By: Leadership news paper

Communities affected by mining activities across West Africa call for their consent to be sought before minerals are exploited in their regions.

Traditional rulers, community leaders, and rights advocates make this demand at the opening of the 5th West African Mining Host Communities Indaba, which the rights and accountability group Global Rights organises.

They call for transparency and accountability in the region’s extractive industries, warning that the surge in global demand for West Africa’s lithium, cobalt, bauxite, and other so-called “green minerals” must not come at the expense of repeating past injustices.

In her opening address, Abiodun Baiyewu, Executive Director of Global Rights, recalls the tragic deaths of children from lead poisoning in Zamfara State’s mining communities. “Zamfara’s children were the cost of gold mining,” she says. “We watched them die while politicians bickered.”

She highlights ongoing crises in Kogi, Gombe, Ebonyi, Osun, and other regions, where communities bear the brunt of environmental degradation and displacement, even as mineral wealth fills the coffers of corporations and political elites.

“The names of the communities may differ, but the challenges remain the same,” Baiyewu states, pointing to decades of poisoned rivers, lost livelihoods, and devastated ecosystems across Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

This year’s Indaba, with the theme “The Intersection of Green Mining and the Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC),” places community agency at the heart of the clean energy debate. Participants across West Africa call for host communities to be recognised not as passive recipients of mining’s fallout but as equal stakeholders in resource extraction and benefit distribution decisions.

“The promise of a greener world must not come at the expense of the people whose heritage is being traded under the guise of a just energy transition,” Baiyewu warns. Without FPIC, she cautions, the global shift to renewables risks becoming another chapter in a long history of exploitation.

In a keynote address, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), stresses the urgent need to transform Nigeria’s solid minerals sector. Despite Nigeria’s vast mineral wealth—44 distinct mineral types across over 500 locations—the industry contributes less than 1% to the nation’s GDP, highlighting significant underperformance.

“For decades, we have lamented… Today, the time for lamentation is over,” Dr Orji declares, calling for decisive action to curb lost revenues, smuggling, illegal mining, environmental degradation, and neglect of host communities.

He emphasises aligning Nigeria’s mining sector with global green mining trends and embedding FPIC to make host communities “equal partners, not afterthoughts.”

Dr Orji further argues that Nigeria’s mining laws are outdated and must be rewritten to reflect 21st-century realities—empowering communities, protecting the environment, enforcing transparency, and attracting investment. He recommends passing a new Solid Minerals Reform Act within 12 months.

Hon. Gaza Jonathan Gbefwi, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals, emphasises that mining must prioritise people over profit. He describes FPIC as a fundamental human right and the foundation of sustainable mining, insisting that host communities must be active partners in every mining phase—from exploration to closure.

“The time for voluntary corporate social responsibility is over,” he declares firmly. “We need mandatory legal frameworks that guarantee the rights of our people.”

A highlight of the event is the unveiling of Violent Earth: Mineral Governance and Endemic Violence in Nigeria, a book prepared by Global Rights that explores the link between mineral prospecting and rising insecurity in host communities.