Stakeholders blame parents for child involvement in illegal mining 

A fundamental fallout of illegal mining across the states of Nigeria is the involvement of child miners, found to actively engage in various illegal activities, particularly in Niger, Nigeria’s largest mining state, which increasingly, speaks to the abandonment of the Child Rights Act (CRA).

Recall Nigeria, in 2003 domesticated the Child’s Rights Act, which guarantees the rights of children, including the right to health services, the prohibition of child marriage, and the state’s role in protecting those rights. The law was passed to domesticate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines children’s right

However, in 2024 and following increased illegal mining activities, the Niger state government among other stakeholders insists parents should be held responsible for their children caught in illegal mining.

According to Yunusa Mohammaed Nahauni, permanent secretary, of the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Niger State “Generally, my take is that attention should be focused on the parents who let loose their underage children to the labour market prematurely. I take this position because minors cannot decide for themselves. “

“On many occasions, I have hosted parents of children sent away from scavenging around mine shafts, coming to plead that they should be allowed because they support the family with the incomes from their scavenging activities.”

“And I know the state government is trying to curtail the engagement of under-aged children in mining in the state because it is child abuse and that is why we collaborate with the state security. He, however, informed that Niger state had domesticated the Child Rights Act (CRA)” he said.

Nahauni added that the state government was in partnership with the federal government in sensitization and education of citizens as regards child development, further noting that insecurity remains the major challenge of the state.

Also speaking, Abiodun Baiyewu, country director, of Global Rights said “Child labour is inevitable in Nigeria with 20 million children out of school”.

“Out-of-school children don’t sit by idly, they are out there earning their keep, so children involved in mining is not an exceptional situation. I am not as concerned with the laws that bar child labour, I’m more concerned about the laws that fail to make education compulsory and ensure that even the poorest children have access.

Are our laws looking out for our children? In which state is education truly free and accessible? Who is enforcing them? Have you ever heard of anyone being punished for not ensuring that children in their care receive an education, or for involving them in labour?

“There are laws that prohibit children from mines, but how well are mining sites being regulated, especially artisanal and small-scale mining? Where is the oversight? They are not checking to see that miners are properly geared, how much more to ensure that they are documented and not underaged?

She stressed, “As a nation, we fail to understand that the failure to safeguard our children is jeopardizing their future and ours as a country. Their health is in jeopardy. They are also manpower that we failed to develop. Should these children be employed by terror groups to raise funds for their activities, your guess is as good as mine”.

Meanwhile, Dele Ayanleke, national president, of the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) opines that “there is hardly any area of human life that we don’t have fine laws and policies, the challenge has always been our low capacity for enforcement; be it human, logistics or lack of political will”

“Generally, my take is that attention should be focused on the parents who let loose their underage children to the labour market prematurely. I take this position because minors cannot decide for themselves.”

The miners president said “Bringing the issue down to the minefields, the government should provide the enabling environment for the enforcement of the laws, by ensuring the provision of basic educational institutions for the children of mine workers who have decided on family living in the mining camps.

On many occasions, I have hosted parents of children sent away from scavenging around mine shafts, who come to plead that they should be allowed because they support the family with the income from their scavenging activities. “