CHILD labour and out-of-school children remain a serious menace in Nigeria. This is despite the challenges they pose to societal well-being and progress. The failure of government is writ large in this problem.
Governor Umar Bago of Niger State amplified this failure recently when he said young boys in the state were abandoning junior secondary schools for artisanal gold mining because they had “tasted money” and could not leave the sites.
He referenced a UNICEF report which warned that by 2027, areas like Shiroro and other local government areas in the state might not have male children in JSS2 because of artisanal mining. This is alarming.
Bago’s comments followed the recent death of 37 suspected illegal miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Minna, Niger State.
According to him, some of the individuals caught in the illegal mining enforcement operations were teenagers aged 14
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