Almajiri, children of the migrants, sent from home to learn Islamic education, often get abused by those extending hands of favour to them. They are always been blamed, and got to answer series of questions in the process of receiving help, especially in the form of food.
Questions such as “where are your parents” emanates and in all sincerity, how can somebody give birth to a child and dump him all in the bar of Islamic teaching, not having to experience family love and having no one to take care of their well being. This story is always said to those who have soft heart and also to those who have deductive reasoning.
Almajiri system of education for children often below the age of 10, a long-time practice is predominant in the Northern Nigeria. The nature of the journeys of these migrants often place their children under the tutelage of Islamic scholars, far away from home.
However, these scholars often lack the capacity to fully support these children nor make adequate provisions for their welfare. As a result of the level of negligence in the system, the basic right of these children are always abused by widespread exploitation becoming deeply rooted in systematic nightmare of the Almajiri children.
It is important to note here that what they are facing today is not their doing and instead of placing bunch of blame and abuses on them, their parents deserve the blames and we must also condemn the practice.
According to their parents’ views and believe of Almajiri education, God said we should send out our children far away to acquire Islamic education, but begging for a living which is totally against the scripture.
I am not against sending out your children to acquire Islamic education, but you must do the necessary things by taking care of them, providing their basic needs such as food, health care, clothing among a host of others.
My father sent me to Almajiri school when I was 6 year-old, he made sure that all my needs were well attended to, my school fee (western education), and we were not permitted to beg for a living because the mallam provided our food.
But today, the streets is filled with abandoned male children all in the name of Islamic education, looking for what to eat and drink. Their looks always irritating, dirty and rough because they been abandoned by their parents who should take care of them. Sadly enough, those who have volunteered to give them, lay their lips on one or two before they help them. If you want to help them, help because of Almighty God and not because of them, because they cannot reward you. They are totally ignorant of their situation.
It is crystal clear that Islamic tradition strongly condemn begging, except in very special circumstances which includes a man’s loss of properties or wealth in disaster, or when a man has loaned much of his money for common good, such as bringing peace between two warring parties.
From the above Islamic view on begging, we can say that Almajiri system as it is being practiced today is totally unislamic.
Allah says in (Q.; 66:6) “O you who believe, save yourselves and families from the torment of Hell fire, whose fuel is humankind and stones”. Also, The Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) says “No parents can give their children a better gift than training them in good manners”.
He further stated that “every one of you is like a shepherd responsible for those under his or her care, a man is a shepherd over his family; a woman is a shepherd responsible for household upkeep.”
Today, Almajiri are deprived of a normal and descent upbringing, Almajiri children who are usually little boys between the ages of four and 15 may have been direct products of polygamous, broken homes or simply economic challenges in the family. They lack adequate family cover. The child or children is/are sent out to the streets under the guise of Almajiri, as soon as the family’s resources are overstretched.
The Almajiri grows up on the streets without the love, care and guidance of parents; his struggle for survival exposes him to abuse (homosexuality and paedophilia), used as a slave, brainwashed and recruited for anti-social activities and used for destructive and violent activities. This is the picture of the pitiful plight of an Almajiri child in Nigeria.
The Almajiri culture epitomises child abuse, social exclusion and chronic poverty in all ramifications. Because the system is believed to be rooted in Islamic religion and Fulani cultural practices, many attempts to reverse the trend or put an end to such abuse of humanity has always hit a brick wall.
It was gathered in an interview with Mallam Suleiman Na’Allah, Mando, Kaduna who owns an Arabic school, that the Almajiri issue has become a provoking issue in our society today, especially Northern Nigeria.
According to him, “I have about fifty of them learning Islamic education here. Some of them are from far places like Kano, Kebbi, Zamfara to mention just three and not the metropolis, rather, the remote areas.”
Speaking on feeding, “Gaskiya, I don’t know what to say in that regards, because I cannot fully take good care of my own family, how should I take care of them. I do not think that is possible for me, I don’t know what tomorrow has in stock, but for now, I don’t have to capacity.
“There are parents are not coming to check on them. 70 percent of them hardly see them once in two to three years, their phone numbers are not going through, I am seriously in dilemma regarding what to do and as a result, I have stopped taking children”.
In order to curb the menace of this ugly act in our society, the former President Goodluck Jonathan designed a programme under which a few Almajiri Model boarding schools were established courtesy of a Federal Government intervention, which was aimed at integrating conventional western education into Islamic education but it only turned out to be merely ‘removing a spoonful of water from a filled tank’ as it wasn’t enough to properly address the problem of the destitute children.
Less than five percent of the children were captured by the Federal Government’s programme, which was meant to take the Almajiri off the streets.
Last year, National Security Adviser, to President Muhammadu Buhari, Babagana Mugonu said that, “the group I spoke about on illiteracy is the Almajiri. Ultimately, government will have to proscribe the Almajiri phenomena, because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years, or decades become a problem to society.
“We are not saying that they are going to be contained in a manner, that you might think we want to do something that is harmful to them, No.
What we want to do is to work with the state government to enforce the policy of education for every child. It is every child’s right, his entitlement so long as he is a Nigerian.
“If you recall what happened in the western region, I think in the fifties and the sixties, when the Premier made education free and compulsory at both primary and secondary levels.
“This is what we are looking at. Let me tell you something, one of the element of national power is the population of a country. You don’t just rely on your armed forces, the location and so on and so forth. The population is a very critical element of national power. It is from the population that you get a critical mass.
“If you don’t start thinking short and long term to overcome this problem like I told you earlier on, to overcome this problem, you require collective efforts. You can’t carry this load and drop it on top of the government, even government should not work as a one-legged tripod, it has to be three-legged.
“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 international communities, how many countries operate this kind of system.”
Let’s be very sincere to ourselves, we have to look at this issue that we have been sweeping under the carpet.
Recently, Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II said “we speak of the Almajiri problem as if Almajiri is the problem when in fact the problem is irresponsible fathers who leave their children on the streets and it is important that we understand what are the roles and responsibilities of those who have political authority, especially those at the state level, on decision”.
There is an urgent need for government to banish the Almajiri culture once and for all and save these innocent little ones from perpetual abuse. Unless it is banned or adequately reformed to meet the modern day demands, challenge and realities, the problems of underdevelopment, educational backwardness and mass poverty in (Northern) Nigeria would continue to go from bad to worse.
People continue to bear children they do not have the resources to cater for, just because they know they could easily push such children out as an Almajiri.
– Ojimaojo Y. Abubakar.
