“Out of the 251 million Almajiris worldwide, 163 million are from Africa with Nigeria accounting for over 30 million. It is estimated that about 81 percent of almajiris in Nigeria are domiciled in the northern states where they have become part of the landscape. Tonnes of newspaper pages and countless hours of TV and radio airtime have been burnt in pursuit of a solution to the menace.
So far, the almajiri problem has defied all solutions, no thanks to the hypocrisy of the ruling elite who send their own children to some of the best educational institutions at home and abroad while abandoning the children of the poor to hang on to religious superstitions and non-existent injunctions.
There was cause for cheer the other day when a state governor decided to look in the mirror, metaphorically speaking, and in so doing demonstrated the fact that the ruling elite are not irredeemable after all. Governor Abdullahi Sule put political and regional sentiments aside and addressed the Almajiri problem squarely, charting a possible way out of the disgraceful development.
Sule’s Charge
In Nigeria, it does help when the owner of a problem is allowed to limp to the person who can help, otherwise the latter could be accused of crying more than the bereaved. The fact that a governor of one of the northern states publicly x-rayed the problem and challenged his fellow educated elite to rise up to the challenge of ridding the streets of Northern Nigeria of the ugly sight of unkempt child beggars, is cause for cheer.
Governor Sule was speaking in Lafia at the regional conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out-of-school children/Almajiri, and vulnerable children in Nigeria, organised by the National Population Commission and hosted by the Nasarawa State Government.
“I think, just as I told my colleagues in Kaduna during our last meeting of the Northern governors, I said we should stop complaining. It is time for us to take the bull by the horns and see how we can resolve the problem by ourselves. We should no longer expect anybody to come and solve the problem of the Almajiri system. We must be the ones to solve this problem…
‘’Why should Northern Nigeria continue to hold the entire nation to ransom when we know that it is our own problem and we have to go out there and find a way to solve it?”
Child Beggars
On this point of holding the nation to ransom, many online analysts have given thumbs up to the Nasarawa State Governor. They argue that the Almajiri problem festers because irresponsible parenting is tolerated in the society. Young men and women see nothing wrong in handing over their three-year-old children to Islamic scholars who themselves are perpetually impecunious on account of the scores of mouths they have to feed. The pupil children are then converted to child beggars in the service of the cleric.
Many commentators also recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan tried to assist in solving the problem by building Almajiri schools. The scheme was discontinued as soon as Jonathan left office. His successor, General Muhammadu Buhari, was not convinced about the whole idea. The scheme was killed but there was nothing to replace it. The almajiri were abandoned to their miserable existence, only for some government officials to start shedding crocodile tears when many ex-almajiris were linked to the burgeoning industry of kidnapping, banditry and ransom taking.
Listening to some traditional rulers and government operatives speak about the almajiri problem, one gets the impression that many of them believe that the almajiris are the problem of the federal government. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Can the infamous Area Boys of Lagos make any claim to stipends from the federal government? Did their parents take permission from the federal government before bringing them into the world? Is it reasonable for some indigent persons to continue bringing children to the world without any plans whatsoever to dutifully play the role of parents?
Not Islamic
“We have to find a way to teach people that it is a sin in Islam to continue to produce children you could not take care of”, declared Governor Sule. “Until we take care of that, we cannot solve the problem. Just like it is a sin to continue to marry wives you cannot take care of, it is also a sin to continue producing children that you cannot take care of.’’
He continued: “These are the challenges we have at hand. We must be able to take it seriously and teach our people directly to understand that this is the challenge that we have in Nigeria today. What kind of human being goes and drops his four or five-year-old kid somewhere without being interested in what he eats, sleeps, and wears? And they say it is in line with Islam! There is no way this is Islam. Suratul Bakhara is very clear on this,” said the governor.
Where else can one find this kind of debasing treatment of children under the pretext of religion? That is one question that continues to bother the governor: “Why is it that it is only here? I just got back from Saudi Arabia. I didn’t see too many Almajiri in Makkah, Madina, Jedda or anywhere. They are an Islamic nation. In Pakistan, they have out-of-school children but their situation is even completely different.’’
To illustrate how stubborn Almajiris can be, Governor Sule told the story of how, at great expense, he rounded up almajiris who were not indigenes of Nasarawa State and sent them back to their states of origin. He carried out the exercise four times because the same people kept coming back as soon as they were dropped off in their state of origin.
Now, he has resolved to set up three special schools in Lafia, Akwanga, and Keffi to rehabilitate the Almajiri but called on his fellow governors in the North to ensure that they stopped producing more Almajiris.
If every governor in the North mounted a serious enlightenment campaign in his state to educate the people about the rights of the child and the fact that the Almajiri system as practiced in Nigeria is bastardised, we may actually be taking the first crucial step towards liberating the street urchins from poverty, ignorance and disease.
Skills, Not Dowry
And when next some notable ‘Honourable’ wants to demonstrate his philanthropic spirit, let him commission a skills acquisition centre, not make a spectacle of “marrying off” indigent “widows and single women”. It may have been fashionable 50 years ago to help pay the bride price of a woman or sponsor the marital festivities of less privileged people. What these times call for is meaningful empowerment in the form of transforming Almajiris and single women and widows — and, of course, men — into economic players.
China has shown the world that population is strength if well managed. A productive population is an asset while a population of Almajiris is a liability. If being an Almajiri was a pathway to Heaven or Paradise, you can bet that the traditional and political leaders would have enrolled all their children as Almajiris. Isn’t it suspicious that they have left the poor to go through misery in their race towards Paradise and the Hereafter, while the children of the rich graduate from the best universities in Europe and America and hurry home to replace daddy in politics or in a “juicy” government parastatal?
May God forgive us all.
