Opinion

How Dele Alake is rewriting Nigeria’s mining story

Published

2 months ago

August 11, 2026

By Arabinrin Aderonke

When Nasarawa State Governor, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule, says Dele Alake has become “a better mining engineer than myself,” Nigerians should pay attention. Not because the statement is flattering, but because it comes from a governor who understands mining, has witnessed the sector’s transformation firsthand, and has a front-row seat to the economic possibilities embedded in Nigeria’s mineral wealth.

Sule’s admission was particularly revealing because he confessed that he initially doubted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to appoint a media professional as Minister of Solid Minerals Development. His reasoning was understandable. Mining is technical, complex and capital-intensive. Yet, as the governor acknowledged, Alake quickly immersed himself in the sector, mastered its language and, more importantly, embraced the President’s policy direction with uncommon seriousness.

“He grabbed it, he took it, he’s serious about it,” Sule said. That may well be the most concise description of Alake’s stewardship. The minister has not treated mining as another government portfolio. He has approached it as a strategic instrument for economic transformation.

For decades, Nigeria behaved as though possessing mineral deposits was itself an economic achievement. It was not. The real value lies in what happens after discovery: exploration, responsible extraction, processing, manufacturing, employment, exports, technology transfer and government revenue. Alake’s policy emphasis on local processing and value addition therefore represents a significant departure from the old extract-and-export model.

The results are beginning to show. The Federal Government reported that revenue from solid minerals increased from about ₦6 billion in 2023 to more than ₦38 billion in 2024, and moved up to N71 billion by 2025, while attracting more than $2.6 billion in processing projects to the sector. These figures matter because they demonstrate that reform is moving beyond speeches into measurable economic activity.

Nasarawa offers perhaps the most compelling case study. The state’s lithium resources have attracted international attention, while a major lithium processing facility has positioned the state closer to the global critical-minerals value chain. The Federal Government has described the facility as West Africa’s largest lithium processing plant, with a reported processing capacity of 6,000 metric tonnes daily.

Sule’s story of a major Chinese lithium buyer sending a customised aircraft to bring him and the governor of Zamfara to China may sound dramatic, but its policy implication is more important than the spectacle. It demonstrates that Nigerian minerals are increasingly being viewed as strategic assets in global supply chains.

This is where Alake’s contribution becomes particularly significant. His ministry is helping to reposition mining from an informal, poorly integrated activity into a structured economic sector capable of attracting serious investment, supporting industrialisation and generating sustainable public revenue.

The challenges remain substantial: illegal mining, insecurity, environmental concerns, geological data, infrastructure and host-community benefits cannot be wished away. But successful policy is not the absence of challenges. It is the capacity to build institutions capable of confronting them.

Perhaps that is why Sule’s praise resonates. He began as a sceptic and ended as a witness. The consummate, astute media man did not need to become a geologist to make an impact. He needed to understand the policy, master the brief and deliver.

And by the governor’s own account, Dele Alake has done precisely that; he has acquitted himself creditably.

…Arabinrin Aderonke is an award-winning investigative journalist, 2016 finalist for the CNN African Journalist Award. Author and Policy analyst. She writes from Abuja

Share on Facebook

Opinion

RE: BLAIR “HAS QUESTIONS TO ANSWER” OVER SUPPORT FOR BRITAIN WHILE ADVISING NIGERIA

Published

2 days ago

October 20, 2026

The Gleamer

(A rejoinder to Gordon Rayner’s article of October 18,2026 in the Telegraph, UK
By Kehinde Bamigbetan
After reading this article, particularly the denials from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and the Federal Government of Nigeria, one is bound to question the editorial judgment that gives this piece any value.

In short, what did Gordon Rainer set out to do with this publication? Put a shine on Jupiter’s false and thoroughly empty narrative? Set up a former Prime Minister for blackmail and opprobrium? Or revive a dead case before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes?

Whichever, Rainer presents propositions which swallow their answers. His first argument that Blair might have undermined British national security interests is contradicted by the disclosure that the TBI has no contract to advise the Federal Government of Nigeria.

His second argument, that Jupiter was denied the execution of its licence, is contradicted by the fact that the company is unknown under Nigerian law. Rainer then admits knowing this fact and introduces the company as Jupiter’s partners.

For clarity and the benefit of his readers, these companies—Basin Mining Limited and Range Mining Limited—lost their licences for failing to pay annual service fees. Basin, for instance, owes N1,223,750,000, about £691,368.

The licences were revoked after the companies ignored several notices to fulfil their contractual obligations to the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office. Penalties for non-payment are increasing daily, and the legal process to recover the funds is underway.

Rather than rescue its partners by paying their fees and penalties or allow the international settlement court to determine its case, Jupiter has mounted an international self-help campaign of calumny and economic sabotage against the government and people of Nigeria, using methods that threaten Nigeria’s security and diplomatic interests.

We believe Rainer is its latest innocent recruit, hoodwinked into propagating a false narrative by appealing to British national security interests when, in fact, Jupiter’s partners are, under Nigerian law, economic and security risks whose continued defiance of Nigeria’s laws endangers centuries of Britain-Nigeria relations.

The question Rainer should ask: if, indeed, Jupiter has a cast-iron case, why is it shedding crocodile tears and shopping for sympathy with false pretences and narratives?

Let’s give the clue: Jupiter’s promoter, Steve Davis, has leeched on Nigeria’s presidents since 1999 by pretending to be an international mining expert, and he has acquired an ego and assets far out of proportion to his financial and technical status.
He is so comfortable living above the law in Nigeria that compliance with regulatory provisions is a taboo, an affront to his bloated ego as a self-deluded “founder of Nigeria’s modern mining sector.”

Davis had a good time living his ego until Dele Alake became Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development in August 2023 and immediately launched a clean-up of the sector focused on zero-tolerance for non-compliance with the provisions of the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Law 2007, a law that Davis boasts he contributed to making and should set an example by encouraging compliance.

The Minister was shocked that the Nigerian Mining Cadastre had a huge amount of unpaid statutory fees despite the government’s investment in the Electronic Mining Cadastre Plus (EMC+) automation, which digitised the licensing process and upgraded services to the mining sector.

In line with the law, the minister ensured debtors were duly notified, and defaulters duly gazetted before revoking their licences for flouting the regulation on the payment of annual service fees.

In November 2023, the minister revoked at least 1,663 licences, a decision that showed it was no longer business as usual under the new sheriff in town.

To show the government has a human face, it opened a three-month restitution window to address complaints and feedback indicating cases of extenuating circumstances.

But still basking in the euphoria of an ego that has outlived its era, Davis discouraged his partners from taking advantage of these opportunities for remorse. Instead, he threatened to exploit his global networks to frustrate the Federal Government of Nigeria.

He wasn’t joking. He launched a global disinformation campaign from his native Australia to Canada, from the United States to Europe. However, his lies evaporated as soon as the facts were laid bare.

Davis pulled his most ambitious stunt so far during Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s official visit to the United Kingdom in March this year, when he polluted the air with narratives designed to set Nigeria against the West by spreading blatant falsehoods and playing the victim.

But, as he found out to his misery, the whole public relations game was dead on arrival. A comprehensive statement clarifying the issues to the highly intelligent British media sent him into the cold.

All we ask is that journalists refer to the eternal maxim of the journalism profession whenever Davis knocks on their door: if in doubt, leave it out.

When a story like this betrays so many contradictions, the rule is not to encourage its spread. Every responsible journalist has the moral duty to kill it.

Kehinde Bamigbetan is a Journalist and Special Adviser to Dele Alake, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Share on Facebook