…Warns Against ‘Replacing Oil With Minerals’

The reported deaths of 37 young miners in Niger State have triggered condemnation from the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), which says the tragedy exposes the human cost of an extractive economy that continues to place vulnerable communities and ecosystems at risk.

The victims, aged between 14 and 20, reportedly died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) after they were arrested during raids on suspected illegal mining sites in the Wushishi-Lukoto area of Niger State.

HOMEF said the cause and circumstances of the deaths must be established through an independent investigation, stressing that the incident goes beyond the question of illegal mining and raises concerns about detention conditions, poverty, livelihood insecurity and Nigeria’s approach to mineral extraction.

Its Executive Director, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, said Nigeria must rethink an economic model in which mineral wealth is pursued while the communities around extraction sites bear the environmental and social consequences.

“We must stop treating extraction as the pathway to development while ignoring the lives, lands and ecosystems sacrificed in the process,” Bassey said.
He warned against repeating what he described as the history of the Niger Delta in the emerging drive for mineral resources.

“Whether it is oil, gold or critical minerals, an economic model that destroys the ecological foundations of life cannot be the future we seek,” he said.

“Nigeria must not reproduce the history of the Niger Delta by replacing oil with minerals while leaving communities to bear pollution, dispossession, livelihood losses and ecological destruction.”

According to Bassey, the reported deaths should also force attention towards the conditions that push young people into hazardous and informal mining.

“The deaths underscore the urgent need to address the poverty, livelihood insecurity and economic exclusion that push people into dangerous and informal mining, while confronting the environmental destruction associated with unregulated extraction,” he said.

He argued that tackling illegal mining should not simply mean removing informal miners to make way for industrial extraction.

“Stopping illegal mining cannot mean simply replacing miners with more destructive industrial extraction,” Bassey said.

He said Nigeria must confront an extractive model in which mineral wealth is prioritised while communities are left with degraded forests, polluted water, damaged farmlands, unsafe working conditions and lost livelihoods.

HOMEF consequently demanded an independent and transparent investigation into the deaths of the 37 detainees and called for accountability where any violation, negligence or other wrongdoing is established.

The organisation also urged the Federal and Niger State Governments to tackle poverty, unemployment and the loss of sustainable livelihood opportunities that drive people into hazardous mining.

It called for destructive mining practices affecting forests, farmlands, water bodies and other ecological systems to be halted, particularly in ecologically sensitive and community-dependent territories.

HOMEF further demanded stronger environmental monitoring, enforcement and restoration in mining-affected communities, insisting that polluters and operators responsible for ecological damage should be held accountable.

The foundation also called for affected communities to have meaningful participation in decisions concerning mineral extraction, including the right to determine what happens within their territories.

It urged the government to invest in non-extractive and sustainable livelihoods that can reduce dependence on hazardous mining and strengthen community economies.