The deal looked like what Nigeria needs to tap into the enormous opportunities in the mining sector, fully harness and maximise its mineral resources for economic growth and prosperity. The deal’s language is compelling and optimistic; it includes comforting phrases of clean and profound statecraft. But beyond all this, there are pertinent questions that the statement did not answer
The Nigerian government has announced that it signed an investment deal with the United States to mine the West African country’s critical mineral resources.
The Investment agreement was signed on Wednesday at the Nigeria Mission House in New York, US, by Nigeria’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Dele Alake, and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
Alake announced the development in a statement, noting that the agreement would increase American investment in Nigeria’s mining sector.
Alake said the agreement is an important step in strengthening Nigeria-US cooperation on our mineral resources, valued at about $700 billion. The framework covers geological data and exploration, mineral development and processing, infrastructure, and technical capacity.
“Nigeria cannot remain a source of raw materials while others capture most of the value. We want more local processing, quality jobs, stronger skills and greater opportunities for Nigerian businesses.
In the coming months, we will turn this framework into projects, investments and real results for our people. We will identify viable projects and build partnerships that create value for Nigerians and our US partners,” he said
On the surface, the deal looked like what Nigeria needs to tap into the enormous opportunities in the mining sector, fully harness and maximise its mineral resources for economic growth and prosperity. The framing of the language of the deal is compelling and optimistic; it contains the comforting phrases of clean and profound statecraft. But beyond all this, there are pertinent questions that the statement did not answer; there are genuine concerns and reservations expressed by the public which the government has not addressed.
Late last year, when the issue of Christian genocide became a polemic and topical issue in the country after the United States designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern over the purported targeted killings of Christians in the country, many expressed that the sudden show of interest in the plight of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and northern states is not particularly out of altruism and concern for the plight of Christians in Nigeria, and evidence abounds to show that the US government’s concern about Nigeria’s deepening security crisis was a means to a nefarious and exploitative end that mainly benefits the US government.
These concerns are not out of place, and events that followed the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern showed that the whole furore was less about a safe and secure country for Nigerians, especially Christians, and more about access to and control of Nigeria’s resources. The actions and moves of Congressman Moore Riley, who was at the forefront of the Christian genocide narrative, reveal the real intent and objectives of the US government.
One of the conditions given by the US government to remove the CPC designation was for Nigeria to grant the United States unfettered access to the mineral resources on its land. In the months that followed, the US has engaged in activities on Nigeria’s soil that greatly undermine the sovereignty of the country. The US now has a military base in Nigeria, which is something that has never happened before in the country’s history. A US technology company, Palantir, has also set up a drone factory in Abuja and has secured a deal to protect a critical mining site in the country, and now huge swathes of resource-rich enclaves in Nigeria are being handed to the US. When the aforementioned occurrences are taken at face value, it will be extremely difficult to see the danger inherent in them for Nigeria.
As the rivalry between world powers for military and economic dominance intensifies, there is a scramble and search for key mineral resources needed for the production comsumer product and important military software and hardware. As Mother Nature would have it, Nigeria has many of these resources in abundance, and this is what the US now has its eyes on.
It is not exactly a difficult or tough bargaining for the US because they hold all the cards needed to force the hands of the Nigerian government into signing a mining agreement that looks great on paper but is appalling and destructive in practice. President Bola Tinubu is not exactly a well-loved and popular candidate who can win elections on the strength of his personality, disposition and performance; when you add this to his drug trafficking case, which he has been fighting tooth and nail to stop the case file from being made public by authorities in the United States, he becomes very vulnerable to foreign influences and blackmail. Also, many observers have opined that this worrisome deal and other past concessions made by the current Nigerian government are part of President Tinubu’s move to secure the backing of Washington for his re-election as he faces mounting and stiff opposition at home
The Tinubu government frame the mining investment as a huge win for Nigeria and fervently wants Nigerians to believe so, but the manner in which the whole arrangement came about, and America’s record and antecedents when it comes to the extraction of resources from countries in the Global South. It is also worth mentioning that all the government has revealed so far is that an agreement has been signed; the fine print and granular details of the agreement have not been made available to the public.
Last week, the Vice President of the United States revealed that his country is in Venezuela to steal Venezuela’s oil for the US and that the US has no plan to use the oil for the growth, benefit and prosperity of the South American country and its people after kidnapping its president, Nicholas Maduro. This is a cold and brutal truth about the US relationship with other countries, especially those in possession of important resources it needs and unfortunately Nigeria has now found itself ensnared in the imperialist trap of the US.
The Nigerian government wants the citizenry to believe that the deal it signed with the US for the extraction of minerals in Nigeria will bring growth and socioeconomic prosperity to the West African nation, but a careful and dispassionate look at similar pacts with other countries in the past negates the government’s grand and lofty projections. But in the fullness of time, the real goal and objectives of the deal will come to public knowledge, and the Nigerian people will know if those involved acted in the national interest or merely auctioned and sold off the nation’s resources for power and self-aggrandisement.
