Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, says the proposed six-month suspension of mining activities across northern Nigeria is essential to curb criminality, profile operators, and restore order in areas plagued by insecurity.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Monday, Yahaya said insecurity in the region has been fuelled by multiple factors, including criminal infiltration into mining sites, religious intolerance, and long-running farmer–herder clashes.
“Well, the issue of insecurity is really a factor that has been caused by several activities, but specifically by religious intolerance, issues to do with vandals that are operating within the mining areas, and farmer-herder clashes that have been developing in the region for so long and that need to be given proper attention—especially at this point that virtually all are coming to join as one force, trying to destroy the fabric of our states and even the Federation at large,” he said.
“We have to put our efforts together and with a concerted effort we’ll be able to confront the issues and solve them.”
Yahaya said a mining pause approved by the President would enable authorities to verify legitimate operators and dismantle criminal networks hiding in the sector.
“So from the angle of mining, we believe that if the President suspends mining and instructs that proper verification be made, we should be able to profile the mining companies and know who is operating legally or not, and establish who is operating with them, so that the security agencies will be able to monitor them effectively,” he said.
“There will be constant supervision of the mining activities so that will reduce the operations of vandals and criminals within the mining areas.”
Addressing concerns about the timeline, Yahaya rejected suggestions that governors were neglecting wider issues such as poverty, education, and governance.
“I think I beg to disagree with those people who have that insinuation that governors have not been doing their best in trying to address the issues—especially of education, poverty, disease, and hunger—and also the issue of mining as I mentioned earlier,” he said.
He argued that six months would provide enough time for governments to compile accurate data, collaborate with the federal authorities, and avoid scaring off investors.
“There have to be things that we do step by step, and we believe for mining within six months, if the President approves—being an item that is strictly on the exclusive list—we’ll be able to work together with the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals and also our Ministries of Mineral Resources in the states to ensure that community approvals for operations are sanctioned and are those that really have the consent of the governments,” he explained.
“That can be done in six months; otherwise we may have issues with investors, and at this point it is the investors we need and we need to build confidence in the investors. In fact, this is going to provide the security and the framework on which the operations of investors will be safeguarded and there will be a real return on their investments.”
He added: “We don’t want to scare investors and we don’t want to scare the people living within the mining areas and within our states. We believe within six months we’ll be able to do that if it is given the correct priority and attention.”
Yahaya said northern states must work collectively to tackle out-of-school numbers and manage the spillover effects of displacement from the insurgency.
“Well, individual states have peculiar problems that are attached to their own states, and we as a common body are trying to join hands,” he said.
Using his state as an example, he noted that Gombe’s central location makes it a natural host for people fleeing conflict.
“In Gombe, we share boundaries with the remaining five states in the northeast, and it’s only three or four hours before you cross over the state and get to Jigawa and eventually move to Katsina and Niger Republic,” he said.
“To the east if you cross Borno State, you hit Chad; to the south, if you leave Adamawa, you hit Cameroon. So if you see the movement of people, especially because of dislocations and displacements, naturally the numbers will compound and we have many.”
He recalled that UNICEF once estimated 550,000 out-of-school children in Gombe, but he believed the figure was higher due to ongoing migration.
“So we made effort. One thousand six hundred classrooms were built in Gombe,” he said.
“We set up modern schools for tsangaya so that we take the almajiri and put them back to school… By now we’ve recorded over 450,000; we’ve taken them back to school.”
However, he cautioned that the gains would not be sustained unless neighbouring states also tackle the problem.
“If we do that in Gombe and others infiltrate to come and join so that they take us back, we will never get it right until we do so,” he said. “If we join hands together, in a very short while we’ll be able to close that gap and take all the children back to school.”
On whether northern states are prepared for state policing, Yahaya said governors have long demanded decentralisation, insisting that centralised policing has failed to curb banditry.
“Well, the question of negotiating with bandits is really beyond the governors per se because it’s a national issue and security is on the exclusive list,” he said. “But the governors are doing whatever possible to ensure that this issue of banditry is brought under control.”
He said governors are often blamed for insecurity despite not having operational control over federal security agencies.
“A situation where the security agencies do not take directives and only take directives from their own commands leaves governors with nothing but to wait until things are done,” he said. “By the time decisions are made, it might be too late.”
He said the north has historical experience with local policing and is ready to embrace it again.
“Having the local police—especially with the experience the north had even before the colonial administration… there wasn’t that issue,” he said. “Now with a centralised command, hardly can you do anything.”
Yahaya said the Forum has renewed its call for the federal government to expedite the process.
“We are only emphasising today that there is need to fast-track and ensure that we do the needful,” he said.
To demonstrate readiness, the governors have approved a regional security trust fund.
“With regards to funding… that’s why we are setting up a security trust fund, and we’ve committed ourselves to contributing at least in the first instance ₦1 billion monthly until we see that we have that comfort and we are ready to confront the issue,” Yahaya said.
Boluwatife Enome
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