Child labour and school dropout numbers remain a serious menace in Nigeria, and the damage reaches well beyond the classroom. The Punch addressed the problem in a commentary headlined 'Mining must not erase education', drawing a line between ore pits and abandoned desks. The paper argued that government failure sits at the heart of the situation, and it had a fresh example to point to. Governor Umar Bago of Niger State recently said that young boys in his state were abandoning junior secondary school. The editorial treated that admission as confirmation of how deep the neglect runs rather than a routine local remark. When children swap schooling for mining work, the state loses educated citizens while the children lose their brightest prospects. The message of the piece was that mineral wealth means little if the education system is sacrificed to get it.