- Abandoned coal mines in Enugu state pose environmental, life threats
- Enugu govt. moves to revitalize the industry, reaches N1b agreement with company
- Stakeholders seek end to continuation of mining, cite neglect, poor treatment of past coal miners, families
For the people of Ebe, Nsude, Nachi and Umulumgbe, all in Udi Local Government Council of Enugu State they are currently living with a ticking time bomb.
For close to a decade now, they have been living in palpable fear due to frequent collapse of abandoned coal mines in their communities, thereby leading to loss of expanse of land and huge economic trees.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the worst hit community is Nsude, where residents have been living in trepidation, even as many youths have continued to express fear of further collapse of their farmlands.
How it all started
Investigation by WITHIN NIGERIA revealed that coal mining started in Enugu State, particularly in the Nsude area, as early as in the 1920s following the coal discovery in 1909.
However, the Nsude drift opened six years later. The Enugu mine’s operations and others in the country were merged into a new corporation in 1950: the Nigerian Coal Corporation. The NCC was tasked with exploiting coal resources, and held a monopoly on coal mining, production, and sales until 1999.
Further checks showed that Nigeria’s coal industry suffered a blow in the 1950s when oil was discovered. Up until this point, the Nigerian Railway Corporation was the largest consumer of coal in the country.
However, after the discovery of oil, the railway corporation began to replace its coal burning trains with diesel-powered engines. An additional negative impact came when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria began converting its power generation equipment from coal to diesel and gas as well.
The Nigeria Civil War also negatively impacted coal production; many mines were abandoned during the war. Following the war, production never completely recovered and coal production levels were erratic.
It was discovered that attempts at mechanising production ended badly, as both the implementation and maintenance of imported mining equipment proved troublesome, and hurt production. After the civil war, the Nigerian coal industry has not been able to return to its peak production in the 1950s and even as the demand for the coal has continued to take a nose dive.
Further investigation showed that in 1999, the NCC lost its monopoly over the Nigerian coal industry as the Obasanjo government allowed private companies to begin operating coal fields in joint ventures with the NCC, with an eventual goal of completely selling off the NCC’s assets to private investors. The Nigerian government planned to sell 40 per cent to private investors and 20 per cent to the Nigerian public, while retaining 40 per cent.
Consequent upon this, in 2002, work stopped at the NCC-operated mines. In 2003, the Nigerian government announced plans to create a technical advisory committee that would be tasked with reviving Nigeria’s coal industry.
By 2004, the technical committee had still not issued their report, and the NCC found itself almost bankrupt. To raise funds, it began to sell off some of its assets in an attempt to pay off its mounting debts, including salaries owed to its employees, which WITHIN NIGERIA findings showed ran into billions of naira.
As the situation continued to become worse, the Enugu State Government protested the planned NCC privatisation and demanded the ability to consult with the Federal Government on any planned sale.
Following the above development, the coal mine sites were abandoned and subsequently deteriorated to the point of sliding, with mounting debt and environmental degradation.
Nsude community in palpable fear
In any case, following the reported case of collapse of the farmlands in the area, people of the area have become despondent. And according to one of the citizens of the community, they cannot help themselves.
In a chat with WITHIN NIGERIA, Chairman, Umuaka Community, Nsude in Udi, Chief Anthony Ude told our reporter that it has been a trying and difficult moment for his community as the ugly situation had drastically affected the agricultural output of the community, thereby forcing many families into abject poverty.
According to Chief Ude, though his community is the worst hit, the people are yet to get any solution and help from the state and federal governments.
Speaking further he said, “each time we go to the farm, you will discover that a large chunk has been swallowed up. The last one happened last year. Though there was no casualty, it is usually a challenge for our people during the rainy season. This is because the soil has become so weak.
“We have lost our cashew plantations, palm tree plantations and other economic trees to this ugly situation. The most disturbing part of it is that it is becoming worse every year.”
Estimating the financial damage caused by the destruction, Chief Ude put the loss experienced by the community at over a billion naira.
Expressing his worry, he said: “Because the distance between where we live and the areas that have been taken over are not far, we are so much worried that one day we may wake up to see that our land has caved into the abandoned underground.
“Again, the collapsed areas have turned into very big erosion sites threatening the existence of our community.”
