Arrest the bigwigs who profit from the illegal mines

By DAGGA TOLAR While joining in mourning the death of 37 of us, who tragically suffocated to death in the cells of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State, the government has come up with a swift response that has resulted in the arrest of NSCDC officers and the establishment of a probe panel to investigate the cause of the incident. We in the Movement for a Socialist Alternative (MSA) are, however, not sucked in by this public display of empathy by the government; it is sheer play to the gallery, when in reality it is the government, both past and present, that should be held accountable for this largely preventable and unwarranted tragedy, not even at the equally dangerous mining site but in detention in a government facility.

It is no longer news that some of our northern states mine and sell gold, tin, lithium, uranium, iron ore, and other rare earth elements in commercial quantities. According to a report, there are “44 mineral resources spread across more than 500 identified locations” in the northern part of the country. Why is it that the necessary legislation has not been put in place to bring these assets under state control, so that the whole country can benefit from this wealth and these resources? Why reserve them for a few bigwigs to keep lining their pockets? Who are these bigwigs who employ these youths who are desperately in need of means of survival, condemning themselves to work in the appalling and unwholesome conditions in the mines? Are they untouchable? Why arrest the workers and not the bigwigs? Is it that they are fronts for members of the ruling class, and the arrests were carried out by overzealous NSCDC officers who want to demonstrate that they are working? These bigwigs are the real crooks, who are…