Zamfara State’s Solid Minerals and Resources in Connection to the Nigerian Insecurity and Insurgency

Abstract

The national question of equal treatment for all sections of Nigeria is failing since the return to the fourth republic. In Katsina State, the Federal government has allowed State Police that bears Ak47 while in Ondo State the State Police is largely unrecognized and disallowed from bearing Ak47 the now popular weapon of Nigerian deadly insecurity. In Zamfara State, indigenes are allowed to mine gold, bauxite and other precious stones and the State government is routinely involved in solid minerals regulation and trade. But in Delta and Rivers States it is only the Federal government that is empowered constitutionally to deal on oil and gas. The States and citizens are restricted, except on licence, from the Federal government. The creation of States (as preclude to the averting civil war) to restore confidence in the territorial integrity of Nigeria is beginning to fail. They are not treated equally in the circumstances of economic rights and human security. This paper which adopts the doctrinal method critically examines the appearance of insurgency in Zamfara State and argues that Sharia and conflict minerals are undergirding the state of insecurity in the space. It warns that if urgent steps are not taken to streamline legal regulation of the mineral and policing sector, it may become the harbinger of the descent into the precipice of the final disintegration of the country.