About a decade ago, when the Goodluck Jonathan administration embarked on the Almajiri Education Programme which built and equipped 157 Tsangaya (Almajiri) Model Schools across Nigeria, he got a cold shoulder from the Sultan of Sokoto, northern governors, emirs and Muslim elites, because among other reasons, they didn’t want to accept a Christian President’s solution to a Nigerian Islamic problem. Last week, northern governors who are seemingly wiser now, unanimously placed a ban on this evil practice where parents jettison their primary responsibility of providing shelter, clothing, food, and education for their male children and subsequently send them to Islamic schools. Almajiris usually begin their studies between the ages of 3 and 12 and learn about the Quran in schools called Tsangayu. In their early twenties, the Almajiris reach Sauka, graduation, and become Gardi. When not engaged in learning the Quran, Almajiris in rural areas usually work on farms, while urban Almajiris conduct small tasks like domestic chores, running errands, and fetching water. Their main source of sustenance is street begging.
The northern governors emboldened by COVID-19 went a step further by repatriating these children to their states of origin. As I read this on the news, I could not stop myself from comparing these Almajiris to African migrants who risk everything to enter Europe because their irresponsible, corrupt and callous leaders have failed to provide the basic necessities of life like the Almajiri parents. Chinese and Malaysian authorities recently started rounding up migrants with the justification that they are responsible for the spread of COVID-19, a similar reason the northern governors are using for the Almajiri repatriation. COVID-19 test results from repatriated Almajiris has shown that these children are vulnerable, and it seems northern leaders are sending them to the south in trailers to increase the infection in the south. African leaders and governments could be called Almajiri governments because these governments and leaders have created systems where only their children are well educated enough to face the future. Educational institutions are underfunded while their children school abroad at ivy league universities.
COVID-19 has become an anchor point to act, not because these governors care about the populace, but because northern elites can no longer go to their hometowns because of insecurity. The adult Almajiris who are usually unskilled and brazen in their ways, are now easy recruits for Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers, and rapists ravaging northern Nigeria and often infiltrating into the south to cause mayhem. As the northern governors perfect their repatriation strategies that should include the isolation and treatments of the Almajiris, they should also look for long term solutions like the ones former President Goodluck Jonathan proposed and tell the Sultan who is the head of Muslims in northern Nigeria to outlaw this practice officially because repatriation alone will not solve years of irresponsible parenting and leadership. Southern governors who are not better in terms of leadership or any other indexes must also come up with policies that prevent Almajiris from being shipped to the south as recent developments have shown. They must mount their own checkpoints and enforce it the way the Rivers State governor has been vigilant in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 by air, sea, or land.
Ata Ukuta – Editor, www.towncryyers.com
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