Almajiri – Sultan Abubakar’s clarion call

In the midst of all issues, the almajiri matter is trending. The swarm of child beggars in our cities, who should all be in school, is undoubtedly the shame of the North. Even when you find them in other parts of Nigeria, you can be certain they have hailed from the uncaring Northern Nigeria, where […]

In the midst of all issues, the almajiri matter is trending. The swarm of child beggars in our cities, who should all be in school, is undoubtedly the shame of the North. Even when you find them in other parts of Nigeria, you can be certain they have hailed from the uncaring Northern Nigeria, where we procreate in tens and set them loose on society. By President Goodluck Jonathan’s conservative count, there were up to 9 million. At a point, Kano had an estimated population of over one million child beggars.
Once reflecting on this, it struck me that hardly any child beggar under the appellation of almajiri is female. What careful demographic planning and disposition could make this possible, that there be no female almajiri children save male ones! Imagine a State with one tenth of its population being children that are technically “fatherless”!
It again struck me that these children are agile, adaptive, and bold – character traits of persons with a high intelligence quotient (iq). Among the swarm of filthy and unkempt youth are thus, the future engineers, technicians, architects, doctors, or even some Zuckerberg, Buffet, Dangote, or Timawus Mathias the opinion columnist or whatever or whoever you name. With what kind of heart do we allow this waste of human resource? Clearly millions in the nine or more million almajiri children in the North could have a changed destiny if we applied our minds and actions towards change.
In the past, you could not criticise the practice of street child abuse without hurting the sensibilities of faith adherents. Then, the scope was not this critical, and indeed, the child beggars were almajiri in the real sense – children bequeathed by parents to a Qur’anic scholar for learning and discipline. Then, they were well known and were part of the ward communities. Today, a plastic begging bowl generation has taken over, without parental trace, and attending no visible traditional school, but roaming streets, sleeping in transport parks, and constituting a public nuisance.
Happily, Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar, has afforded a giant leap by his pronouncement recently and in clear terms, that the almajiri has nothing to do with Islam, but rather, is simply a case of poverty on the part of parents. Said the Sultan, the poverty state of most parents makes them unable to send their children to school, and instead, are happy to get rid of them to their begging on the streets. The pronouncement is a giant leap as it clears all inhibitions to a national proactive narration of the challenge of the spectre of the Almajiri, making change more achievable.
I have raised the issue with many Governors but in all nearly instances, the discussions petered out to a silence of lack of interest, or at best, a change of topic. It is obvious that attempts to address the problem without unified and concerted efforts of State Governors, particularly of the Northern States of Nigeria would be fruitless. It would be appropriate to apply a funded social security ordinance, along the parameters articulated by Vice President Osinbajo. It should pay stipends to the aged, the physically challenged and the vulnerable such as aged childless widows. It could then outlaw child begging and hawking. Coordinated by the Federal Government, each State of the Federation should manage its peculiar aspects.
Blame for the worsening situation of the almajiri syndrome lies squarely on the shoulders of our leaders, and sad to say that even those Northern Governors who made feeble attempts to address the problem failed to follow the efforts through. In many cases, it was better the attempts were not even made, because mature idlers got absorbed into political gangs, establishing a structured path which Boko Haram easily capped and took advantage of. Its armies of insurgents were harvested from these “fatherless” male youth.
The idea of almajiri schools was sold to President Goodluck Jonathan, and it was packaged to look like a ploy for challenging the recruitment of child soldiers and suicide bombers by Boko Haram. Alas, there was no sincerity in the proposal, and clearly those who proposed it were aware that it was an empty promise. President Jonathan was taken advantage of for nefarious pecuniary aims different from offering a solution to the almajiri syndrome. Besides this, majority of Northern Governors did not apply themselves to funds available at the Universal Basic Education specifically saved for addressing the almajiri syndrome. Minister of Education Adamu Adamu would do well to force the application of the funds, or at best review the UBEC law in order to facilitate Federal Government intervention at the State level.
Private individuals, particularly super rich Northerners who wake up daily to a swarm of destitute children at their palatial homes, can turn this waste, to wealth of human resource. NGO intervention and direct programme funding in schools of chosen locality can go far. I have personal testimony of my relationship with a begging cripple Sale Gurgu, who today makes and sells fine shoes, plays Paralympic football, is happily married and has given me two beautiful grandchildren, self esteem restored. The effort did not cost a fortune more than a love-based relationship.
The American University of Nigeria in Yola has experimented to great results with a group of child beggars. The children received Qu’ranic and contemporary education, a meal for each day of attendance, a bar of soap and a bath. The change was dramatic and indeed a song to sing on rooftops. This challenge can be addressed successfully.