Prof. Akintola as metaphor

My attention was recently attracted to a somewhat nauseating babble by an association that parades itself as Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), over a patriotic resolve by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, to, as MURIC alleged, “train 10 million almajiri children in Northern Nigeria”, which the association kicked against in […]

My attention was recently attracted to a somewhat nauseating babble by an association that parades itself as Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), over a patriotic resolve by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, to, as MURIC alleged, “train 10 million almajiri children in Northern Nigeria”, which the association kicked against in a statement it issued same week claiming that Kukah’s idea raises more questions than answers. The statement went further to say that the idea is a ploy for proslytization, modern colonialism and a potential time bomb. Signed by one Professor Ishaq Akintola, Director and Founder of MURIC, the statement also said: “We all agree that something must be done about the almajiri children. We can welcome ideas from everyone but the implementation must be in the hands of Muslims in the region. Any other thing will make the intention questionable . We cannot pretend to be naive as to entrust our Muslim children to the hands of Christian gospellers. As far as we are concerned, Kukah’s Almajiri dream is a Trojan horse.”

“Whatever the situation may be”, the statement continued, “we wish to caution northern Muslims, particularly the elders, never to allow it to happen. Instead of allowing Christian missionaries to seize this kind initiative, Northern Muslims should empower available Muslim NGOs or cater for almajiri children. We know that from experience that whatever happens will be point of reference in the near future. Who will bear the shame at that time? We therefore advise state governments in the region to rearrange their priorities and concentrate on the education and welfare of our children. “

While the position of MURIC reminds me of the divisive questions of religion and citizenship as the perennial cog in the wheel of northern Nigeria’s progress, it is doubtful if Professor Akintola, supposedly a Yoruba fellow, has the locus standi to speak on behalf of the North. He seems to have misled MURIC on what the issues are. Way back in 2017, in a goodwill message on the occasion of my book presentation in Arewa House Kaduna, Bishop Matthew Kukah, represented by Rev. Fr. Anthony Shawuya, clued us into the initiative. The Bishop said: “Unfortunately, I cannot be with you today because as this event is going on, I am also involved in a very important life changing activity that will change the face of northern Nigeria, by the special grace of God. As this is being read, the Governor of Borno state and some of his colleagues from the 19 northern states will be signing a Memorandum Of Understanding with a Spanish company, PROFUTURO, to undertake the provision of digital learning tools that will change the face of education among our children in Northern Nigeria. Together with His Eminence, John Cardinal Onayeikan, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, President of the Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Jos, and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi ll, we have midwifed a project whose impact by the grace of God will change the face of education with special focus on the children of the poor across the north.”

It is unfortunate and a shame that apocryphal scholars like the so-called Professor Ishaq Akintola, who ought to be busy with researches in finding solution to the catalog of problems that are currently threatening the very foundation of our existence such as the daily murder of innocent citizens and the  tsunami of hardship that has come to stay with us, as it is typical of scholars in other climes, have rather resorted into using religion in dredging the already shrinking sea of our primordial differences.

There is no doubt that almajiranci, if what we see today qualifies to be called so, apart from its  negative societal consequences such as being the sustaining fuel of the unquenchable fire of insecurity in the north, has made us northerners the laughing stock of the world. Today, the rest of the country look upon us as doomed by some unknown gods not to excel in academics. Little wonder we are called all kinds of derogatory names whenever we cross the Niger with no distinction whatsoever.

This may have provoked a few patriotic northern leaders who are now insisting that there must be a change of status quo. While the progressive Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi ll had admonished us to convert our many mosques into schools, in Kaduna state, Governor Elrufai is already running an intifada against illiteracy. In a foreword to a book titled “The Politics of Free Education” authored by Richard Dambo, his education commissioner, Alhaji Jafaru Sani, said: “Today, while northern Nigerians are seen by the rest of the country as freeloaders, northern elite and leaders have continued to play politics with education. According to the 2015 Global Monitoring Report (GMR), Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.”

“And out of these 10.5 out-of-school children, the highest in the world so far, 60 percent are in northern Nigeria. This is unacceptable. And this is why in spite of the difficulties, Kaduna state, the gateway to northern Nigeria, has continued to insist that there is no alternative to reforms in the education sector.”

Again, three years back, an illustrious son of the north, Mohammed Haruna, had put the blame of this deplorable state on the generation of the region’s leaders who succeeded the late Sardauna. “The problem, I think,” he said “was that the next generation of the region’s politicians chose to pay lip service to investment in education without which invariably we could only send garbage into our tertiary schools. And as they say of computers: garbage in, garbage out.”

Consequently, as I said somewhere, apart from lack of trust and the strong religious tensions that are today eaten the North, the rest of the country look upon us as parasites. And there is equally no evidence to show that we are not the most educationally and economically impoverished. While others have continued to build their future on investment in education, the North is comfortable in remaining the only Bakery with the license of producing loaves of illiterates to feed the rest of the country with violence at any slightest provocation. We must reverse this ugly trend.

“If, as a result of the agitation for the fragmentation of this great region”, Sir Ahmadu Bello said while addressing the Willinck Minorities Commission in 1958, “fostered and encouraged as it is so much by persons seeking their own political interest, the unity of the North is impaired or damaged, then I fear greatly that we shall step, not through the gates of the future into the broad prosperity which can lie before us, but back into the past, into tribalism, into religious intolerance and violence.” May God prevent this.

Finally, I cannot but join Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed in calling for the North never to miss the nuances of Bishop’s ‘attack’. “We should instead”, as he said. “use the opportunity this sober reflection offers to take one hard look at ourselves. And then in the name of Allah (the most beneficent and merciful), and our enlightened self-interest, dedicate a certain measure of our collective sociopolitical actions and behaviors to end the sufferings of these children.” May God save us from insular scholars of Akintola’s breed.

Damina wrote this piece from Kaduna