NIGERIA HUB

Hub Director:

Prof Sunday Adesola Ajayi

Hub Research Administrator:

Ms Grace Awosanmi

Hub Members:

Ms Priscilla Achakpa
Ms Kyauta Giwa
Dr Samir Halliru
Prof Joshua Olusola Akande
Dr Sina Ayanlade
Dr Femi Awosanmi
Prof David Ogungbile
Prof Dixon Torimiro
Dr Agboola Tunde
Mr Ebenezer Aluko
Ms Margaret Ojochide Aligbe
Dr Sehinde Akinbiola
Mr Femi Babatunde
Dr Afolayan Ayodeji
Ms Titi Tade

Hub background

The Nigeria Hub comprises First-Technical University, Obafemi-Awolowo University, Women Environmental Programme (WEP) and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

Since the inception of the hub, her membership has increased to about 20 with affiliates in different institutions in the country.

The hub is engaged in research projects in Osun and Oyo states on the development challenges of agrarian and mining communities in Nigeria.

HUB PROJECTS

Since 2017, the team has been engaged in a research project entitled: Challenges to the Development of Agrarian and Mining Communities in Nigeria, with Itagunmodi (Osun State) and Igbojaye (Oyo State) as case studies. The research question being interrogated is why are mining and agrarian communities poor and neglected despite that the Nigerian government drives its economic diversification through the mining and agriculture sectors.

The community of Itagunmodi is known for being the most popular gold mining location in Atakumosa West Local Government Area of Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria. The community is strategically located within a strongly traditional institutional environment at less than 20 km from Ile-Ife (population of 509,813, based on 2006 census), which is regarded as the source/origin of the Yoruba. The rise of mining and the influx of migrants it brought to the area, the Itagunmodi Kabiyesi (king) had been displaced and had to leave the community. The Yorubas are predominantly farmers, traders and learned people. Therefore, young migrants from the north of the country came for the jobs, displacing the original members of the community. Two in every three occupants of the community is a migrant Northerner who does not speak the local language. Over the period of their study, the research team saw a shift in the kinds of business activities, in the kinds of food in circulation, culture and even the music played on the street, leaving the local youth with few opportunities, with jeopardized agricultural lands.

The socio-economic data from the focal communities showed that 48.2% of the miners were indigenes while 51.8% were non-indigenes, with young adults comprising of about 89% of the population. Youth are not involved in decision-making in these communities and mining is being carried out on agricultural lands, with no clear delineation of mining areas nor a concerted effort to mitigate the associated negative impacts through conscious planning. The community of Igbojaye is rural, agrarian and unlike Itagunmodi that is surrounded by big cities and towns and Universities within 25 km radius, it has no town or city within 75 km radius and the closest University is about 150 km away.

MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

The review meeting of the hub was held at Timsed Hotel from the 12th to 14th of July 2018, Ijebu-jesa with only four members in attendance. It was agreed that the theme ‘Challenges to the development of Farming and Mining Communities’ should be the hub’s main research focus and that additional expertise in this area should be invited to join the hub in order to achieve the intended objectives and goals of the hub projects.

A new partnering institution, the First Technical University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria joined the hub, with four new members (Dr Ayodeji Afolayan, Dr Sehinde Akinbiola, Mr Femi Babatunde) and three additional ones from Obafemi Awolowo University (Dr Elijah Ojedokun, Prof. Sola Ajibade and Dr J.O. Okewole).

The newly engaged partners indicated their willingness to explore the prospects of working with the hub across disciplines. A strategic meeting on how to tackle the challenges of working across barriers so as to create synergy in the hub was held in April 2019 with nine members in attendance.

Members of the hub from First Technical University and Obafemi Awolowo University at a meeting in Faculty of Agriculture Foyer, OAU campus on the 4th of June, 2019. The meeting focused on grant applications and activities within the hub.  

Our hub members visiting the community of Itagunmodi. During the visit to the community by the team, members of the environmental group of the hub collected water and soil sample for analysis.  A courtesy call was paid to the leader of the artisanal miners’ group in the community. Enumerators were also engaged by the hub to interview the miners and the members of the community.

Our findings in Itagunmodi:

  • The community still engage in the traditional form of land ownership, the farmers are small landholders.
  • Most members complained that mining activities were destroying their lands.
  • The business climate is fairly good for business.
  • The value obtained for the water PH was 6:6 – 7:5, which is slightly acidic.
  • The values obtained were towards the upper limit of the tolerance, with increasing mining activities the community stand at the risk of going beyond the threshold limit.
  • The well and mining sites surface possess high sulphur values while the nitrate value was low and below the water quality standard.
  • The soil had a low concentration of CEC with potassium being the least.
  • The Carbon: Nitrogen was 20:1, while the standard is 13:1, showing that the soil is infertile and unproductive.

HUB MEMBERS