Nuhu George Obaje. Geology and Mineral Resources of Nigeria

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2009. - 218 p.Books on Geology and Mineral Resources of Nigeria are very few and mostly not
accessible in Libraries and Bookshops in Nigeria. This book by Professor Nuhu
Obaje is therefore a welcome development and could not have come but at a better
time with the renewed interest and activities in the Geology and Mineral Resources
of Nigeria. The author has brought together several published and unpublished
works into a comprehensive hand-out which I believe will be very useful to policy
makers, the international community, investors, researchers and above all our students
of geology in tertiary institutions in Nigeria and abroad. Additional insights
were also provided with new geochemical data on the Muro Hills Iron Ore deposits
as well as biostratigraphic and petroleum geochemical data on parts of Nigeria’s
sedimentary basins.
The figures are in plentiful abundance, in fact more abundant than the text pages,
which makes the work look more like an album but this is good for our proper grasp
of the subject matter under review.
The chapters are seemingly very disproportionate in size and content. Whereas
very little has been presented on Cretaceous-Cenozoic magmatism and volcanism,
the chapter on Mineral Resources looks like a book of its own. Furthermore, the
in-depth discussion and data presented on the petroleum potentials of Nigeria’s
inland sedimentary basins makes the work look like the author is out again to convince
us that oil can be found in Nigeria’s other sedimentary basins outside the
Niger Delta. Well, it is not surprising, knowing fully well that the author’s geologic
specializations are in sedimentology, petroleum geochemistry, biostratigraphy and
other aspects of the Nigerian sedimentary terrain.
The petroleum sector has dominated the mineral resources of Nigeria and I find
the presentations on the solid minerals very interesting, both in geologic occurrence
and suggested policy modifications. Nobody would invest in the mining of the solid
minerals unless the needed political environment is created.
I recommend this book as a must-be-in the libraries of all government policy
makers, geologists in the academia and industry, national and international investors,
and to all students of geology at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.Geology – Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks
The Basement Complex
The Younger Granites
Cretaceous – Cenozoic Magmatism and Volcanism
Geology – Sedimentary Basins
The Benue Trough
The Bornu Basin (Nigerian Sector of the Chad Basin)
The Sokoto Basin (Nigerian Sector of the Iullemmeden Basin)
The Mid-Niger (Bida) Basin
The Dahomey Basin
The Niger Delta Basin
Mineral Resources
Solid Mineral Resources
Petroleum Resources
Policy Issues and Development Options