A solution chasing many problems
It would appear that the tepid rise in indignation and panic levels among the political and social wing of the northern Nigerian elite over Almajirci is beginning to register in the form of a number of executive orders and plans to cage it or chase it away or around. Almajirci is the ancient practice of […]
It would appear that the tepid rise in indignation and panic levels among the political and social wing of the northern Nigerian elite over Almajirci is beginning to register in the form of a number of executive orders and plans to cage it or chase it away or around. Almajirci is the ancient practice of sending off male children by mostly rural peasant families to teachers in distant locations to learn the Qur’an and other basic Islamic texts until they are adolescents. They beg for food and livelihood as students and live in extreme squalor because the teachers themselves have no means of livelihood outside what the students forage from dangerous city streets and indifferent homes. This practice is almost exclusively Hausa and smattering of Fulani and Kanuri, and offends some fundamental tenets on the place of scholarship and the worth of humans involved in begging by Muslims or in Muslim societies. Almajirci is the face of the bulk of a basically Muslim community that has failed to resolve a century of conflict between two tendencies, one pulling it towards greater exposure to western influences, including education and social relations, and the other resisting changes and tying down huge numbers of the young around systems and processes that have no place in modern political economy and society.
Numbers of the Almajiri have grown alarmingly with the population of a Muslim North fueled by irresponsible polygamy and non-existent social sanctions against parents who defy basic demands of their faith, secular laws compelling parents to send children to modern schools and a battery of legislations seeking to shut down a practice with deep, complex roots. The practice has survived and grown bigger, ironically, because it has defied a weak political will and periodic lamentations that stop at pity for the state of the Almajiri, not the place of the system in modern Nigeria. Now the Almajiri numbers millions, and an elite that lived with it is active in social media showing all the ills of the system and wringing its hands at the problem. Connections are being made between Almajirci and past riots, political violence, the insurgency, urban crimes, child abuse and the waste of millions of youths that should be in the process of being prepared to take up important roles in a region picking the pieces behind the rest of modern Nigeria.
The full tragedy in the neglect of Almajirci as an issue, not just a problem, has had a number of major turning points. Strong governments with the capacity to influence powerful sects supporting Almajirci such as existed in the first republic and military regimes failed to accord the issue the importance it deserved in terms of attention, resources and enforcement of legislations. It would appear that northern leaders were resigned to living with an entire layer of humanity living in permanent wretchedness to the degree that it did not do more than beg for food in rags and diseases. Huge resources went into building western-type schools, and virtually nothing went into improving Almajirci education. Perhaps those leaders believed that if you ignored him, the Almajiri will disappear on his own, and society owed nothing to millions of children whose parents have made choices for them that would consign them to the dregs levels of society for life.
Public funding could have gone into improving tsangaya (almajirci schools) and inducing collaboration and integration of systems. Stronger political will needed to take on deeply rooted practices and values around the Darika sect, but the north lacked leaders with that will. Children in western schools received many incentives to go to, and stay in schools. The Almajiri had no constituency, and that kept him outside the margin that made his system amenable to influence. Libraries were bursting with excellent academic research on the institution of Almajirci, but they did not feed policy and strategy on dealing with a growing problem. Powerful clerics of the sect that supported Almajirci fed fat from politicians, sending their own children to the best schools around the world to acquire the best Islamic and western education, while the Almajiri’s population increased. Even former President Jonathan’s administration dabbled a bit into improving tsangaya schools as an electoral gambit, but the tokenism disappeared with his defeat.
Unfortunately, it does not appear to be the case that governors are involved in changing tactics and strategy. Some are ordering arrests of Almajiri and their parents. Some want them to leave their states. Some say they will find the resources to modernise tsangaya education in the future. Some are invoking legislations that were enacted without even a shadow of a political will to enforce, or any understanding of the magnitude and complexity of the problem. Some are raising alarms that Almajiri are being chased into their communities to compound a crisis over managing a youthful population that is basically a threat to everyone’s future. Some want a comprehensive policy that addresses the entire problem, but they are limited by scope of authority, dwarfed political will and lack of resources.
It would be irresponsible to discourage any genuine attempt to begin to deal with the Almajiri phenomenon, but is equally important to advise against measures that could simply compound a problem. An effective response to this problem requires a number of fundamentals. First, it needs a thorough understanding of the magnitude of the problem, its genesis and manifestations and the interests and forces behind it. Second, it needs an appreciation of the drawbacks of knee jerk reactions or panic measures that will only waste the credibility of government and create a more hostile environment for future policies. Third, there is a need to adopt a long-term perspective in dealing with this massive and entrenched problem. It is unrealistic to think you can ban or obliterate Almajirci within the space of a few months or even a year or two to achieve political goals.
Fourth, there has to be real and effective collaboration and cooperation in measures, strategies and mobilisation of resources among northern governments and major support from the federal government in the area of funding and legislation if the problem will not just be chased around. Fifth, there has to be a major campaign component to any effort to curb or eliminate Almajirci, and this will require the genuine collaboration of religious and other leaders. At all cost, a situation in which a particular sect feels it is being deliberately targeted should be avoided. Sixth, wealthy northerners and the private sector should be mobilised and built into resource mobilisation to tackle this problem.
In the event that some leaders feel these suggestions represent nay-saying chorus, they need to contemplate the options of building massive prison cells to accommodate arrested Almajiri and their teachers in towns and cities, and their parents in villages. They will do this instead of building decent schools and feeding children who attend integrated schools in their localities in future. They should contemplate the real possibility of pushing the Almajiri into greater desperation and towards the many available opportunities to fight the state as marginalised elements. They should be prepared to address a genuine complaint that they are more interested in supporting western education than criminalising Islamic education and improving the circumstances under which millions of children study to become good Muslim adults. Like all problems that had been allowed to fester, Almajirci will be difficult, but not impossible to deal with.
Abubakar can be reached at [email protected]