22.1.2026
President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s announcement of a plan to build a gold refinery in Lagos has been opposed by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).
According to the NEF the Federal government’s aim is to marginalise the region adding Northern political elites must not maintain silence.
The NEF said in a statement dated January 21, 2026, and signed by its spokesperson, Professor Abubakar Jika Jiddere, that the decision to locate the refinery far from Nigeria’s major gold-producing areas in the North amounted to deliberate economic dispossession and a violation of constitutional principles.
“The decision to locate Nigeria’s gold refinery in Lagos while gold is mined from Northern soil is not a policy error or an oversight. It is a deliberate act of economic dispossession,” Jiddere said.
The Forum argued that the siting of the refinery reinforces an extractive economic model in which raw materials are sourced from the North, while processing, financing, branding and industrial infrastructure are located elsewhere. It warned that such a structure perpetuates poverty, unemployment and insecurity in resource-bearing communities.
NEF cited Sections 14(3) and 16(1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which emphasise federal character, social justice and equality of opportunity, insisting that economic assets and industrial infrastructure should not be concentrated in a manner that marginalises any region.
The Forum accused successive governments of reducing Northern Nigeria to what it termed a “triple extraction zone” — supplying raw minerals, agricultural produce and cheap labour — while being denied agro-processing plants, refineries and industrial hubs.
However, the FG said it was not involved in the Lagos refinery project.
“The new gold refinery is the initiative of Kian Smith, a 100 percent privately owned mining company which aims to facilitate the development of the local gold industry through innovative practices,” said a statement made available by Segun Tomori, the special assistant on media to Dele Alake, the minister of solid minerals.
“There was nowhere in the minister of solid minerals’ announcement that the federal government owned or established a gold refinery in Lagos or anywhere, for that matter.”