How Almajiri turned school proprietor

Malam Danladi Maikaza has now become a reference point in Niger State not just for establishing the school, but the circumstances that led him into the venture.The 48 years old Almajiri-turned proprietor recalled that: “About eight years ago I enrolled three of my children into a private school here in Minna metropolis. After the first […]

Malam Danladi Maikaza has now become a reference point in Niger State not just for establishing the school, but the circumstances that led him into the venture.
The 48 years old Almajiri-turned proprietor recalled that: “About eight years ago I enrolled three of my children into a private school here in Minna metropolis. After the first term, I ignorantly sent them back to the school without paying school fees thinking that the money I had earlier paid for the first term was meant to cover the whole year.
“To my chagrin, my children were sent back home for failing to pay the second term school fee. However, I was not deterred in my determination of ensuring that my children, like their contemporaries, acquire western education. I therefore took them back and pleaded with the then proprietress of the school but unfortunately she refused to give me any grace within which to make the payment,” he recalled.
He added that when it became clear that the proprietress was hell bent on her decision, he took his children back home.
It was the headmaster of the school that reasoned with him and asked him to bring back the children to school after the proprietress must have closed for the day, he also recalled.
But when the proprietress later discovered the return of Maikaza’s children, she immediately fired the headmaster for acting contrary to her instruction.
Maikaza was unaware of the ugly development between the headmaster and the proprietress, but the headmaster met him and narrated to him what resulted from his action in an attempt to assist him so that his children attend school.
“So when I heard about the unfortunate development I was moved and felt challenged. It was after this incident that I said to myself that I must establish my own school, if not for anything at least to get the dismissed headmaster back his job which he had lost because of me, and also to let the proprietress know that she does not have the exclusive right to own a private school.
“I therefore told the dismissed headmaster that I had three vacant rooms in my other house. I told him to go and assess them and see if they would be okay to start running a private school there. After inspection of the place he recommended that they could be used to start a school,” he revealed.
At this point, Maikaza told the headmaster to go to the state Ministry of Education and enquire on the official procedures for establishing a school. After the necessary steps have been taken and fees paid to government, a provisional approval was given to him for the commencement of his new school.
“The pioneer pupils of the school were my three children that were sent packing from their first school. But before the end of that first academic year the school’s population rose to 150 pupils and that was the beginning of my journey as a school proprietor; he said happily.
He added that the school that started in only three rooms with three pupils has not only expanded in size but also in population, saying that his school now has nursery, primary, junior and senior secondary school sections with pupil and student population of over 2,500.
Maikaza said the school has 150 staff on its payroll out of which 90 are university graduates, 30 National Certificate in Education (NCE) holders and 20 diploma holders, saying the highest paid staff in the school receives a monthly salary of N60,000 and the lowest N25,000.
He said he is fulfilled for the fact that the first set of students from the school will be graduating this year, and that the school has also been certified to serve as centre for Senior Secondary School Examination.
Maikaza who is also Senior Special Adviser to Niger Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, said he was not running his school solely for profit but for the passion he has for education and ensuring that no child should be allowed to grow up in the manner he did – without having the opportunity to attend school.
Maikaza said he came to Minna at the age of 16 as an Almajiri in search of Islamic knowledge but shortly after he graduated from his Qur’anic school he ventured into buying and selling of chickens.
He noted that there was never a time that the school received any form of assistance from government, corporate body or individual adding, however, that “despite our financial constraint we have been able to construct an ICT centre and laboratory for science students.
“On two occasions the state governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, officially visited this school and gave me a word of encouragement. During one of his visits, the governor came along with his Jigawa State counterpart, Governor Sule Lamido. I am therefore appealing to government to come to the aid of the school through whatever form of assistance,” he concluded.