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The deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners should force Northern leaders to confront a failure far greater than illegal mining: the failure to protect the people and lands from which their wealth originates. Earth is patient. It keeps its secrets under granite, schist and laterite, beneath plant roots and riverbeds. Gold lies dormant in its geological matrix. Lithium waits in pegmatites. Tantalite, iron ore, copper and other minerals lie in silence underground, indifferent to human ambitions. The earth can be both a benefactor and a grave if desperation for mineral riches overwhelms its inhabitants.
On September 17, 37 suspected illegal miners died in the custody of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps in Minna, Niger State. The cause of their deaths is still under investigation. President Bola Tinubu ordered a comprehensive investigation, while the Federal Government has set up a 10-member independent committee and suspended officers linked to the incident. The investigation must prove the facts. The above alone is enough, and Nigeria must resist the temptation to treat this tragedy as an isolated incident. This tragedy is at the intersection of poverty, illegal mining, environmental degradation, weak regulations, institutional failure and leadership failure. And the conversation about this should be even more urgent than it is in Northern Nigeria.
As an environmental chemist, I find another dimension to this tragedy deeply troubling. Mining is not about digging in the ground and removing precious stones. This is a chemical intervention in an ecosystem. When geological materials are excavated, crushed, washed and processed, previously immobile elements in the mineral structure can become mobile. Changes in pH, oxidation-reduction conditions, particle size, sediment disturbance, and water chemistry can determine whether potentially toxic elements remain bound in the soil or migrate into the water, plants, and biological tissues. This is not academic nonsense.
Lead does not require a political party before it can cause neurotoxicity. Cadmium does not ask whether the victim is rich or poor. Chromium knows no boundaries between mining sites and villages. Contaminants obey chemistry, not political geography. This should scare any leader in the North who talks about mineral wealth without talking about environmental management.
For decades, political discourse in the North has been dominated by insecurity, poverty, appointments, elections, federal allocations, and the constant competition for political relevance. But stewardship has essentially disappeared.
Where were the leaders of the Northern countries when our lands were being ravaged? Where are the governors when mining communities become ecological sacrifice zones? Where were the senators and House members when the holes left behind became death traps? Where are the traditional institutions when rivers become reservoirs for sediment and contaminants? Where are the influential businessmen who can mobilize millions of dollars for politics but cannot mobilize huge capital for legitimate mineral processing? Where are the intellectuals who should transform the mineral resources of the Northern countries into a serious development philosophy? And where is the political excitement when the younger generation in the North, faced with unemployment and poverty, is plunged into a dangerous abyss because the alternative is days of economic irrelevance?
These questions are not a condemnation of any Northern leader. Therefore, North Korea must face an uncomfortable anagnorisis. We have become very sophisticated in terms of the political bricolage of influence, appointments and alliances, but we are strangely ignorant of the environmental basis for prosperity. We can be fierce in political arguments and less careful in our actions towards the environment. This is an untenable aporia.
Niger State, for example, has tremendous mineral wealth, including gold, lithium, coal, iron ore and other resources. The investment agency itself describes the state as rich in solid minerals. The opportunities are great, but the responsibilities are also great. A serious minerals economy requires geological mapping, licensing, environmental impact assessment, occupational safety, water quality monitoring, mine reclamation, local processing, value addition and a transparent revenue system. This requires a laboratory capable of detecting contaminants before the community becomes a case study. This requires scientists at the table, not politicians at the podium, and Northern leaders need to understand that land is not an endless treasure trove. It is a legacy.
This tragedy cannot be another number. There is a tendency in Nigeria to mourn hard, investigate briefly, and forget completely. We can’t afford to do that here. These 37 people have the right to justice. Their families deserve the truth. The investigation must determine what happened inside the detention facility and whether negligence, misconduct or other unlawful acts contributed to their deaths. The Federal Government said the committee would examine the arrest, conditions of detention, medical treatment, cause of death and responsibility. However, justice for the dead should not be a necessity for the living.
But deeper questions remain. Why are young Nigerians risking their lives in illegal mining? Why does the illegal mineral trade remain attractive? Why is society willing to tolerate environmental damage? Why do some new leaders speak out after a disaster? Why hasn’t the political leadership in the North developed a more fertile philosophy around its natural resources? This is not a question for Abuja alone. They come from Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kogi, Bauchi, Gombe, Sokoto and every Northern community where the earth is opened without regard to what happens next.
We have to stop treating the environment as scenery. Northern countries cannot continue to demand development while allowing the ecological foundations of development to be degraded. The time has come for a different leadership, one that understands that political power without stewardship is a complex chiaroscuro, mere shadow and no substance.
The 37 men probably entered the earth in search of riches. They should not leave a country that is still seeking responsibility. Nigeria has spent decades mining its riches. It’s time for us to start digging for wisdom.
By: Sani Abdulrazak
