Komu: Where the ground has 'open wounds'

Written by Dipo Fashina
Friday, November 5, 2010

[The hole shown here is more than 20 ft deep, and the digging has been going on for more than four years] Mining is a common practice the world over, but it seems to do more harm than good in Nigeria. Dipo Fashina reports one of such cases.



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Nigeria is a country blessed with both natural and human resources. This is evident in the country's membership of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The country is also a major exporter of some agricultural products, a testament to the productive nature of the land and the people.

It is, however, fast becoming the norm that, whenever a natural resource is discovered in an area in Nigeria, the people living there are usually the worse for it. Apart from the damage that is usually done to their environment and, by extension, their sources of livelihood, as a result of the extraction of the resource from the ground, they also rarely benefit directly from the exercise.

The Niger Delta amnesty programme, initiated by the government of late Musa Yar'Adua, was what eventually brought the uprising in the region under control after years of armed struggle. The same situation applies to communities in the oil producing states in the south-west of the country.

Some communities in Oke-Ogun in Oyo State also happen to fall in this cadre of people that have natural resources that they do not benefit from. It is no longer news that some of the best precious stones in the world today were extracted from this area. And, like communities in the oil producing states in Nigeria, they also continue to live on whatever they can make from farming which is the major source of livelihood for them.

Two villages, Igbojaiye and Komu, have played hosts to miners who came to their communities to mine for precious stones. Unfortunately for them, they do not seem to be better off for all the mining of precious stones that had taken place and is still going on in their communities.

Nigerian Tribune, on a fact-finding mission, went to the two communities to investigate the situation. The first village that was visited was Igbojaiye, and because the traditional ruler of the village was not around, his representatives, Chief sobaloju of Igbojaiye and the chairman of the community, Mr Aborode, who spoke in his stead, suggested that visiting the neighbouring village of Komu would yield better result. They didn't offer any useful information as they claimed not to have the authority to do so.

The journey from there to of Komu took a harrowing 45 minutes on a motorcycle. On arrival at the palace of the paramount ruler of the village, the Oniro of Komu, Oba Johnson Oyebamiji Oyedokun, he fielded questions posed by the Nigerian Tribune.

According to him, mining activities had been on in the community for almost 15 years. He said that when the miners came to their village, they welcomed them with open arms because they were happy to see people coming to join them, a good omen for commercial activities in the area.

He, however, said that, aside from not benefitting from the mining that was going on in their community, the activities of the miners were also making life more difficult for the people. He said: "These people go about digging holes that they do not bother to fill back. Some of these holes are so big that it would take a miracle for a person or livestock to survive the fall. And we have hunters going into these areas to hunt at night."

He further said that the community had tried to get the miners to contribute to the development of the community. Even the local government was said to have tried to make them do more in the form of community social responsibility, but failed. The defense of the mining companies had always been that they were only accountable to the Federal Government as mining fell under the exclusive list.

The Vice Chairman, Itesiwaju Local Government, where the two villages fall, Hon. Bamimore Olasiji, who explained that the miners were contributing to the development of the community, however, suggested that they needed the companies mining in the area to do more for them. Asked why the people didn't go over to the mining site to get jobs, he explained that, due to the nature of the job, digging, and the uncertainty that surrounds it, the people would rather stick to their farming and hunting.

He lamented the inability of the local government to directly benefit from the mining activities in the area. He said, "what we want is that the Federal Government should make it possible for the local government to benefit directly from the miners."

A visit to the mining site confirmed some of the fears of the people of the community. The over one hour journey to the mining site, referred to as "bush" by the people, is highly hazardous and long. There is the constant fear of armed bandits attacking those passing through the place.

On arrival, the Nigerian Tribune was able to get visual evidence of the holes in the ground that the people of the community complained of. Some were, indeed, treacherous as they could be more than 20 ft deep, while others, although shallow, were still capable of causing bodily harm to anyone who falls inside. Some of the workers there, most of whom were northerners, said that sometimes, they could dig for years and find nothing. A particular group said they had been digging for five years, and they were yet to come across any precious stones.

One of the miners explained that some of them lose their lives when the stones that are piled at the mouth of the holes give way and bury them under.

After going about for several minutes to inspect the place, the reporter and the guide finally came across some staff of one of the mining companies who were slightly hostile.

The spokesman for the group, who identified himself as an engineer, Mr Adeshola Olubunmi, interrogated the Nigerian Tribune reporter, asking how he got to enter the site without permission and collected his camera to see if he had taken any shots of their activities in the area.

After he had satisfied his curiosity, he explained that they were cautious of allowing people on the site because they did not want anyone to go about the place unsupervised to prevent theft of precious stones found or having an accident on the site.

When he was asked about the holes that had been dug, some of which were already filled with rain water, he said, "we cannot fill the holes back until we are done with our mining in the area. It would only amount to a waste of resources if we do that. But, you can rest assured that we will do that once we are through here." He suggested that their office in Ibadan would be a better place to visit for more information.

On arrival at the office of AHMU International Mining Co. Ltd and AZUGA Mining Co. Ltd. in Bodija area of Ibadan, a hostile receptionist made it impossible to get an audience with the chief executive of the company who could have shed more light on the company's position on the matter.

Damn! That mining hole is so, so gaping. Anyone with bathophobia dare not peep.

You fall into a hole like that and you'll die. That is terrible. The natural resources of the land belong to the people of that territory, not the federal gov't. It makes me angry that miners would go there, extract their resources, cause them harm and then claim that they owe them nothing because the resources belong to the federal gov't. Someone needs to bring trouble on the head of these miners. They need to fill the holes they dig and split the revenue from any resources produced 50/50.

Either do that, or get the F out.

DapoBear:

The natural resources of the land belong to the people of that territory, not the federal gov't.

And the oil in Niger Delta belongs to who?

To the people of the Delta. Sure as hell doesn't belong to me or my people. God didn't put oil in Ekiti state; why is oil money going to my state? He gave us other resources.

Anyway, it isn't as if the Yoruba are entirely w/o oil, we have some blocks in our land, as well as oil offshore. But the lion's share of the oil in this country is found in the Delta, and belongs solely to them.

DapoBear:

To the people of the Delta. Sure as hell doesn't belong to me or my people. God didn't put oil in Ekiti state; why is oil money going to my state? He gave us other resources.

Anyway, it isn't as if the Yoruba are entirely w/o oil, we have some blocks in our land, as well as oil offshore. But the lion's share of the oil in this country is found in the Delta, and belongs solely to them.

Good to hear that. You and I are about the only Yorubas who believe that oil money should go the the communities that own the wells in the first instance. Kudos.

I've always thought oil makes countries weak, rather than strong. You cannot build a nation extracting resources from the ground. It can supplement a country, but cannot be the foundation.

Who knows, I suspect I'd be more selfish if I actually believed that oil money could make Yorubaland strong. But I don't, most oil nations suck.

That's one of the fallacies of OBJ administration, and the theory that every mineral anywhere belongs to Hausa people federal government. These so-called mining companies will devastate the area, creat very dangerous hole, and when they're tired, simply go home to their own secured and safe communities.
I say the same thing I said about crude oil: let the people who own these lands be given the primary ownership of any mineral found under their turf---that's called natural justice, and it's right.