Dubious deal: Street hawkers partner almajiris to defraud ‘kind’ residents

The problem however as it was discovered in Damaturu and adjoining environs, is that there is a dubious arrangement between some of the hawkers and the almajirai whereby rather than collecting the alms paid by the donors, the almajirai sale the edibles back to the original hawkers at lesser prices while the same hawker sale […]

The problem however as it was discovered in Damaturu and adjoining environs, is that there is a dubious arrangement between some of the hawkers and the almajirai whereby rather than collecting the alms paid by the donors, the almajirai sale the edibles back to the original hawkers at lesser prices while the same hawker sale the same items to more and more buyers desirous of giving alms to the same trailing almajirai.

Expectedly, the strange “business cycle” continues throughout the day as the hawkers move from motor parks to public and private buildings as well as business premises while the almajirai keep on trailing them at the back thereby attracting the sympathy from people.

Kanem Trust reports that on most occasions, the almajirai sell back to the hawkers the alms they got with a discount of over 70 percent.

“Assuming the monetary value of a tray of groundnut is N500 and is bought  by an Alhaji who  wants to give it as alms to the almajirai ,the arrangement   is that I would  give them (almajirai) N120 or thereabout and take the groundnut  back”, one of the hawkers who simply identified herself as Sadiya confessed while confiding in Kanem Trust reporter.

“We normally go to areas that people would not see us and perfect the business,” she added.

She declared that on a good day, she re-cycled her edibles more than 10 times. “We make brisk business every morning and Fridays are our greatest days because there are many people who see such days as the best to offer alms,” she added.

Hadiza Sabo who sells boiled sweet potatoes said the only way she could sell her wares with less stress was to have the tsangaya pupils behind her. “The ends justify the means. My prayer is to sell my wares as early as possible and the only way is to encourage the pupils to follow me,” she said.

Observers are of the opinion that there is nothing wrong in giving out alms to those in need especially to pupils who learn under the tutelage of Islamic scholars in tsangaya schools which are mostly less coordinated, a development which makes the pupils of such schools to beg before they could eat any of the three square meals in a day.

“But the connivance between young street hawkers and almajirai to keep on re-cycling one thing for the purpose of making money is nothing but a deviant attitude, it is very wrong,” Muhammad Buni, a tea seller said.      

He wondered how such young pupils would waste several hours away from their schools begging on the streets instead of learning the Holy Quran which is the primary goal of leaving the houses of their parents. “The worst part is that the pupils don’t even eat the alms they got, I wonder what they are using the money for,” Mohammed said.

Our correspondent observe that  after the day’s business which ends around 11am, rather than buying food with their ‘proceeds’, most of the tsangaya pupils take to another unprofitable venture which entails going to hotels, restaurants and other eateries to get morsels of food and eat before taking some  back to their schools.

“By the time they get back to school, most of them are tired and therefore not in the right state of mind to read”, another observer, Ali Abubakar who sells GSM spare parts in Damaturu said.

He said he patronised the street hawkers because he believed in the efficacy of giving alms every morning which made his day bright and successful. “I am not happy with how the children roams the streets but I love giving out alms,” Abubakar added.     

The tradition in towns and villages of Yobe State just as in other major cities in northern Nigeria is that Muslims distribute alms in the morning because it is believed that such overtures bring good fortune and cleanses bad deeds of the previous day.

In Damaturu for instance, a common site at the city centre is a long queue of tsangaya school pupil accosting street hawkers with the hope of conducting the re- cycling business.

More worrisome is that little children who are as young as three years old are in the wagon of the early morning trotting which exposes them to various ills.

While moving along Gujba Road in Damaturu, this reporter sighted little Usman who is just four years old and his brother, three year-old  Bana , following one of the street hawkers around 7am even though it was very cold.

Asked why they were not at home, Usman uttered few words in Hausa and said he was struggling to get what to eat.

He said his family lived in Nguru and that his father brought him to Damaturu along with his brother about five months ago.

When our reporter visited Babban Tsangaya, a suburb in Damaturu which houses many Islamiyya schools, the teachers claimed that their pupils read every morning before dispersing to town to look for food.

Goni Galadima, one of the clerics who confirmed that he had more than 300 pupils under his tutelage said it was a tradition that all his students must wake up as early as 4 am and start classes before the time for morning prayers.

“After the prayers, the students will memorize what they learn before the sun rise around 6.30am when they will be dispersed to go and look for food,” Goni Galadima said.

The permanent secretary in the Yobe State Ministry of Religious Affairs Alhaji Bukar Modu Jumbam said government was worried with the plights of the tsangaya pupils but was quick to add that addressing the problem would require collective commitment by all the governors of the 19 northern states.

He said Yobe was making its modest contribution towards addressing the problems of tsangaya schools in the state whose number was very difficult to ascertain. “The state government has set aside millions of naira in the 2010 budget which will be used in providing solar lights to some of the tsangaya schools in order to make learning a conducive”, Jumbam said.

Jumbam observed that more than 50 per cent of the almajirai who now live in Yobe came from other states. “This calls for collaborative efforts by all stakeholders,” he said

“The problem of the tsangaya school system is strictly a northern affair. The Board of Trustees of the Sardauna Foundation should come up with a clear policy on how to improve the tsangaya school system,” he said.

Part of the measures according to him should include ensuring the inclusion of Qur’anic education in the national policy on education.

“There is the need to also conduct census of the students and the schools after convincing the Islamic scholars,” he added.

He noted that unless some of these measures were taken, it might be very difficult to implement any changes such as organised feeding system which would take young boys such as Usman and Bana from the streets as almajirai.

Perhaps as it seems, while the culture of giving edibles as alms remains indelible in the minds of many residents in the north in particular, there may be the need for the donors to insist the bought items are shared and consumed by the recipient almajirai other wise, the alms may only fall into commodities for more and more dubious re-cycling by street hawkers.