Bad Behaviour: Between China and Nigeria

The Advocate

By Onikepo Braithwaite

Onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive.com

“For me, it was a reminder of the fact that, nobody would dare misbehave in China.” -Vimbai Mutinhiri-Ekpeyong

The Chinese/Nigerian Collaboration and Illegal Mining

Yet, the Chinese (in cahoots with the locals of the countries they plunder), go around misbehaving in other people’s countries, particularly African countries that are richly endowed with mineral resources, like Nigeria. And, mostly, they are able to get away with it. If not, they won’t keep coming. The same China that polices conduct tightly at home, through some of its nationals and companies extracting minerals in Africa with far less restraint, and Nigerian collaborators plus weak enforcement, make it possible. 

The aforementioned statement made by Vimbai Mutinhiri-Ekpeyong during Arise TV’s Morning Show a couple of months ago, brought to the fore something that has been on my mind for quite a while. Last year, I sat next to a top Government official on a local flight, and he remarked that, if I see the environmental degradation in one of the South West States caused by illegal mining activities of the Chinese, I would cry. It is bad enough that the oil companies have ruined the South South oil producing areas as a result of exploration or should I say exploitation, now other zones in Nigeria, including but not limited to Kwara, Plateau and Niger in North Central, Zamfara in the North West are also being plundered by the Chinese for illegal profit, with the connivance of Nigerians. Some Chinese are also in Ghana illegally mining gold, and  Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) illegally mining gold and cobalt, though maybe not as much as the Ghana galamsey where they engage in illegal mining using Ghanaian fronts for small scale mining reserved for Ghanaians. 

Statutory and Constitutional Provisions 

Though Section 1 of the Land Use Act 1978 (LUA) vests the land within each State in their Governors to hold for and on behalf of the people, for the avoidance of doubt, Section 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended)(the Constitution) vests all the minerals whether under or upon the ground or in the waters, in the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, and only the National Assembly has the power to legislate on matters related thereto (see Item 39 on the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution). Section 1(1) of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007 (NMMA) restates the same vesting in the Government of the Federation of Nigeria for and on behalf of the people of Nigeria, and that mineral titles (reconnaissance permit, exploration licence, small-scale mining lease, mining lease, quarry lease) are granted only by the Mining Cadastre Office. In fact, Section 1(2) thereof provides that where mineral resources have been found in commercial quantities upon any land, from the commencement of the NMMA, such land stands acquired by the Government of the Federation. 

The aforementioned Section 44(3) evincing the fact that Surface ownership does not confer mineral rights, appears to be an exception to the well established common law idea of “cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos”, that is, “whose is the soil, his it is all the way to heaven and to those below”, because it creates a situation of dual ownership, where minerals whether upon or beneath land are Federalised, though land is State-held. This ownership structure also appears to support a Unitary constitutional system, rather than one of State resource control which would have vested the same minerals in the State Governors for and in trust for the people. 

Nigeria is not only fabulously endowed with hydrocarbons, minerals, base and precious metals, gem stones, she also has a good showing of rare earth minerals. Nigeria is a country known as one that suffers from “the Resource Curse”, that is, a country that is rich in natural resources, but has been somewhat slow in economic growth and development, leading to high levels of corruption and poor governance, as opposed to countries that are not particularly endowed with natural resources – a country that easily comes to mind is South Korea (SK), one that was a rural agrarian economy in the 1960s, and without any natural resources has successfully transformed into a First World Country, while Nigeria, with all its endowments, appears to have fallen to the bottom of the barrel, ranked as the poverty capital of the world in 2018 during late President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR’s  administration, struggling with the highest number of out-of-school children globally, and insecurity in several parts of the country.

Unfortunately, it is not the Nigerians who are enjoying the benefits of these natural endowments, but some foreign operators, including Chinese nationals and firms, and their Nigerian  collaborators  that include Government Officials, traditional rulers, politicians, locals and in some cases, armed terrorist groups, while ordinary  Nigerians bear the brunt of the insecurity that the illegal activities of these people has helped to escalate, because illegal mining operations have been identified as one of the key factors driving the pervasive insecurity in Nigeria. 

