Another preventable tragedy has again forced Nigeria to confront a familiar truth that when government neglect meets weak enforcement in the mining sector, it is citizens who pay with their lives.

Development Diaries reports that the country’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has ordered a shutdown of the mining area and announced an investigation following the death of at least 37 people in the Kampani Zurak area of Wase, Plateau State, after inhaling toxic gases, including carbon monoxide, in a confined, poorly ventilated underground space.

The incident is being politely described as ‘a gas leak’ or ‘an explosion’, but let’s not do that to ourselves. What happened is not a mystery, and it was not a surprise.

Nigeria already has health and safety rules designed specifically to prevent this exact type of disaster. The failure was in enforcement and accountability.

And until those two are treated as real government responsibilities instead of optional items, pits across this country will continue to double as mass graves.

This particular tragedy happened in a mining pit linked to Mining Licence 11810, reportedly operated by Solid Unit Nigeria Limited, owned by Abdullahi Dan-China.

The site was described as abandoned, the kind of abandonment that sounds harmless until you remember that stored minerals in abandoned lead mines can quietly emit poisonous gases for years.

The Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and the Mines Inspectorate Department should be enforcing safety standards, sealing dangerous pits, and ensuring licence holders comply with closure rules.

Licence owners, in this case Solid Unit Nigeria Limited, owe miners a duty of care, which includes hazard management and community engagement. Plateau State authorities should ensure emergency response readiness, and security agencies must secure hazardous sites instead of allowing unfettered access.

Yet, here we are again, with stunned officials acting like toxic gas in poorly ventilated pits is a new invention.

Nigeria’s mining regulations already state that underground workspaces must be ventilated thoroughly enough to clear dust and dilute noxious gases. Mines must have ventilating fans when natural airflow is inadequate, and unsafe areas must be barricaded.

Also, before anyone enters a confined workspace, a trained professional must test the air to confirm it can sustain life. In other words, everything needed to prevent this tragedy is written clearly in the rulebook.

So the real scandal is not that carbon monoxide leaked; it is that human beings were allowed to enter a deadly pit with no ventilation, no barricades, and no air-quality testing whatsoever.

Some reports have rushed to label this ‘illegal mining’, as though that absolves everyone else. But even if artisanal miners were involved, the government still has a duty to map and fence abandoned pits, enforce reclamation obligations on license holders, and carry out routine inspections before people die, not after. 

This is also a fundamental right-to-life issue, because when the Nigerian state issues mining licences, collects fees, and promotes solid minerals as an economic growth strategy, it takes on the responsibility of protecting the lives of those who work in that sector.

That obligation did not materialise this week; it already existed, and it was simply ignored.

And while most victims were young men in their 20s and 30s, the silent casualties are often the women and children left behind. Widows suddenly lose household income, children drop out of school because survival becomes the priority, and survivors struggle with lifelong respiratory or neurological damage.

So what should citizens be insisting on right now?

First, the government must publish the inspection and licensing records for this site. This should include every condition, safety plan, inspection report, and violation notice.

If the pit was truly ‘ceded’ to the community, Nigerians deserve to know who authorised such madness.

Next, we need a publicly accessible register of abandoned and hazardous mine sites in Plateau and surrounding states, complete with GPS locations, hazard types, and fencing status.

Ventilation standards must be enforced and publicly documented; and because these were human lives, not numbers in a spreadsheet, survivors and families must receive medical care, compensation, and psychosocial support. Citizens can petition the National Assembly committees on Solid Minerals and Labour to organise a public hearing.

Institutions must play their part, too. Mines inspectors must publish quarterly safety records, and sanctions, not condolences, must follow any negligence proven. In fact, no underground operation should be allowed to function without emergency rescue plans that actually work.

The bottom line is that these miners died because Nigeria refuses to enforce the laws it already has. Until that changes, condolences will remain routine, and preventable funerals will continue to define our mining sector.