TITLE:
Mineral Resource Extractive Activities in Nigeria: Communities Also Matter!
AUTHORS:
Ali I. Naibbi, Murtala Chindo
KEYWORDS:
Mineral, Mining, Communities, Stakeholders, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.8 No.9,
September
30,
2020
ABSTRACT: Poor management of land resources creates environmental problems such as land degradation, soil erosion and pollution, as well as serious social and economic tensions. Mineral extraction, production, refining and distribution have immediate impact on the environments and their host communities. Nigeria being an extractive economy with numerous cases of defiance by the host communities on the mining operating companies, a number of ways for advancing dealings with communities can be drawn to inform broader community dialogue in the extractive economy of Nigeria and countries with similar situations. This paper used information from secondary sources to demonstrate the importance of accommodating host communities as stakeholders. The paper establishes the various roles played by mining stakeholders and how their involvements have changed overtime in terms of scale. Options were drawn for improving the current state of Nigerian mining communities and suggestions were made on avoiding future host community conflict (typically existing in the oil region of the country). The paper recommends that the recognition of communities as stakeholders is crucial in developing Nigeria’s non-oil sector.