By Onyinye Igwe
Enugu is one of the states of the country blessed with resources. It was termed the coal city because of its vast abundance of coal and so as at the time it was discovered by British explorers, it became a major source of economic development for the country, thus contributing to economic stability.
The discovery of coal was amazing for the country and was like a sort of head-start towards putting us on the map as one of the leading countries with coal production and export but Sadly, we never did attain this feat for a number of reasons that I would love for you to explore with me
The discovery of petroleum: While petroleum is one of the main natural resources in Nigeria that has built our economy and taken us from the state of stagnancy in years past, It took away attention from the coal corporation. Till today, no one is ready to admit that the discovery of petroleum shook the coal industry but in actuality it did. Without proper attention and care, the coal corporation started to crumble little by little. We were so focused milking petroleum for everything that it had to give that we didn’t see the tell-tale signs of the coal empire crumbling.
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The Nigerian civil war: The Nigerian civil war was a major contributor to the regression of the coal corporation several years ago. During the war, lots of coal mines were shut down and rendered inaccessible and even after the civil war, these mines were rendered obsolete and little or no efforts were made to revive them. As the mines were shut down, the coal corporation suffered huge losses.
Improper management: As they say, this was the straw that broke the horse’s back. The management in charge of the coal corporation was just not good enough and didn’t have the requisite skills and guts to manage an empire as big as the coal corporation. This caused them to make many mistakes and it didn’t really help that they were more interested in lining their pockets than they were trying to utilize the coal corporation for the good of the country.
All these factors and more contributed to the abandonment of the coal corporation. Like a pack of cards, our God-given resources came crumbling down in no time at all. Years of planning, strategizing and sacrificing were all made waste and the time of coal mining has become only a memory that lives on in our minds.
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