There comes a moment when a nation must either confront its decay or perish beneath it. For Nigeria, that moment has arrived; buried not in the oil wells of the Niger Delta but in the untapped mineral wealth beneath our feet. President Bola Tinubu has built his political legacy on the rhetoric of reform and renewal. Now is the moment to prove it. Just as he once restructured Lagos’s finances and expanded its tax base, he must now modernize Nigeria’s extractive governance. That means confronting vested interests, dismantling the patronage networks that feed off the sector, and replacing them with systems of transparency, accountability, and innovation. Tinubu must also integrate the mining agenda into his broader economic diversification and energy transition strategy. With global investors pivoting toward green minerals, Nigeria can position itself as a key supplier in the global clean-energy supply chain; but only if we move fast, with coherence and credibility. The tools exist. NEITI has provided the blueprint. What remains is political will; the resolve to act not for applause but for posterity. The extractive industry is Nigeria’s next frontier; or its next failure. Tinubu must choose which it will be.
For decades, Nigeria has been a country that digs but never develops. We sit atop vast deposits of lithium, gold, tin, limestone, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths; the very minerals that are powering the world’s green energy revolution; yet our mining sector contributes less than one percent to GDP. According to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), solid minerals yielded just ₦401.87 billion in 2023, a pitiful 0.83% of GDP. This is not underperformance; it is national negligence.
While other nations have built wealth from their soil, we have built syndicates. Our mining fields are infested with smugglers, warlords, and shadow contractors, operating under the watch of weak laws, absent oversight, and a state too distracted or complicit to care. The result is a sector hemorrhaging value, littered with environmental scars and communities left in penury.
Nigeria is a nation sleeping on its future. Across Africa, nations with fewer resources have taken charge of their extractive destiny. Botswana turned diamonds into development. Ghana turned gold into jobs. Zambia turned copper into currency. But Nigeria, a supposed “giant,” has turned its minerals into misery, because greed rules where governance should. As the world races toward clean energy, our lithium and cobalt reserves are the new oil. Yet, unless President Tinubu acts with urgency, Nigeria will once again arrive late to history, watching others monetize what we mismanage.
NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, could not have put it more clearly: “The time for lamentation is over. If we fail to act boldly and immediately, others will transform their mineral wealth into prosperity while Nigeria watches.” He is right. Lamentation will not light the future. Leadership will.
The blueprint is ready; what is missing is courage. NEITI has laid out a reform agenda that demands immediate action: pass a new Solid Minerals Reform Act within 12 months, to replace the archaic 2007 law that protects inefficiency and patronage. In addition, establish a National Minerals Development Council chaired by the President; not another dormant bureaucracy, but a war-room for reform. Also, create a real-time digital mining cadaster portal, to end the opaque, paper-based licensing system that breeds corruption.
Besides, enshrine Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) into law, so that host communities become true partners, not victims. Finally, expand and empower the Solid Minerals Development Fund, to directly build roads, schools, and hospitals in mining regions. These are not technocratic adjustments; they are the foundations of economic sovereignty. The reform of Nigeria’s extractive industries must be treated with the same urgency and scale as banking consolidation or fuel subsidy removal. Anything less is cosmetic.
Let us be blunt: the extractive sector has become a playground for powerful interests who profit from opacity and disorder. Illegal mining now fuels banditry. Smuggling syndicates drain billions from state coffers. Host communities are poisoned and dispossessed, their lands stripped, their futures stolen.
This is not just economic malpractice; it is moral failure. Every day reform is delayed; Nigeria loses revenue, jobs, and legitimacy. The poor pay the price, the corrupt reap the profit, and the nation remains hostage to mediocrity. President Tinubu has often invoked “renewed hope.” But hope without reform is delusion. If Tinubu’s administration cannot fix the rot in the extractive sector; a sector so rich in potential yet so ruined by greed; then talk of diversification is a hollow slogan.
Mr. President, this is your test of statesmanship. The extractive industry is not just another ministry; it is the lifeblood of a future beyond oil. Reform it, and you will ignite a new industrial revolution. Ignore it, and you will preside over another squandered generation. The choice is stark. Nigeria can either mine its minerals or be mined by corruption. The NEITI roadmap is on your desk. The minerals are beneath your feet. The world is watching. The youth of Nigeria – hungry, jobless, and impatient – are waiting. History does not remember those who hesitated when duty called. It remembers those who acted; those who had the courage to cut through complacency and restore faith in a nation’s possibilities.
Mr. President, the time to act is now. Reform the extractive industry with vision, with transparency, with justice. Turn our buried wealth into national renewal. The minerals of the earth are silent witnesses. They will one day testify whether this administration lifted a nation or buried it deeper in dust. Reforming the extractive industry is not about bureaucratic tinkering; it is about national survival. The minerals buried in our soil are the currency of the future. They can fund our schools, light our homes, and build our roads, or they can fund the greed of smugglers and the corruption of a few. President Tinubu must decide. History will not forgive another squandered opportunity. The question is no longer whether we can reform; it is whether we will. If Tinubu wants to leave a legacy beyond rhetoric, let it begin with the comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s extractive industries, anchored on transparency, community development, and sustainable growth. The clock is ticking. The minerals are waiting. The nation is watching.