Though not every foreign or Chinese presence in Nigeria’s mining sector is illegal or unlicensed extraction, smuggling or other unlawful activity, the role of foreign miscreants in this illicit business cannot be ignored, and Nigerians call on the various levels of Government and law enforcement agencies, to arrest and prosecute these people who are not only ruining our environment and plundering Nigerian resources, but fuelling insecurity. Some successes were recorded in Kwara, where in July 2023, 13 Chinese Nationals linked to a syndicate were arrested by the EFCC for illegal mining activities spanning almost 16 local government areas of the State. These Chinese people entered on tourists visas, didn’t get the necessary work or other permits for their operations, engaged in unlawful extraction and failed to pay royalties to the Federal Government.

Estimates in 2025–2026 reporting put annual losses from illegal mining in the region of $9 billion; about 80% of mining in the North-West is described as illegal; NEITI/ANEEJ (May 2026, Reuters) pointed to foreign buyers, especially Chinese actors, dominating informal purchase and export channels, with shell companies and local proxies. Senate reporting has explicitly linked illegal gold mining in Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina to arms procurement and banditry. Naturally, the Chinese Embassy has denied that its nationals fund terror or have terror links; but, what is documented is illegal extraction, informal buying, and, in the North-West, a mining economy that armed groups tax.

Offences 

Section 131-134 of the NMMA sets out various acts that constitute offences punishable with fines of not less than N20 million and imprisonment of not less than five years (see Section 133 of the NMMA), including mineral exploration, quarrying, and the removal, possession and disposal of such minerals not in accordance with the provisions of the NMMA. Section 142 of the NMMA also provides that offences under the NMMA, shall be tried at the Federal High Court. 

Section 1(8) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act 1983 (MOA) is also an enactment used to prosecute illegal miners and those who trade in the illicit mineral proceeds, with a stiffer punishment of life imprisonment and forfeiture. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as if the courts have been meting out the maximum punishment, but levy fines and impose lighter prison sentences instead. 

The Mexicans

The Mexicans have also not been left out. In May 2026, the NDLEA raided an industrial scale methamphetamine factory in Ijebu East, Ogun State where three Mexican nationals and seven Nigerians were arrested, and approximately N50 billion worth of goods were seized. The illegal factory was dismantled, while the suspects were charged at the Federal High Court on an 11 count charge. We are all aware that drugs and violence, are inseparable Siamese twins. Moreover, many of those who have been arrested for terrorism and kidnapping, usually have methamphetamines and other drugs in their possession.

Conclusion 

The Constitution did not vest minerals in the Federation so that they could leave through the back door, with a tourist visa and a local collaborator holding it open. Until titles are transparent, sponsors are prosecuted with the extractors, and a fine stops being a substitute for the jail term the law already provides, the plunder will continue – and so will the insecurity it feeds. China does not permit this at home. Nigeria should not permit it here. 

And, that is why they keep coming. A visitor’s visa, a local front, a traditional blessing, a quiet Official, too often, a compromised law enforcement officer, and, in the North-West, a tax paid to whoever holds the gun, have proved cheaper than a mining lease, royalties and an environmental plan. When conviction ends in five years with an option of a fine, prosecution is not a deterrent. It is a line item. Ghana calls the same informal gold rush galamsey and has not killed it either; the lesson is not that the phenomenon is uniquely Nigerian, but that no mineral-rich African State can outsource enforcement to indignation. 

If the Constitution insists that what lies under our soil is Federal property, then the Federal Government  must police that claim. Titles should be public. Community Development Agreements should be real. Foreigners who enter as tourists and leave as miners, should face the immigration offence and the mineral offence, not one or the other. Nigerian collaborators — title-holders who front, officials who look away, and anyone who sells protection — belong in the same dock. And, the option of a fine, where the statute offers imprisonment for life, should stop being the default. 

Nobody, Vimbai Mutinhiri-Ekpeyong reminded us, would dare misbehave in China. The question is why anyone should dare, with such ease, on land and minerals the Constitution says belong to Nigerians, do so in Nigeria. 

The Nigerian Government should develop a comprehensive policy, including a holistic statutory enactment covering the field of mineral resources, including rare earth minerals and everything pertaining to them, including offences concerning their illegal exploitation and the punishments arising therefrom, In an efficient system, the law must be dynamic, not frozen in the time that it was enacted. The law must speak to new facts, technologies, social change and values, and the reality that not only are rare earth and battery minerals sitting at the centre of a new ‘Scramble for Africa’ to obtain them, a more robust legal framework
and better protection of them is urgently required.