Tinubu and the Quest to Secure Nigeria’s Natural Resources

Writes that the inter-ministerial committee recently constituted by President Bola Tinubu to secure the nation’s natural resources has swung into action with series of meetings and consultations already held with critical stakeholders.

For many decades, Nigeria’s move towards rapid development and economic growth was impaired by poor revenue despite the country’s abundant natural resources. The country’s unsavoury economic situation was also compounded by the almost crippling foreign exchange crisis of the last eight years, accentuated by insufficient supply of dollars into the economy.

With demand outstripping supply, the fiscal and monetary authorities have been battling to control the declining value of the naira against the US dollars, which has now hit an all-time low of over N1400 to $1 at the parallel market. The local currency, at the official window, oscillates against dollar between N800 and N950 depending on demand per time.

While the supply of US dollars has been grossly inadequate, largely because of our import dependency, the increasing demand for the greenback to settle tangible and intangible obligations by businesses; individuals, and the criminal speculation by some Nigerians, continue to exert pressure on the demand side.

The volatility of the foreign exchange market has been a source of serious concern for the current managers of the economy who are being assailed by the citizens to rein in the downward spiral.

Amid this unpalatable situation, questions have been asked why a country like Nigeria endowed with vast natural resources in solid minerals, marine economy, forestry, agriculture, and oil, among others cannot generate enough foreign exchange.

The country is constantly in financial and economic quagmire. In giving answers to the nagging question, many have attributed the decade-long dollar crisis to the monolithic nature of the Nigerian economy that depends, mainly, on oil and gas export to earn foreign exchange.

There are those who also posited that the government should put in place deliberate policy actions to diversify the economy. The economic diversification argument may be tenuous because the available datasets show that Nigeria’s economy is highly diversified.

In real terms, the non-oil sector driven by telecommunication, financial services (Banking and Insurance), agriculture, trade, construction, real estate and service industry contributed 94.52% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in Q3 of year 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In comparison, the oil and gas sector contributed the balance of 5.48%.

While it is apparent from NBS figures that Nigeria’s economy is well diversified, the source of foreign exchange earnings remains yet undiversified. Over 80% of the foreign exchange that comes into the country is from crude oil export, whereas billions of dollars worth of exports in solid minerals, seafood and other forest resources are taken out of the country without record or direct benefit to the Federation Account.

To address the problem of natural resources dissipation, illegal exploitation and sabotage of our national economy, President Tinubu at the last meeting of the Federal Executive Council, set up an inter-ministerial committee to draw up plans to maximise the economic potential of the country’s natural resources and secure them from those pillaging them. Members of the committee are Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, Defence Minister, Abubakar Badaru, and Environment Minister, Balarabe Abass Lawal. Others are Marine and Blue Economy Minister, Adegboyega Oyetola, Interior Minister, Tunji Olubunmi-Ojo, and Minister of State, Police Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim.

At the moment, Nigeria can boast of solid minerals deposits worth $700 billion according to estimates from the Ministry of Solid Minerals, while the Africa Blue Economy Alliance (ABEA), using information from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), puts the value of the country’s unexplored blue economy at over $300billion.

Rather than these resources drawing massive foreign exchange earnings into the country, foreigners are carting them away in cahoots with their local enablers through illegal economic activities.

The inter-ministerial committee set up to stem this colossal economic wastage met a forthnight ago to develop framework that will enable our country harness the full benefits of its natural resources. The presidential committee which is chaired by Dele Alake also had an expanded second meeting with Service Chiefs last Thursday, January 25, 2024.

Giving highlights of the expanded meeting, Alake emphasized that the committee’s engagement with the Service Chiefs across all security outfits and Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) was a follow-up to the maiden meeting of the Ministers to get inputs for developing a workable strategy to effectively secure Nigeria’s natural resources, in line with the Presidential mandate.

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