Being Jalal for just a day
Jalal just turned the bend to approach Babbar Kasuwa (main market) when he bumped into a swarm of almajiri running past a “keke”. He wasted no time to ask what was amiss to cause such panic flight of his companions. Clasping his blue plastic bowl and making sure the allele (moimoi) he picked from the […]
Jalal just turned the bend to approach Babbar Kasuwa (main market) when he bumped into a swarm of almajiri running past a “keke”. He wasted no time to ask what was amiss to cause such panic flight of his companions. Clasping his blue plastic bowl and making sure the allele (moimoi) he picked from the garbage bin did not fall off, he joined the race. Jalal and his almajiri colleagues know the area like the back of their hands. He heard the blaring siren and added speed ahead of his companions. When they reached the airport fence, they did the needful, each one of them throwing his plastic bowl over, and diving under and into the tall grass. Jalal knew better not to throw his bowl over. He rolled under, a piece of fence wire tearing his dirty brown kaftan, an only possession, from his neck right down to his back. They were safe. Alas! Sadiq, Salisu, Tamandu and Danlami could not make it and could not be seen. They had been picked up obviously.
“What happened, what came after you?”, Jalal, panting, asked Danliti who was struggling to get his breath. When he did, Danlitti said, “Wallahi they have banned begging! They sealed malam’s house and chased after us. The task force was after us.”
Jalal thought for a moment, staring down at the grass before him, and then asked, “Litti, no notice?”
Danlitti just stared back at Jalal in disbelief. What should he answer Jalal now?
I tried to be Jalal, an almajiri, for just today – a few moments in Jalal’s shoes and frame of mind. It begs the question. No notice? Did I not deserve to be told that my existence as almajiri has now been banned and I am no longer legal? And also, is mine the first unlawful act? What of my parents whose condition caused them to throw me away? Were they legally covered to bring me here and just throw me away like this? But this is life!
Let me get out of Jalal’s frame of mind and predicament. What finally brought about some action that carries the semblance of addressing the almajiri problem in Northern Nigeria is ironically not the shameful spectre of the almajiri. That he suddenly became the vector of the coronavirus is the reason his problem was addressed so haphazardly. In a meeting that had 17 of 21 northern governors present, the decision was taken “to take a cue from Kano, Kaduna and Nasarawa states which had began returning almajiri children to their families and states of origin, while those within their states who do not have parents are taken care of by the government, all in a bid to check the spread of covid-19. The governors vowed never to allow the system to persist any longer because of the social challenges associated with it, including the perpetuation of poverty, illiteracy, insecurity and social disorder. Thus northern governors have been harvesting the almajiri in their domains and making attempts to return them to their states of origin in a bid to link them up with their parents.
Will this address the problem? Can we take the resolution of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) to the bank? Will it pay? I doubt it and I am not the only one. Even among the governors, it is evident that many of them who endorsed the agreement did not have their hearts in what was agreed upon. It is apparent from the lack of readiness on the part of both sending and receiving states.
Kano State which initiated the move to deport over 1,000 apparently only scratched the surface since it has over five million almajiri of the 10 million said to be in the North; nearly doubling the state’s 3.5 million enrolled primary school children. There has not appeared any serious effort to address the state’s challenge of the persistent almajiri. Street begging, like all the ills of the city and the state, continue unperturbed.
In all the attempts so far, Kaduna State’s Nasiru el-Rufa’i alone holds a viable template. Long before now he made the almajiri practice unlawful and prescribed legal sanctions for those who practice it. He then made education compulsory by law for all school age children, taking care to include Quoranic education in the school curricula. I had hoped that the NGF would debate and adopt the El-Rufa’i approach as the common template for regional application. Alas! I see many being discouraged now that when El-Rufa’i tested his lot, he found up to 65 of a total of 689 infected with COVID-19. The remaining governors should look twice.
The main reason I believe the ban on almajiri will not be a success is because the action of the northern governors is spontaneous. Only a well studied approach to the problem will succeed. It is a shame that advantage was not taken of several detailed studies of the almajiri syndrome from well known scholars and available even on the internet. It is a necessary resort. All studies are in agreement that “the almajiri system is central to Northern Nigerian identity”, and it is driven mainly by poverty, ignorance, and tenacious push of religion and tradition. The solution needs to be an all encompassing template agreed to by all northern governors. It should be seen as a rescue operation because in all respects, the children are victimised, and abused and denied all children’s rights. Discarded by uncaring parents, the almajiri from age even below five is vulnerable to adults in his effort to survive the vagaries of harsh life, exposed to wanton abuse, enslavement and even brainwashed for violent crime.
The decision to return them to parents though looks good, is a nimble ploy. States must brace up and establish capacity to address the problem; beginning with a headcount and necessary data profiling. If parents are too poor to accept the load, it would be a waste of time returning the children. Education must be made free with the issue of primary school feeding taken more seriously. We must integrate almajiri education into our universal basic education. It may be worthwhile to rejig the UBE law where states are unable to access funds now fallow at UBEC while as well, some more budgeted funds are wasting at the almost moribund Nomadic Education establishment. We can collapse the institutions and address the almajiri challenge through an all encompassing northern template with the available funds. Jalal knows nothing about this.