Modernization of Nigeria’s Mining Industry: The Case for Participation and Sustainable Development of Local Communities

Abstract To retract from its overdependence on crude oil fortunes and be a participant in the green energy economy, Nigeria has recently begun to revive and modernize its mining industry. The modernization is driven by the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 (NMMA) and Regulations promulgated thereunder. This paper examines whether and to what extent the NMMA and the Regulations provide sufficient legal architecture for local communities to meaningfully participate in mineral development decisions and processes in ways that advance the course of their sustainable development. It acknowledges that participation or meaningful consultation with local communities in regard to decisions or activities pertaining to resource development is a modern strategy for ensuring that local communities obtain the benefits of sustainable development and measures the compliance of the NMMA and its Regulations against the standard tools developed under international law. It attributes the human and environmental sustainability crisis in the Niger Delta region to the failure of the Nigerian government to involve the oil host communities early on in the oil development and governance scheme and warns that Nigeria should not repeat the same error as it embarks on modernizing the solid mineral industry.