Alamjiri: Sitting on a time-bomb

In Nigeria now, there are an estimated five million almajiri across the north despite the passage and signing into law of the Child Rights Act; a good number of northern states where this problem is predominant prefer holding on to ancient traditions that ceded child rights to parents. Children with great potentials are left to […]

In Nigeria now, there are an estimated five million almajiri across the north despite the passage and signing into law of the Child Rights Act; a good number of northern states where this problem is predominant prefer holding on to ancient traditions that ceded child rights to parents. Children with great potentials are left to waste in a shack pieced together from corrugated roofing sheets called Almajiri school, wearing forlorn faces, dishevelled with worn out or tattered clothes, for no fault of theirs.

Almajirai pupils hang small bags with their few belongings in the dark and ramped conditions, the children are compelled to study, sleep and seek religious knowledge. These innocent childreing are given no money. Instead, they are forced to beg for survival, three times a day. More than fifty children with torn cloths and unwashed faces, decaying teeth hunch over small wooden tablets with sections of the Qur’an. Above them stands a Malam with a whip to ensure these children memorize the Qur’an.  They are the almajiri hundreds of kilometers away from their families. They receive no western education, rather focusing only on Islamic learning with the aim of memorizing the Qur’an. With zero parental care during his developing stage, an almajiri engages in begging and some other forms of hard labor for sustenance either by carrying luggage’s from the park or fetching water, washing cloths, cars and ironing peoples cloths for a living or run slatternly during breaks in classes on a daily basis to support their teachers.

The census ever taken was in Kano State which found in 2006, that there   are 1.2 million almajirai in Kano alone while one of the researchers working with UNICEF estimates that 60 percent of the children never return to their various homes. States where the Child Rights Act has been signed into law should also consider these innocent children and pass the law in order to afford them a basic universal education. This is very necessary because they are a threat and real problem to the society and may take over the control of this country in a very unpleasant manner.

They are truly a violent threat to Nigeria; government should therefore, take a very quick action to control and bring an end to this critical situation before it becomes too late to handle.

Amina Baiwa Muhammed, Mass Communication Department, Bayero University, Kano