The Niger State tragedy: Another reactionary inquiry, By Umar Yakubu

​The loss of 37 lives in state custody is a grave indictment of public safety standards. Setting up a panel is not an achievement. The measure of true leadership lies in unyielding structural reform, state level accountability, and uncompromising prosecution. Until the government applies as much energy to prevention, enforcement, and executive liability as it does to managing public fallout, the tragic history of custodial deaths in Nigeria will continue to repeat itself.

Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be. – John Wooden.

​The Federal Government’s response to the deaths of 37 individuals in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Niger State Command, characterised by the constitution of a ten member independent committee and the suspension of 21 officers, is a necessary and commendable first step. Accountable governance demands that every individual found culpable faces the full weight of the law without compromise.

However, if history is any guide, setting up investigative panels after tragic, high mortality custody incidents risks becoming a performative exercise that addresses symptoms, while leaving systemic rot intact.

​Nigeria’s security architecture has spent decades stuck in a cycle of reactive inquiry, and Niger State itself has repeatedly been the backdrop for unpunished security and intelligence failures. Across the state, communities have endured routine atrocities that resulted in official panels or public statements, which ultimately produced zero institutional accountability.

From the mass abductions of over 130 schoolchildren in Tegina, Rafi Local Government Area, where non state actors operated with impunity, to the frequent military airstrikes, such as the January 2022 accidental strike in Niger State that killed dozens of civilians, administrative inquiries have rarely led to public prosecutions or command level sanctions.

​If the Jonathan Kure-led committee and the Ministry of Interior are to demonstrate real intent, they must move beyond inquiry and directly confront the state governors who hide behind constitutional ambiguities. The assertion that solid minerals sit on the Exclusive Legislative List has become a convenient shield for state executives to evade direct liability.

Across the broader national landscape, history shows that once public outrage cools, implementation stalls. White papers remain unreleased, command level officers go unpunished, and compensation to victims’ families, when recommended, is rarely paid. Investigating custodial deaths without dismantling the operational ecosystem that produces them simply guarantees that the next committee is only a matter of time.

​If the Jonathan Kure-led committee and the Ministry of Interior are to demonstrate real intent, they must move beyond inquiry and directly confront the state governors who hide behind constitutional ambiguities. The assertion that solid minerals sit on the Exclusive Legislative List has become a convenient shield for state executives to evade direct liability. State governors, as chief security officers of their domains, possess the administrative apparatus, local intelligence networks, and territorial authority to shut down illicit operations before federal security agencies ever step foot on site.

Permitting thousands of illegal mining hubs to operate openly within state borders, which frequently rely on widespread child labour exploitation, represents an undeniable failure of state level executive duty. Governors cannot preside over regions where shadow economies thrive unhindered, only to act as passive commentators or set up secondary state panels once citizens die in federal custody.

…the Federal Government must also be politically ready to address the issues around the extractive industry in the country. Too many lives are lost, the environment bleeds and the economy suffers. Decades of theft of minerals and oil have been damaging the country in so many ramifications because it is enriching a few.

On its own part, the federal government must address severe command level failures and institutional neglect, rather than scapegoating junior frontline personnel. Standardised, legally binding detention protocols must be enforced across all state commands, accompanied by immediate inter-agency intelligence operations to dismantle the high level cartels financing illegal extraction. Crucially, authorities must account for environmental negligence, making public the exact number of deaths in custody and local communities caused by toxic lead, cyanic, or heavy metal poisoning.

​Finally, the Federal Government must also be politically ready to address the issues around the extractive industry in the country. Too many lives are lost, the environment bleeds and the economy suffers. Decades of theft of minerals and oil have been damaging the country in so many ramifications because it is enriching a few.

​The loss of 37 lives in state custody is a grave indictment of public safety standards. Setting up a panel is not an achievement. The measure of true leadership lies in unyielding structural reform, state level accountability, and uncompromising prosecution. Until the government applies as much energy to prevention, enforcement, and executive liability as it does to managing public fallout, the tragic history of custodial deaths in Nigeria will continue to repeat itself.

Umar Yakubu writes from the Center for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity.