The Nasarawa State Governor and Chairman, North Central Governors’ Forum, Engr. AbdullahiSule said it’s high time the the North takes the bull by the horns and solve the lingering problems associated with the almajiri system, once and for all.
The Governor made this known while flagging off the inaugural regional conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out of school children/almajiri and vulnerable children in Nigeria, organized by the National Population Commission and hosted by the Nasarawa State Government, in Lafia on Tuesday.
According to the Governor, the North could no longer continue to hold the country ransom regarding the almajiri problem since only the region is capable of resolving the challenges associated with the system.
He warned that if the region fails to address the almajiri system, the recent End Bad Governance protest witnessed across the country would be a child’s play by the time the time bomb that is the almajiri system exploded.
“The almajiri problem is indeed a huge problem for us. I think, just as I told my colleagues in Kaduna during our last meeting of the Northern governors, I said we should stop complaining. It is time for us to take the bull by the horns and see how we can resolve the problem by ourselves.
“We should no longer expect anybody to come and solve the problem of the almajiri system. We must be the ones to solve this problem if we are serious about solving the problem of the almajiri system,” he said.
The Governor pointed out that all previous efforts to address the problems of the almajiri have failed because the root cause of the problem is yet to be addressed.
He emphasized that people must be taught to take responsibility of their children rather than sending them out to beg on the streets in the name of acquiring Islamic education.
“We have to find a way to teach people that it is a sin in Islam to continue to produce children you could not take care of. Until we take care of that, we can not solve the problem. Just like it is a sin to continue to marry wives you can not take care of, it is also a sin to continue producing children that you can not take care of,” he stated.
Governor Sule insisted that as long as parents continue to send their children and wards to traditional almajiri schools then the problem would persist.
“These are the challenges we have at hand. We must be able to take it seriously and teach our people directly into their sense to know that they must understand that this is the challenge that we have in Nigeria today.
“Why is it that it is only here? I just got back from Saudi Arabia. I didn’t see too many almajiri in Makkah, Madina, in Jedda or anywhere. They are an Islamic nation. Yes. You mentioned that in Pakistan they have out of school children but their own situation is even completely different. Why should Northern Nigeria continue to hold the entire nation at ransom when we know that it is our own problem and we have to go out there and find a way to solve it,” he said.
While commending the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children for initiating the process of taking the almajiri off the streets through adopting a system that would see the beneficiaries attend universities in Madina, Niger and Malaysia, he said that would not be sufficient to fully tackle the menace.
Recounting his experience tackling the almajiri problem back in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, with his administration transporting almajiris from the streets across the state, back to their states of origin, Governor Sule lamented that four times the number returned to Lafia afterwards.
“What human being on earth would take his 4 or 5 year old kid and take him and drop the child somewhere where you are not interested in what the child eats, where he sleeps, what he wears and you said this is Islam. There is no way this is Islam. Suratul Bakhara is very clear on this,” he added.
He warned further that the North must wake up and solve the almajiri problem since nobody would do that for the region.
He announced plans by his administration to set up three special schools in Lafia, Akwanga and Keffi specifically to rehabilitate the almajiri but called on his colleagues from the North to ensure that they stop producing more almajiri into the society.
The Governor equally urged local government chairmen in the state to emulate the state government by utilizing the tractors at their disposal to cultivate at least 500 hectares of land each in order to boost food security.
“We as a state, decided to go into agriculture proper. We decided to cultivate 2000 out of the 10,000 hectares of land earmarked. We have gone far in harvesting, it’s just 200 hectares that is remaining.
“If you identify 500 hectares, with three tractors now at least, that should be able to help you to do the same and Nasarawa State will not buy food from anybody anymore,” he said.
In his remarks, Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Hon. Nasir Isa Kwarra, said the conference, supported by the Nasarawa State Government, is a critical step towards fulfilling one of the commission’s key responsibilities, research and dissemination of evidence based data for policy formulation and development.
Kwarra revealed that the inaugural regional conference brought together executive governors, traditional and religious leaders, development partners, experts from the academia, professionals and other stakeholders across the region and beyond to discuss the complex and critical challenges facing the North Central zone and Nigeria at large.
“The overall objective of the conference is to provide a forum for articulating, discussing and proffering actionable solutions to the multidimensional socioeconomic and environmental challenges of the region,” he said.
Earlier, in a goodwill message, Dr. Mohammed Sani Idris, Executive Secretary, National Commission of Almajiri and Out of School Children, disclosed that available data showed that there are 251m out of school children globally.
“Out of this number, 163m are from Africa. And in Africa, Nigeria is having the largest number. Nigeria is ranked second globally after Pakistan with 18.3m out of school children. For the almajiri, even though the data before us is not cogent and verifiable but it is suggesting that we have over 30m almajiri that are today roaming the streets of this country,” he said.
Dr. Idris blamed the situation on the wrong interpretation of verses of the holy Quran.
He announced that the commission is inaugurating a programme in Kaduna State where 350 almajiris would be absorbed and exposed to the understanding of Arabic, English and to some skills acquisition.
“That way we are sure they will develop linguistic immunity against any ideology that is not in tandem with the correct teaching of the Quran,” he said.
He explained that also as part of the programme, beneficiaries would be sent to Islamic universities in Madina, Niger and Malaysia.