Interrogating the relationship between banditry and illegal mining in Nigeria; implications to national development in post–covid period; a peep into Bagega in Zamfara State illegal mining site

Mining is one of the activities of government that yield enormous income into its confers for the purpose of running and managing its social, economic, and political affairs. But when these activities of government are neglected, it, however, fall into the hands of illegal miners who are not regulated. It is overtaken by scrupulous elements who may want to cash in for the purpose of promoting illegality aimed at undermining development and promoting insecurity, through banditry which is regarded as terrorism. This paper adopted the Elite Theory for the purpose of providing an explanation within the context and content of this paper. The choice of adopting this theory was because it best suits the explanation of illegal mining which is sponsored by the political and economic big wits of the society. The methodology adopted by this paper in terms of data collection is both primary and secondary methods of data collection and the survey research design was used. The presenters were in the area where these illegal mining activities takes place in Bagega in Zamfara State for the purpose of having first hand information apart from the fact that revenue accruing to the Federal Government are lost, most of the proceed from these activities are used for acquisition of weapons, hiring of personnel for the purpose of banditry and provision of logistics to aid illicit activities and other crimes which are inimical to national development. In order to deal with illegal mining in Nigeria, this paper provides that stiffer penalty should be made in line with the amendment of the Mining Act of 2007 to reduce or eliminate illegal mining in Zamfara State, and again, the issue of mining should be removed from the Exclusive list, for the purpose of proper regulation to deal with illegal mining activities in Nigeria.  