The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde has called for the delisting of the mineral resource ownership and development from the exclusive list, through a review of the 1999 Constitution in a bid to grant States more economic control through restructuring.
The Governor disclosed this in a meeting with the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr, Uchechukwu Ogah, during the 56th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) in Ibadan on Tuesday.
“Mineral development and exploration are currently placed on the exclusive list of the Nigerian Constitution.
“This has retarded the development of the sector and eliminated direct state and local people’s participation,” Makinde said.
He added that the exclusive list means States have to wait for development from the Centre to maximise their natural resources and called for delisting of Mineral Resources from the exclusive list.
“We know what this means in real terms: the state and the people have to wait to get a share of their natural resources instead of being the ones to share them.
“Well, the good news is that recently, Zamfara State was allowed to mine and own its gold deposits. It signals that it is time to again push for resource control for all states. As a matter of fact and urgency, here in Oyo State, we call for the delisting of the mineral resource ownership and development from the exclusive list,” he added.
At the conference, the Governor added that Oyo State is looking towards utilising comparative advantage to diversify the state’s economy. He added that Oyo State also has a framework for its Mineral development which would attract FDI to the state.
“Oyo State is blessed. The diversification of our economy is also broken into three broad areas based on the comparative advantage that we have in Oyo State. We are looking at agriculture and agro-processing simply because Oyo State has a landmass of about 29,000square kilometres.
“Also, we believe that if we have to move away from oil, solid mineral development is an area that should assist us to wean us from just waiting for oil money to come from Abuja.”
“For the mining sector, we have a framework for the systematic development of our mineral potentials. It is designed to make our state a mining destination, attractive to local and foreign investors,” Makinde added.
What you should know
- Recall Nairametrics reported on December 2020, that Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State said that it’s time for Nigeria to begin the process of restructuring.
- He argued that in order for states not to suffer a tyranny of unfunded mandate, Nigeria should reduce the items of the exclusive list to Defence, National Security and Customs operations.
- The Governor of Sokoto State and Former House of Reps Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal stated that any plan to restructure Nigeria and the Constitution must pass through legal due process from the National Assembly.
