By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA (PRECISE POST) – Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar has offered to support the education of Yusuf Aliyu, a teenage artisanal miner whose video from a mining community in Niger State has gone viral, saying the boy’s circumstances expose the poverty and deprivation in Nigeria’s mineral-rich communities.
Atiku, in a statement posted on his X handle on Sunday, said he had watched Aliyu’s video repeatedly and was deeply affected by the intelligence, clarity and confidence displayed by the young boy. He said Aliyu should be in a classroom building his future rather than struggling for survival in a community surrounded by gold but burdened by poverty.
“I cannot look at him and see an ‘illegal miner.’ I see a Nigerian child failed by the country that should have protected him,” Atiku said.
He described the boy as “brilliance trapped by poverty” and said he was prepared to support his education, stressing that any effort to reach Aliyu should be undertaken responsibly through his family and appropriate child-protection channels.
The former vice president also appealed for the boy’s safety, warning that his public comments should not expose him or his family to intimidation or retaliation.
Atiku used the incident to question how a community endowed with gold could remain so poor that its children are unable to access adequate education and opportunities.
“How can a community sitting upon gold remain so poor that it cannot educate its children?” he asked, adding that Nigeria’s mineral wealth should translate into classrooms, livelihoods and opportunities for communities where the resources are found.
He subsequently criticised the administration of President Bola Tinubu over its handling of artisanal mining, contrasting it with the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI), established under former President Muhammadu Buhari to formalise and integrate artisanal miners into the economy.
According to Atiku, the Tinubu administration inherited the framework but had instead subjected vulnerable miners to raids, detention and criminalisation.
“Buhari saw people to formalise. Tinubu sees poor people to criminalise,” he said.
His remarks came amid continuing investigations into the deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners who died while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State. The Federal Government has constituted an independent committee to investigate the deaths and suspended officers connected with the incident.
The precise cause of the deaths remains under investigation. Authorities have ordered medical and forensic examinations, while accounts have raised questions about conditions in the detention facility.
Atiku called on the Federal Government to explain what became of PAGMI in Niger State and to account for the deaths of the 37 detainees.
He said the tragedy should not be reduced to the description of the victims as “illegal miners”, arguing that their humanity and the circumstances surrounding their deaths required accountability.
“As a father, a grandfather and a Nigerian, I refuse to look away,” Atiku said, pledging to continue speaking for children affected by poverty and deprivation.
“The gold beneath their community should build classrooms and livelihoods, not graves,” he added.
