First lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, has said addressing the issues of almajiri and out-of-school children is huge and challenging but not unsurmountable.
She stated this when she received the executive secretary and other members of the executive of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children in her office.
According to a statement by her media aide , Busola Kukoyi on Friday, Senator Tinubu who noted that there is no harm in the children seeking the knowledge of God and rightly so early, as this is expected to shape their outlook and conduct in life, the entire process must be properly regularised and monitored to avoid abuse.
“Yes, there is nothing wrong with seeking knowledge about God. To address the issue of Almajiri and these out of school children, is it huge, yes. It is challenging. And yes, it is not unsurmountable,” she said.
She was of the opinion that all imams and ulamas involved in the almajiri system must be properly registered and documented by the appropriate authorities, with a provisor that if they are not, they would not be allowed to practice.
She said this is one way of checking abuse on their part.
“People do not have the fear of God in them. They have exploited these vulnerable ones for too long. The schools you are proposing for them should be boarding schools where they can not only get educated about the Quran but also the formal education with skill acquisition. I advise that we take one day at a time. Take this one school and see that it works, then we move on from there”.
The visit was an opportunity for the first lady to intimate her guests with the upcoming program of the Renewed Hope Initiative, RHI which is tagged Flow-With-Confidence Initiative aimed at keeping girls in school even during their monthly cycles.
Earlier, the executive secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children Education, Dr Muhammad Sani Idris informed the first lady that, yet to be verified statistics of Almajiri and Out of School Children in Nigeria were 30 million and 18.5 million respectively which he pointed out, are very disheartening.
