This report deserves more than public outrage or a fleeting moment of attention. It should trouble our collective conscience and compel every Nigerian who cares about this country's future to demand justice and accountability. We cannot keep burying our dead, abandoning the living and expecting the nation to heal. Justice is no longer merely a moral obligation. It is a question of our collective survival.

In Nigeria, especially in the North, sycophancy has become part of the political culture. Leaders are surrounded by people who praise every decision, conceal every failure and attack anyone who speaks honestly. Poverty sustains this system. Many citizens depend on politicians for food, medical bills, school fees and small amounts of cash. Instead of developing human capital, creating jobs and building productive local economies, politicians preserve dependency. The politician considered “the best” is often the one who shares the most money and distributes the most handouts, even as public schools, hospitals, and industries collapse. Political participation is reduced to loyalty. Citizens praise leaders to survive, while leaders mistake purchased applause for public approval. Traditional, religious and community figures who should speak truth often join the praise machinery. Intellectuals rationalise failure. Young people defend politicians who have denied them education, employment and security. The tragedy is that everyone knows. The leader knows the praise is false. The sycophant knows the government has failed. The victim knows the handout will not change his life. Yet the performance continues. A society that rewards dependency, punishes truth and celebrates handouts as governance eventually loses its capacity to correct itself. Northern Nigeria is dangerously close to that point.

As Nigeria sets up another investigative panel, this time to examine the deaths of 37 young miners inside a dehumanising NSCDC cell in Niger State, history demands scepticism. Here are ten major tragedies that produced commissions of inquiry, investigative panels, fact-finding committees or military boards, but no accountability proportionate to the crimes: • Jos killings, 2001. Justice Niki Tobi Judicial Commission of Inquiry. • Jos killings, 2008. Justice Bola Ajibola Commission of Inquiry. • Jos and Dogo Nahawa massacres, 2010. Solomon Lar Presidential Advisory Committee. • Post-election killings across northern Nigeria, 2011. Sheikh Ahmed Lemu Presidential Committee. • Baga massacre, 2013. Military, parliamentary and NHRC investigations. • Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction, 2014. Presidential Fact-Finding Committee. • Zaria massacre, 2015. Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba Judicial Commission of Inquiry. • Rann displacement camp bombing, 2017. Military Board of Inquiry. • Dapchi schoolgirls’ abduction, 2018. Federal Investigative Committee. • Lekki Toll Gate shootings, 2020. Justice Doris Okuwobi Judicial Panel of Inquiry. Some reports were withheld. Others were disputed, selectively accepted or abandoned. Recommendations gathered dust. Senior officials escaped responsibility. Victims received neither full truth nor justice. Nigeria does not lack inquiries. It lacks the political will to publish findings, prosecute those responsible and implement recommendations. The Niger State investigation must not become another administrative graveyard where public outrage is quietly buried.