
co-operation with the Ministry and the Embassy on areas of
US-trade development and opportunity to basically partner
with the Ministry on Coal for power generation in the
Country and find out the level of involvement of the
Ministry in tackling the recent incidence of Lead Poisoning
in some localities in Zamfara State.
He then thanked the
Minister for giving him the opportunity to visit him despite
his tight schedules and assured him of the co-operation of
US-Embassy at all times.
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