Kogi State is betting that the fastest way to end illegal mining is not more enforcement alone, it is making sure young people have a legal stake in the state’s mineral wealth instead. That was the thrust of Governor Usman Ododo’s message at the Kogi State Security and Mining Summit for Youths in Abuja, where he laid out a two-track plan combining a hard security stance with a new empowerment programme training youths in mining and jewellery craftsmanship.
Ododo was blunt about where he stands on dealing with criminal groups. “Kogi State is not a safe haven for criminals, and we will never negotiate or dialogue with them,” he said, framing the state’s security as inseparable from the FCT’s, given Kogi borders 10 states and Abuja itself. “Any overflow of insecurity into Kogi will become a problem for Abuja.”
The mineral wealth at stake is considerable. Ododo said the state holds gold, lithium, coal, beryllium, iron ore and gemstones spread across roughly 32 deposits, nearly all of it undeveloped. Rather than viewing that as simply an economic opportunity, he framed it as part of the security problem itself, untapped minerals sitting in reach of illegal operators rather than benefiting Kogi residents. The Confluence University of Science and Technology, he said, was built specifically to produce the technical workforce needed to change that.
The new empowerment programme is where the strategy becomes concrete. Ododo described its philosophy plainly: teach young people to sustain themselves rather than hand out support indefinitely. To bring in outside expertise, the state partnered with an internationally recognised mining and jewellery specialist, positioning Kogi as the pilot state for a model he hopes to expand elsewhere. He also credited President Tinubu directly for steering him toward youth empowerment as the real fix for unemployment and insecurity, recounting the President’s instruction to get young people off the streets by giving them something productive to do instead.
The scale of interest in the programme surprised even its organisers. Dr. Olushola Awujoola of Malivelihood Luxury, the technical partner running the training, said applications poured in from nearly 17,000 people in Kogi alone, with thousands more arriving from other Nigerian states and even Ghana, Mali and South Africa. From that pool, 20 trainees were selected for the pioneer cohort, with 60 to 70 more expected before the year ends as part of a five-year rollout. Awujoola described the model as one of the first of its kind in West Africa, built around turning raw minerals into finished, sellable products rather than exporting them unprocessed, with trainees spending three months on mining, design and craftsmanship taught to international standards.
For beneficiaries like Chubiojo Faith Omachi of Ofu Local Government Area, the appeal is less about the mining sector’s economics and more about what it means for her personally. She called the opportunity life-changing and said she intends to pass the training on to others in her community once she completes it.
