18 Illegal Miners and a Lesson in Interagency Cooperation
By Zekeri Idakwo Laruba
It is often said that, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Helen Keller expressed the same principle in another memorable way: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Few national challenges demonstrate the wisdom of these words more clearly than Nigeria’s fight against illegal mining.
Illegal exploitation of Nigeria’s mineral resources is not a problem that one institution, security agency or ministry can solve alone. It cuts across security, economic regulation, environmental protection, community relations, intelligence gathering and criminal justice. It therefore requires institutions with different mandates to operate not as isolated agencies, but as parts of one national security and economic architecture.
This is where interagency collaboration is beginning to make a measurable difference.
At the heart of the renewed campaign is the Mining Marshals of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), established to strengthen enforcement against illegal mining and protect the country’s mineral resources. But the effectiveness of the Mining Marshals depends significantly on their ability to work with other security and regulatory institutions.
The philosophy is straightforward: Nigeria’s security agencies are like children of the same father. In this case, the Federal Government is the father, while the agencies are the children, each with different responsibilities but ultimately working for the same family, the Nigerian state. Their shared objective should therefore be to protect national assets, secure communities, uphold the law and create an environment in which Nigeria’s natural…
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Read Full Article by Hafsat Ibrahim at economicconfidential.com
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