One of the farmers in the community, Mr. Kenneth Eze told our reporter that he has lost over N5m worth of corn to the ecological disaster.
In his words, “Last year, I cultivated corn worth about N5m using tractors. The corn was on the verge of harvest when the farmland caved in and destroyed my farm. I nearly committed suicide. In fact, I didn’t know I would recover from the shock of the loss. Unfortunately for me, I never got any relief from anybody since the incident.”
Eze called on the federal and state governments to expedite action to see that the coal mine channels are properly closed to avoid subsequent collapse of the land in the area.
Another young man living in the area, Mr. Philip Akogwu told our reporter that life has been uncertain for the people since the frequent collapse of the land.
According to Akogwu, “we are currently living in fear in this community. As I am talking to you, some of our brothers have lost considerable number of hectares of land to this landslide. These things are happening in the place where our own generation is supposed to move in, settle down and build houses. But they have become a no-go area. Few years ago when one of my brother wanted to build a house, after erecting and roofing the house, the land collapsed and the entire building caved into the earth. That’s how he lost his new building and resources there.
“You can see here in our community that there are not many new buildings. This is not because we don’t have resources to build houses but because you don’t know where the mine has eaten up the earth.”
He appealed to both the state and federal governments to come to the aid of the people to forestall further occurrence. He urged the governments to help ameliorate the lives of the people.
“Nsude is our community. We don’t have any other place to go. We are appealing to the authorities to come to our aid. If things should continue like this, then this community will go into ecological disaster. We call on them to come and properly close the mines in all the areas concerned.”
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the area so affected covered many hectares of land, covering both farm and residential land.
Few months ago while speaking to newsmen on the situation while inspecting the affected areas, a former Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who incidentally is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Agbaja Leaders of Thought (a socio-cultural group, made up of prominent and intellectual people from Udi, Ezeagu and Enugu North Local Government Areas), noted that from the geological survey, the underground mines were more than 500 metres on normal routes and sometimes 1000 metres at intersections.
Prof. Nebo who was accompanied to the community by Prof. Agu Gab Agu, Secretary of the BOT of Agbaja Leaders of Thought, expressed concern that the affected communities could be buried alive suddenly, due to the poor closure of the mines.
“Agbaja people are building on the surface of the earth and carrying on other developmental activities while their underbelly is open. There is no proper marking or caution signs to show that a certain area was mined underground.”
Nebo, who was also the former Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) said that his group would make a formal case to the Federal Ministry of Mines and Solid Minerals and the Ministry of Environment, as well as Enugu State Government. He said the attention of the relevant authorities would be sought on the predicament of the community, damages on their economic trees and farmlands and the degradation of their environment.
Enugu government moves to revitalize the coal industry
By and large, in a move to revive the coal industry, in October 2023, Milhouse Energy Services Ltd, a coal mining firm at Awhum, Enugu State reached an agreement with the state government to pay the sum of N1billion into the Enugu State Environmental Remediation Trust Fund, while also paying a N100,000 tax on every truckload of coal evacuated from a mining site at Awhum in Udi Local Government Area of the state.
According to our source, the Fund will be transparently managed by an independent committee of professionals specifically for the remediation and healing of the affected environment.0 / 0:00
Recall that the mining site was one of the many sealed by the Enugu State Committee on Review of Mining Activities headed by the Commissioner for Environment and Climate Change, Prof. Sam Ugwu, following a crackdown by the Governor Peter Mbah administration on illegal mining sites in the state, including those without environmental impact certification and remediation plans.
In addition, an Enugu State High Court also granted an interim injunction restraining Milhouse Energy Services and African Pits & Quarries Ltd, their agents, servants, privies, workers, among others, from “carrying on further activities, environmental degradation, damaging and interfering in whatsoever manner with the large expanse of land situate at Ibite Awhum”
However, following discussions with the state government, Milhouse Energy Services Ltd may return to site in earnest following an agreement with the Enugu State Government, which will see the company pay the sum of N1 billion for environmental remediation while also paying the sum of N100,000 as tax per truckload of coal evacuated from the site.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the company had mined and evacuated coal from the site since February 2022 without any payments or recourse whatsoever to the Government of Enugu State.
