Prior to the discovery of oil in commercial quantity at Oloibiri in present-day Bayelsa State in the 1950s, the country’s economy was sustained by agriculture and solid mineral resources, such as coal, ore, tin and columbite, among others. Most of the solid mineral deposits were in commercial quantity and were explored by the colonial masters.
Plateau State, for instance, is among the states where tin and columbite were discovered in large quantities and were being mined before the discovery of oil.
Sadly, the colonial masters used the proceeds from their mining to develop cities in their country while the areas where the resources were explored were left undeveloped.
Plateau State is one of those areas that were left desolate while Manchester and Liverpool in the United Kingdom were developed with the proceeds from tin and columbite mined on the Plateau.
The impacts of mining on the Plateau are still felt as investigation has shown that there are more than 3,000 mining ponds in the state. The ponds are mostly in Jos South, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Jos East, Riyom, Bokos and Mangu local government areas. They account for over 65 per cent of the landscape of Plateau North and Plateau Central Senatorial zones and have devastated at least 12 of the 17 local government areas of the state.
The minerals constituted the main foreign exchange earner for the Federal Government.
However, with the discovery of oil in commercial quantity, the government concentrated on crude oil exploration in total negligence of solid minerals. However, the Federal Government which issued mining licences to foreign firms only collected royalties from them but failed to implement the land reclamation agreement.
It is estimated that during the period of exploration, six million tons of earth were dug yearly to get tin, columbite and others. Some residents of the areas told our correspondent that they are scared of the ponds, especially women and children. Many domestic animals have fallen into them on several occasions.
Rev. Musa Chollom, who lives in Barkin Ladi, said: “Plateau State boasts large deposits of tin and columbite. The colonial government exploited the mineral resources to develop their own countries in Europe. I understand that it was tin from Jos that was used to develop the cities of Manchester and Liverpool. These European countries remain some of the well developed today. But Plateau State that owns the solid minerals remains the poorest state in Nigeria at the moment.”
Contributing, 78-year-old Abok Gyang, a teacher in Bukuru, Jos South Local Government Area, described the mining operation in the area by the colonial masters as day light robbery.
He said: “The story of mining exploration in Plateau State is that of a day light robbery by the colonial masters in collaboration with the then Nigerian government. The gains of the exploration went to the colonial masters and the Federal Government. There was nothing for Plateau State.
“Rather than counting the gains, it is only counting the numbers of abandoned mining ponds. The explorers left without reclaiming even one of the over 3, 000 mining ponds.”
Recounting his experiences, Michael Pam Bot, a resident of Kwang, Rayfield, Jos, said: “We wake up every morning to behold the frightening ponds. Apart from that, some of our children have fallen into them. Children just grow up to see the ponds; they never knew how deep the ponds are. Most of them are more than 100 meters deep. A number of children has drowned in the ponds as a result of careless play around them. Those in government that benefitted from the ponds are enjoying themselves but members of the host communities now live with the nightmare around us.”
Efforts by the affected communities to draw the attention of the government to their plight were futile as they were treated with lack of interest or brutal repression, especially during military regimes.
It was provided in Section 20 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that the nation should “protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forest and wildlife of Nigeria.”
Plateau State Commissioner for Environment Mr. Sylvanus Dongtoe told our correspondent that “the Federal Government’s response to our ecological disaster so far has been the little ecological fund released to the state to manage its environment. That fund is hardly enough to reclaim even one mining pond. The Federal Government needs to assist us in this regard because the state government lacks the resources to reclaim all the ponds.”
Continuing, he said: “The state government is not leaving everything for the Federal Government in its efforts to reclaim the devastated land. The government has tried enough to see how it can make use of some of the ponds.
“For instance, it has developed some of the ponds as sources of water for the citizens. We have converted one pond into earth dam in Angwa Doki, Bukuru. Another one was converted to earth dam in Du Village. The earth dams will enhance water supply and distribution to the residents.
“Some of them have been converted into fish ponds. Others are being used to run irrigation projects. One of the major mining ponds in Rayfield is now a major tourist’s attraction. It was converted to a beautiful lake known as Rayfield Resort.
“The worst situation we are trying to cope with is the effects of the mining exploration on the health of citizens. The explorers not only left the land devastated, they also left heavy deposits of mining wastes behind. It is called mine tailings.
“Medical experts had informed government that people who lived near mining sites are exposed to radio-active substances which could cause cancer.
Investigation revealed that people build houses close to the ponds, despite the hazard associated with them. This is because there is hardly enough land left for construction of residential houses and for farming.
Illiya Jerome of the National Centre for Remote Sensing, Jos had said: “Decades of mining exploration resulted in the removal of considerable amount of soil and generated radioactive waste known as tailings. Since no reclamation of the ponds was done by the mining companies, the radioactive materials dispersed in the process have contaminated the soil in its vicinity.
“Residents of the areas are exposed to direct regular access to these sites. In addition, tailing debris was used as building materials, contaminated soil are used by locals for agriculture mainly in crop production and sand contaminated with mine tailings is used in roasting groundnuts for human consumption.
“The mining wastes which were indiscriminately disposed all over the communities are the second major causes of cancer of the lungs apart from cigarettes. The radioactive substances have been found to cause cancer in mankind and animals.”
Apart from the harmful effects of the mining wastes to mankind, the residents are also at the risk of a radioactive gas called Randon.
Experts maintain that “Randon is a radioactive gas that emanates from uranium-bearing soil and porous rocks. Randon migrates out of soil and rocks into the surrounding air, resulting in the accumulation in poorly ventilated or closed areas. It has detrimental health effect because it is likely to cause cancer in both cigarettes smokers and non-cigarettes smokers, even as it is the primary cause of cancer in human.
“Randon is a substance located beneath the earth and mining plays a crucial role in the exposure of randon to the surface of the earth.
“There are high level radiation exposures from the mine tailings of Jos area, especially those who live close to indiscriminately dumped tailing will be exposed to higher dose of the harmful substances.”
The circumstances in which the state finds itself is such that due to limited land to serve the agricultural needs of the people, majority of its poor population have no option than to embark on small-scale manual mining of the mineral, even long after the major mining companies had left. The health hazard of such manual practice is monumental. Experts had expressed fears that the lead poison in Zamfara State which led to the death of about 400 children in 2010 may occur in Plateau State if care is not taken.
