19/04/2023
You might be hearing about this but I want to brief you about the history of coalin Nigeria.
Pay attention 📢📢
Coal was first discovered in Nigeria in 1909 at the Udi Ridge in Enugu by a British mines engineer, Albert Kitson. Kitson had been prospecting for silver. By 1914, the year of Nigeria’s amalgamation, the first consignment of coal made its way to the United Kingdom from the newly created ports at Port Harcourt.
By 1916, the Ogbete Mine was in full operation and in that year alone, it yielded 24,511 metric tons of coal. Over time, other mines sprang up in the region which became the modern day Enugu State. Coal production hit an all-time high of 790,030 metric tonnes before it faced a steady decline due to reasons discussed below, which resulted in many of the mines being abandoned. Currently Nigeria’s coal deposit is estimated at about 2.8 billon metric tons.
Coal for Rail
To manage the resources produced at these mines, the Nigeria Coal Corporation was incorporated in 1950. The core domestic market for coal production in Nigeria was its emerging rail system which depended heavily on the produce to power its locomotive engines. But with the sudden discovery of hydrocarbons in the late 1950s, the Nigerian Railway Corporation switched from coal to diesel powered energy. The Electric Company of Nigeria also converted its power generation from coal to diesel. The loss of these two big clients played a major role in the decline in coal production as the government did not think it feasible to continue to heavily invest in the sector. Besides, the recent discovery of crude oil at Oloibiri held the promise of greater revenue through exports for the newly independent nation. The Coal Corporation survived the onslaught of crude oil especially because it continued to enjoy a national monopoly on coal production.
The Nigerian civil war was another major factor in the decline of the Nigeria Coal Corporation. A number of the coal mines became inaccessible during the period and were abandoned. Most of the abandoned coal mines were never revived or reclaimed. Interestingly, two mines were commissioned during the civil war: One at Odagbor, which was later known as the Okaba coal mine, located in present day Kogi State, and the Biafra Coal Corporation in Enugu. Both were merged at the end of the war into the Nigeria Coal Corporation.
Attempts at mechanizing the mines in the late 70s and 80s failed, further plummeting production. Another concern in the 1980s and most of the 1990s was the poor management of the Nigeria Coal Corporation. The then military government had a perchance for randomly appointing personnel with little or no experience in management or without technical knowledge to manage public enterprises. The Nigeria Coal Corporation was no exception. With the appointment of a university professor who had no management experience to head the corporation, its further decline came as no surprise. The final blow was in 1999, when the Nigerian government sought to increase direct foreign investment in the country by privatizing the Corporation and opening the nation’s solid mineral market to large private investors. The strategy failed. With the withdrawal of support from the government, the Corporation lost its steam. It however remained in operation till 2002 before eventually shutting down. Unsuccessful in its privatization bid, the Federal Government in 2013 sold off some of the Corporation’s assets to the Enugu State government in order to offset outstanding debts.
Enugu, the Coal Capital
The discovery of coal in Enugu had a kaleidoscope of effects on the town and indeed the nation. For one, it contributed to the rapid development of the town and made it a commercial hub for the region. The wealth generated from coal was so strategic that Enugu became the capital of the Eastern Region in 1938. Its wide spread influence also led to the establishment of a thriving port at the area now known as Port Harcourt (which also became a city of reckon), to ship coal out of Enugu to Europe. Coal mining quickly spurred the growth of the population of Enugu with the influx of miners. The total number of miners working in the region jumped from 6,000 men in 1948, to 8,000 men in 1958.
A brief history brought to you by @ Smilemadeit
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