The Media for Social Change Foundation is deeply concerned by the disturbing pattern of deaths linked to Nigeria’s mining sector, from the loss of 20 plus miners each in collapsed pits in Kogi and Taraba States to the death of 37 suspected illegal miners while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State.
These incidents demand that Nigeria looks beyond the familiar language of illegal mining, enforcement and regulation and confronts the most fundamental issue: the protection and value of human life.
A miner should not have to choose between risking death inside a mining pit and risking his life in the course of government enforcement.
The deaths in Niger State are particularly disturbing because they occurred after the victims had been taken into state custody. The actual cause of the deaths is yet to be established, and forensic examinations and autopsies are being conducted. The circumstances surrounding their arrest, detention and deaths must therefore be independently and transparently established.
We welcome the investigations already announced, but Nigerians deserve more than investigations that eventually disappear from public attention.
Every death must have an answer. Every answer must lead to accountability where wrongdoing is established.
The recurring mining tragedies in Kogi, Taraba and Niger also expose a wider failure to adequately protect people at the most vulnerable end of Nigeria’s mineral economy.
We call for a comprehensive review of how the country regulates mining, protects mining communities, conducts enforcement operations and treats persons arrested in connection with alleged illegal mining.
No campaign against illegal mining should become a licence for abuse. No mineral is worth a human life.
We therefore call for transparent investigations into the Kogi and Taraba mining disasters and the Niger State deaths, with their findings made public and responsibility established wherever negligence or violations are proven.
We also urge authorities to create effective channels through which miners and host communities can report dangerous mining activities and unsafe enforcement practices without fear.
Nigeria must stop counting bodies after disaster and start preventing the conditions that produce those bodies.
The wealth beneath our soil cannot be allowed to become a recurring source of graves above it.
The dead cannot demand accountability. The living must.
Signed:
Boluwaji Obahopo and Opeyemi Owoeye
Co-Founders, Media for Social Change Foundation
19 September 2026
