Flip Flops on Almajirai

Hopes that the end is at last is sight for the much abused Almajiri system of education were raised ten days ago when the president’s National Security Adviser [NSA], Major General Babagana Monguno, said the federal government is considering proscribing the Almajiri system in order to address rising insecurity in the country. Speaking soon after […]

Hopes that the end is at last is sight for the much abused Almajiri system of education were raised ten days ago when the president’s National Security Adviser [NSA], Major General Babagana Monguno, said the federal government is considering proscribing the Almajiri system in order to address rising insecurity in the country. Speaking soon after inauguration of the National Economic Council [NEC] in Abuja, Monguno said, “Ultimately, government will have to proscribe this Almajiri phenomenon because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years or decades to become a problem to society.”

Monguno added, “We have to deal with the issue of these children, Almajiri, regardless of how people feel about it. We must work in sync with the rest of the international community. When I briefed NEC, I alerted them on the dangers of this phenomenon… We are not trying to denigrate any group of people.” The NSA’s pronouncement tallied with President Muhammadu Buhari’s, who said when he was inaugurating the new NEC that governors should enforce statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education.

He said, “Section 18(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended places on all of us here an obligation to eradicate illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education. Section 2 of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act provides that every Government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age. It is indeed a crime for any parent to keep his child out of school for this period. When a government fails to provide the schools, teachers and teaching materials necessary for basic education, it is actually aiding and abetting that crime.”

The President and NSA’s statements on the same day created the impression around the country that a move is on to end or at least to substantially reform the practice whereby millions of children roam streets in the North begging for alms. These children, most of them from poor rural communities, were released by their parents to itinerant clerics in order to learn the Qur’an and other tenets of the Islamic religion. But since the cleric has no good provision for their food or accommodation, they spend most of their days begging in the streets. It is this practice, a denigration and bastardisation of the original aim of the system, that we are clamouring to bring to an end.

The pan-Northern group Arewa Consultative Forum soon came out in support of the move. Its spokesman Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim-Biu said ACF would support efforts to boost western education in the region. He said, “The forum wishes to associate itself with President Buhari’s concern for the nation to overhaul the almajiri system for school that will provide free and compulsory education across the country…Most Nigerians are confusing the real almajiri system of learning with the children that are out of schools, roaming the streets and begging in the name of almajiri.”

However, Chairman of Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi Foundation, Alhaji Ibrahim Sheikh Dahiru called on the Federal Government to find a genuine alternative before banning the Almajiri system. He said, “The Almajiri system of education has been in existence in Nigeria for more than 1000 years and has never 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. All the criminals arrested by security agencies, there was no Almajiri among them, no Almajiri among armed robbers, kidnappers, or insurgents. How can they become threats to security?”

We agree with the Sheikh’s son that the NSA made a mistake in linking Almajirai to insecurity. Apart from students of the late Mohammed Yusuf’s school, there is no evidence that almajirai all over the North took to terrorism or banditry. The clerics that teach them maybe poor and misguided in relation to pupils’ welfare, but they are conservative and conformist. It is more proper to advocate an end to the system because it keeps millions of children out of school, makes to them to live in filthy conditions and they grow up without modern skills. To boot, they can get all the Islamic education they require in integrated formal schools.

Within a day however, the Federal Government stepped back from its announced intention. President’s SSA on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu said in a statement that “abrogation of the Almajiri system of education remains an objective but there is no immediate ban of it” by the Administration. Shehu said, “Indeed, the Federal Government wants a situation where every child of primary school age is in school rather than begging on the streets during school hours. At the same time, 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.”

Of course there should be wide stakeholder consultation, wide public education and adoption of a serious plan. We however urge the Federal Government to immediately commence the process. It might take years but if we don’t start now, more havoc would be created.