North Central Governors Forum (NCGF) has called on northern leaders to take drastic action to tackle the problem of almajiri in the country.
Chairman of the forum and Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, who made the call, said the North cannot continue to hold the entire country to ransom over the lingering issues, which seemed to have defied all solutions.
He spoke at the flag off of the inaugural regional conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out-of-school children/almajiri, and vulnerable children in Nigeria, organised by the National Population Commission (NPC) in Lafia, the state capital.
He said the region could not continue to produce children, who she would could hardly take care of, adding that doing so is a sin in Islam.
He said, “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. Until we take care of that, we can not solve the problem.
“Just like it is a sin to continue to marry wives you can not take care of; it is also a sin to continue producing children that you can not take care of.”
He queried why the issue has become mostly Nigeria’s problems as it is nonexistent in notable Islamic countries.
“Why is it that it is only here? I just got back from Saudi Arabia. I didn’t see many almajiri in Makkah, Madina, Jedda, or anywhere else. They are an Islamic nation. Yes. You mentioned that in Pakistan, they have out-of-school children, but their situation is entirely different. Why should Northern Nigeria continue to hold the entire nation at ransom when we know that it is our problem and we have to go out there and find a way to solve it?
“It is high time the people of the region take the bull by the horns to finally solve the lingering problems associated with the almajiri system,” he stated.
In his remarks, chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Hon. Nasir Isa Kwarra, said the conference is a critical step towards fulfilling one of the commission’s key responsibilities: researching and disseminating evidence-based data for policy formulation and development.
He said the inaugural regional conference brought together executive governors, traditional and religious leaders, development partners, experts from academia, professionals and other stakeholders across the region and beyond to discuss the complex and critical challenges facing the North Central zone and Nigeria.
“The overall objective of the conference is to provide a forum for articulating, discussing and proffering actionable solutions to the region’s multidimensional socioeconomic and environmental challenges,” he said.
In a goodwill message, executive secretary of the National Commission of Almajiri and Out-of-School Children, Dr Mohammed Sani Idris, disclosed that available data showed that there is 251 million out-of-school children globally.
“Out of this number, 163m are from Africa. In Africa, Nigeria has the largest number. Nigeria is ranked second globally after Pakistan, with 18.3m out-of-school children.
“For the almajiri, even though the data before us is not cogent and verifiable, it suggests that we have over 30m almajiri today roaming the streets of this country,” he said.
He blamed the situation on the wrong interpretation of verses of the holy Quran.
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