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.
I cannot look at him and see an “illegal miner.” I see a Nigerian child failed by the country that should have protected him. I see brilliance trapped by poverty and enormous promise abandoned by leadership.
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. Any effort to reach him must be handled responsibly through his family and appropriate child-protection channels.
But this video raises a question that should trouble the conscience of every Nigerian: 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?
This is an indictment of the Tinubu administration. The Federal Government controls Nigeria’s mineral resources, yet the communities producing that wealth remain without schools, opportunities or protection.
The contrast is revealing. President Buhari established PAGMI to register, train and integrate artisanal miners into the formal economy, with Niger State included among its intervention states. Tinubu inherited that framework but has met these vulnerable citizens with raids, detention and the label “illegal miners.”
Buhari saw people to formalise. Tinubu sees poor people to criminalise.
This boy is evidence against the Tinubu government. His intelligence exposes the opportunities it has failed to provide. His poverty exposes the injustice of Nigeria’s mining economy. His presence at that site exposes an administration that has left brilliant children without a ladder out of deprivation.
The government must explain what became of PAGMI in Niger State and how 37 Nigerians died in the custody of a federal agency. Calling them “illegal miners” cannot erase their humanity or excuse their deaths.
As a father, a grandfather and a Nigerian, I refuse to look away. I will continue to speak for these children because their lives matter, their dreams matter and their future belongs to Nigeria.
The gold beneath their community should build classrooms and livelihoods, not graves. —AA
Wishing the entire Muslim Ummah abundant blessings and mercy on the arrival of the sacred month of Ramadan.
May this month envelop our hearts with tranquility, draw us closer to Allah, purify our intentions, and fill our homes with peace and joy.
Ramadan Mubarak. - RMK
Truth be told, Kwankwaso is among the most moderate and pro-Nigeria politicians the country has ever produced. Naming him in the U.S. House bill as the sole individual to be sanctioned is not only unfair but plainly erroneous. His name should be withdrawn from the bill without delay.
More broadly, this episode exposes the poor quality of the information underpinning the so-called “Christian genocide” narrative. Its proponents just generate and circulate unsubstantiated claims and then rely on those same claims as evidence, according to @bulamabukarti
Seeing this convoy of trucks delivering education materials at the behest of Kano State Government made my day.
H.E Abba Kabir Yusuf is apparently doing everything within his power to revive education in my dear state.
The US Deputy Energy Secretary, James Danny, said in Abu Dhabi that their oil reserve is almost empty and now there’s talk of sending troops to Nigeria and setting up a base in Port Harcourt
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“Me Manzon Allah Ya fada zamuyi ranar maulidi idan tazo?
Ko Inyass ya dawo duniya bai isa ya amsa wannan tambayar ba”
- Imam Dr. Idris Abdulaziz Dutsen Tanshi, Rahimahullah.
https://t.co/H4Ew8aMSN9