Sealing the site in September, Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Ugwu said: “while the state is not contesting the fact that solid minerals are on the Exclusive Legislative List, we will not accept indiscriminate mining activities and degradation of our environment. We will not accept that people will enter our state and start carting away our resources without recourse to the Enugu State Government.
“So, we want to see the veracity of the license, which they claim they have from the Federal Government, and we have given them a letter inviting them to a meeting.
“We also want to find out how they have been remitting environmental fees to the Enugu State Ministry of Environment because we will not fold our hands and watch our environment destroyed and lives endangered”.
Nevertheless, with the current arrangement, there is no much work on the abandoned sites even as the affected communities have continued to grapple with landslide and other environmental impacts associated with the coal mining.
Stakeholders seek discontinuation of coal mining
Nevertheless, in August 2024, stakeholders in the mining industry in the state demanded the decommissioning of all the moribund coal mining sites in Enugu State.
These stakeholders, made up of environmental rights activists, retired miners, their family members and the media, took the stand during a media interactive and town hall on coal mining held in Enugu over the week.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the town hall meeting was organized by the Renevlyn Development Initiative, RDI, in collaboration with other partners – New Life Community Care Initiative, NELCCI; Neighborhood Environmental Watch, NEW, Foundation; the Community Development Advocacy Foundation, CODAF, and Environmental Defenders Network, EDEN.
Various speakers at the forum harped that the 70 years of coal mining in the State had not been of any tangible benefit to the miners, their family members or the state in general.
They said it has, however, been years of pains, tales of woes and environmental degradation.
The stakeholders resolved to write the Enugu State drawing its attention on the need to be in the vanguard for calls for a just energy transition that respects the people and the environment.
Mr Philip Jakpor, the Executive Director of RDI, while delivering his opening remarks, maintained that coal mining was not of any economic benefit to the state, adding that it was a disinvestment to the communities.
Jakpor, who observed that the Enugu State government banned illegali mining activities in 2023, was of the opinion that, “While this action was good, we had anticipated that the state government would work with the Federal government to carry out an environmental audit to ascertain the true health of the bed rocks to continue to sustain life in Enugu.
“There are fears that Enugu may be sitting on a time bomb due to the underground mining that happened during the mining periods.
“But instead, it would seem the state government embarked on a re-certification exercise of miners.
“The announcement last month by the Enugu State Government of December as the deadline for mineral title holders to commence coal mining operations in the state lends credence to our argument.
“There are many cases of the earth collapsing when locals are farming. There are open pits, ground water polluted and the communities overrun by herdsmen who have practically scared and chased away the original land owners.
“Locals allege that trucks laden with coal are leaving Enugu every day and no proper documentation to know if it is illegally done or with the full support of the state government.
“If it is with the support of the state we should know how much revenue is now coming in. We do not want to believe that a few individuals are now reaping what is the commonwealth of Enugu citizens.”
The stakeholders, therefore, demanded that “The Federal government should commence full and detailed audit of the post coal mining in Enugu.
“Decommissioning of the moribund mines to avoid further environment degradation and loss of human life.
“Profiling of former miners and adequate compensation paid to them. If they are now dead, their families should be identified and compensated.
“Inform and regularly update citizens of Enugu on what’s going on in regards to coal mining.
“Make public the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted by the selected firms.
“Make public any agreements the companies have with the coal mining communities.
“Properly explain the role of the Enugu state government in the extraction of coal. Is it a spectator, a collaborator or only some officials of government are running the show?
“Explore potentials in renewable energy sources.
“Support mining communities to form a network to share ideas, monitor their environment and report unsustainable practices by firms engaging in coal extraction in their communities.
In their separate remarks, Afulike Okezie, Project Officer of NEW Foundation, Barrister Chima Williams, ED of EDEN, Ubrei Joe-Mariere, Director, Campaigns and Administration, CODAF, as well as Mrs Florence Aneke, the Executive Director of NELCCI, all threw their weight behind the decommissioning of coal mining in the state.
Meanwhile, retired miners and family members of some late miners bemoaned years of neglect by the government.
However, all efforts by our reporter to get the reaction of Enugu state Commissioner for Environment and climate, Mr. Sam Ugwu proved abortive as he could not pick his calls when our reporter called.
Discussion about this post