We are so focused on oil that we forget everything else that God has blessed us with.
Lithium is high in demand in the market, its utility can be compared to the fictional vibranium of Wakanda.
I think the Nigeria government are gradually turning their attention to the lithium discover and it's relevance. I find other articles released early last year 2022;
How Nigeria can leverage lithium, others for improved earnings, green energy High-grade lithium discovered in Nigeria attracting investors – FGMining: Agency discloses discovery of high grade lithiumIt’s no secret that we export crude oil and import the refined products because our refineries are not working therefore spending billions and trillions of naira.
It's unfair for a country like Nigeria to drill its crude oil, sell it to a foreign country for refining, and then buy back the refined products by so doing, they spend more than they would have earned if their refineries were working.
In the aspect of the crude oil, Nigeria has the money to invest in the NNPC's refineries to avoid the exportation of crude and the importation of refined products, but due to the cabals that are in charge of those processes, it becomes a business for them where they make their own millions of dollars, so it is hard for them to even think of stopping the process.
I have a question @SatoPrincess: Imagine you are an overseer in the oil exploration sector, and on every export of crude oil, you make like $200,000, and on every import of refined products, you also make $200k; what will be your mindset at that time?" Virtually, you will be like, "Hmm, let this deal always continue, so I can be making my money."
That's exactly what the cabals in charge of oil exploration are doing, and that's why they don't care if the refinaries works or not.
I read an article last year on
"How Nigeria’s High Petrol Importation and Dead Refineries Affect its Struggling Economy."I felt bad for Nigeria after reading that article.
From old data of 2015–2019, Nigeria's estimated daily petrol consumption was 65.7 million liters per day, of which if all the NNPC’s refineries work effectively, they can refine 66.36 million liters which is even more than enough of the 65.7 million litters daily consumption but yet, the government will not consider making their refinaries to be functional.
Instead of completing turning down Musk’s offer, a better deal could have been struck maybe demanding Tesla cars to be manufactured here in Nigeria and the company would be required to have 70% of their staff to be Nigerians. What do you guys think?
Hey OP, from your article, I see that the Nigerian minister of mines and steel development, with the name Olamilekan Adegbite, turned down the offer of Tesla CEO as he said,
the country had rejected Tesla Inc’s request to mine lithium, unless the company were to situate a battery-making factory in the West African nation.
He added, this is to retain value along the global processing chain of lithium.
That was a good point to start with, followed by the comment of Olamilekan's special assistance who's name is Ayodeji Adeyemi. He
said,
There is a new overarching policy that guides the mining of lithium. The Nigeria Mineral Value Chain Regulation aims to end the export of crude mineral ores from Nigeria and thus demands that miners add some value,”
“As for lithium, it doesn’t necessarily mean investors must produce batteries here before they can mine, but some form of industrial processing of the ore is required,” he says.
Mining of lithium can cause air pollution, disruption of the ecosystem, and some health risks to the communities and the miners; therefore, Tesla cannot just come to Nigeria, mine lithium, and export it; there should be an added value to the country through the mining process. That's not too much to ask, but I guess Elon has not agreed to the terms.
You can see another
article to why Nigeria turned down the Elon's offer.