Almajiri ban: FG urged to provide alternative, consult stakeholders

The call for a ban of the Almajiri system of education has set the controversial issue once more on the front burner.   While inaugurating the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari, emphasized the need for governors to rigorously enforced the statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education. He […]

The call for a ban of the Almajiri system of education has set the controversial issue once more on the front burner.

 

While inaugurating the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari, emphasized the need for governors to rigorously enforced the statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education. He said it is criminal for parents not to enroll their kids in school.

The president said the children should be safeguarded from roaming the streets and protected from all the evil influences that assail idle hands and idle minds.

At a post NEC meeting press briefing, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, said the federal government was considering proscribing the Almajiri system to address the rising insecurity in the country.

However, in a clarification on Friday, presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said the ban on Almajiri system of education, though an objective would not be immediate.

In a statement, Shehu called for caution on responses to pronouncements by President Buhari on free and compulsory basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age. The presidential aide pointed out that: “We don’t want to create panic, or a backlash. Reports that there are plans for massive arrest of parents are definitely out of place. Things have to be done the right and considerate way.”

He said “As many have stated in their views, the Almajiri phenomenon represents a security challenge and a scar on the face of Northern Nigeria”

But, the president’s statement elicited responses just hours after the inauguration with various suggestions. There are among other suggestion that the federal government should engage all stakeholders and provide a viable alternative Islamic education system before banning the traditional Almajiri system.

The Chairman, Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi Foundation, Alhaji Ibrahim Sheikh Dahiru made the call in Bauchi while reacting to the statement credited to the National Security Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Babangida Mungono on the plan to proscribe the Almajiri system to address the rising insecurity in the country. He said the federal government should find a genuine alternative before going ahead with its intention.

According to him, “the Almajiri system of education has been in the country for more than 1000 years and they have never ever been a threat to security. They are the pupils learning recitation and memorizing the Holy Qur’an. They are not criminals. They are the ones praying for peace and stability in the country.”

Ibrahim pointed out that, there are no Almajiris among the criminals or insurgents being arrested in the country and as such cannot pose threats to security.

“How can they be accused of threat to security using the name of Almajiri? I think it’s time government and security agencies separate Almajiri system from criminals or any insecurity they are not criminals but Qur’anic reciters and memorizers,” he said.

According to him, Sheikh Dahiru had advised the government to help genuine stakeholders of Almajiri education with soft loans on agriculture to enable them produce the food they will eat with their pupils.

He explained that if federal government will be sincere and fair to Almajiri and allow real Tsangaya owners to facilitate the integration of Tsangaya and Islamic education into the modern educational system of Nigeria, it will go a long way in tackling proliferation of Almajiri system of street begging.

The Islamic scholar stressed the importance of memorizing the holy Qur’an and urged Muslims and all stakeholders to join hands together in order to promote Qur’anic and Islamic education for the wellbeing of the society and development of the country.

He said in the interim, government should come up with a multidimensional strategy among which is the establishment of modern Islamic colleges with facilities to train them in both Western and Islamic education as well as in skills acquisition.

He added that, government should also provide palliative measures to the teachers and pupils through provision of feeding and clothing.

Also, according to a Kano-based Tijjaniya Islamic scholar, Barrister Habibu Dan Almajiri, the issue of banning of Almajiri has to be a gradual process. He added that, only in three situations Islam prohibites begging for adults.

“If government is really serious about this issue which is related to knowledge seeking, there is a need for it to extend similar concern, regards and intervention to the Almajiri system through collective partnership between the affected states in building of adequate schools to accommodate them after conducting a censors to ascertain their numbers, feeding them and also supporting their teachers. Until sustainable consideration is being given to the system, banning Almajiri will not succeed as assumed,” he said.

For Sheikh Gwani Lawi Gwani Danzarga, who is one of the pioneering members of the national committee on Almajiri model school established by former President Goodluck Jonathan, the federal government must have had good cause in making that statement adding that, he strongly believes that the ban is on Almajiri begging and not Almajiri educational system.

Sheikh Danzarga who is the President of Qur’anic Reciters Association of Nigeria advised the government to endeavour to include experienced Almajiri education teachers in its future preparations on ways to tackle the issue.

He further stressed that most of the Almajiris seen littering the streets of major cities are not for Qur’anic schooling adding that they were just hiding under it to source for food.

“Outright banning won’t solve the issue, because there is a great need for the government to institutionalise the Almajiri system of education with a clear demarcation as it was done to the conventional education,” Sheikh Danzarga noted.

Similarly, the Chief Imam, Abu Ayubal Ansari Friday Mosque Yan Katako Rijiyar Lemo, Kano, Sheikh Ali Ali, said there is a strong need for clarity on the banning issue as many have looked at it as being  ambiguous.

According to him, what the government ought to have concentrated on is on sanitizing the system and co-opting it into a more conventional system that will address the issue of street loitering in the name of begging, adding that there is a need for reviving the already existing Almajiri model school.