Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has offered to support the education of a teenage artisanal miner, Yusuf Aliyu, whose remarks about the deaths of suspected illegal miners in Niger State have gone viral.
Atiku, in a statement shared on Sunday via his X handle, said he was deeply moved by the teenager’s intelligence and confidence, arguing that the boy should be in school rather than working at a mining site.
He said, “I have watched Yusuf Aliyu’s video repeatedly, and each time, my heart breaks. A child with such intelligence, clarity and confidence should be in a classroom building his future—not struggling for survival in a community surrounded by gold but buried in poverty.”
The African Democratic Congress presidential candidate said he did not regard the teenager simply as an illegal miner but as a Nigerian child whose circumstances reflected the country’s failure to protect vulnerable children.
Atiku also expressed concern about Yusuf’s safety, urging that any attempt to reach the teenager should be made through his family and appropriate child-protection channels.
“I appeal specifically for his safety. His courage must not expose him or his family to intimidation or retaliation. I am prepared to support his education and ensure that the brilliance we have witnessed is not buried by poverty,” he said.
Yusuf, who spoke in a video broadcast by News Central Television and subsequently circulated widely online, alleged that personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps shot at miners at a gold mining site in Niger State.
He also challenged the initial explanation by the NSCDC that the deaths of suspected illegal miners in its custody were caused by a disease outbreak.
“We are under 18, and we are not allowed to be taken inside a cell. Heat cannot kill a gold miner,” the teenager said.
He added that mining was one of the ways he and other young people supported their families and paid their school fees.
“We are not illiterate. We are educated. We do this to help our parents because our parents are very poor. We are the ones feeding our parents. It is what we do here that we can pay our school fees,” Yusuf said.
Reacting to the teenager’s account, Atiku questioned how communities endowed with mineral resources could remain trapped in poverty.
He said, “How can a community sitting upon gold remain so poor that it cannot educate its children? How can its wealth leave the soil while hunger and deprivation remain in its homes?”
Atiku further criticised the Federal Government’s handling of artisanal mining, arguing that the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative established under former President Muhammadu Buhari was designed to formalise and integrate artisanal miners into the economy.
He alleged that the current administration had instead subjected vulnerable miners to raids, arrests and detention.
“Buhari saw people to formalise. Tinubu sees poor people to criminalise,” Atiku said.
The former vice president called on the Federal Government to explain the current status of the initiative in Niger State and provide answers concerning the deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners in the custody of the NSCDC.
The miners were reportedly arrested during NSCDC operations in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of Niger State on September 15 and 16.
The NSCDC initially attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak, while survivors alleged that overcrowding, poor ventilation, heat and dehydration contributed to the fatalities.
However, the definitive cause of death has yet to be established.
The Federal Government has constituted a 10-member independent committee to investigate the incident, including the circumstances surrounding the arrests and detention as well as the cause of the deaths. The Niger State Government has also set up a committee of inquiry, while the police are conducting a separate investigation.
Atiku said the incident should not be allowed to obscure the humanity of those who died.
He said, “Calling them ‘illegal miners’ cannot erase their humanity or excuse their deaths.”
The former vice president concluded that the mineral wealth of communities such as those in Niger State should be used to improve living conditions and provide opportunities for young people.
He said, “The gold beneath their community should build classrooms and livelihoods, not graves.”
