Re: After Sokoto discovery, gold has no hiding place

The above newspaper headline caption that contains the story authored by the Daily Trust Newspaper Sokoto State correspondence, Rakiya A. Muhammed in the papers’ Saturday, January 14, edition is curiously very interesting, to say the least.

It is curiously very interesting for a number of reasons. But, the first reason has to do with the true fact of the matter or issue reported by the Newspaper; which is the discovery of gold, coal and other listed solid mineral resources in Sokoto State.

Furthermore, the story mentioned that Chinese company was hired by the Sokoto

State Government to undertake geological studies as to the commercial viability and feasibility of those resources. It came up with positive results or findings in weeks; not months or years! This is fantastically disingenuous to put it politely!

For those without the foreknowledge of geology and geophysical studies and what it takes to make pronouncement on the quantum of any given mineral resource buried in the bowel of the earth crust the story may be believable.

But for those who are trained earth resources scientists, such pronouncements are nothing but fictitious and unless presented with hard variable facts and evidences.

Secondly, the knowledge of the existence of those mineral resources mentioned in the newspaper story is not new. However, the way it was reported by the author of the report is as if the discovery is a recent one.

If accepted as presented, I can only say that it is tantamount to “reinventing the wheel”. The reason is not farfetched; the story of minerals discovery in the Sokoto region has a very long history; spanning from pre-colonial to colonial and modern times.

If we go down the history lane; and just considering the post-colonial or national independence era alone, it could be recalled that the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto was instrumental in incorporating the pioneer Cement production company in the north. For example, he incorporated the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Limited (CCNN LTD) Sokoto in 1962. The company started production of cement in 1967.

Therefore, to achieve that feat alone, there must have been scientific geological feasibility studies conducted in all ramifications in order to establish the grade, commercial quantities and viability of the project in the first place.

This means that since that time, the presence of high grade limestone, gypsum and other minerals have been known in the area and elsewhere in the north and Nigeria as a whole.

As a scholar of earth/geosciences for more than 3 decades, I am aware of the historical and contemporary geological information of Nigeria (even during my elementary and secondary schools days of those old good times)!!!

Therefore, the geological knowledge about the mineral rocks formation of the Sokoto basin (tin, colombite, nickel etc) predated Nigeria’s independence and contemporary search for rock mineralogy in the Sokoto basin and the entire country.

Hence, to come in 2017 to start telling new stories of the pioneering of the discovery of those mineral resources that are several decades known to the Nigerian authorities and the general public is disingenuous, to say the least.

Contemporary updating of previous knowledge database of those mineral resources in the Sokoto and other regions of the country have been going on continuously and systematically by the Federal Geological Surveys Department (now known as Geological Surveys Agency of Nigeria) and the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.

Thus, let the truth be always told when dealing with reporting this type of issue that has very high significant national and international economic attention.

For example, not long ago, the media was a washed with breaking news about commercial discovery of crude oil in Sokoto State; to date, neither the Sokoto State Government that broke the story in the first place, nor the federal government authorities with institutional responsibilities on such matters have come up with any verifiable or concrete evidence to present to the public.

And, today, once again, the public is been bamboozled with another round of mystical story of discovery of gold, coal etc.

Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko Snr, Sokoto.