By Femi Oluwasanmi
SIR: Countless promises have been made over the years by successive governments to end the menace of Almajiris (migrant pupils sent from home to learn Islamic teachings) across the country. Some have gone ahead to build Almajiri schools while some have been accused of not doing enough to end this problem.
According to the data released by UNICEF in 2014, the number of the Almajiris children wandering about the streets was 9.5 million, some 75% of the total number of children out of school in Nigeria today.
Currently, the country is home to 13.5 million of children out of school. These are supposedly, the leaders of tomorrow, the future of the nation unfortunately, wandering the street while they ought to be warming up to contribute to the nation’s workforce. No wonder why the level of insecurity continues to increase in the country.
No nation can attain meaningful development without putting in place measures to ensure that children are given the right culture and knowledge at the appropriate time. This is because an idle mind is the laboratory of the devil. Little wonder many have affirmed the strong nexus between the increase in the level of insecurity and the number of children out of school in Nigeria.
Boko Haram for instance, continues to wax strong despite the humongous budget for security because it has access to the army of out of school children in the Northeast. These children most of the time have no access to good food, good accommodation and others. Some do not even know their parents.
In the southern part of the country, the story is essentially the same as criminals continue to capitalize on the availability of the out of school children to perpetuate kidnapping, killings, stealing and other anti-social activities. The grown up ones among these children are recruited by political elites for thuggery, ballot-box snatching etc. during elections.
Read Also: ‘Northern governors frustrating basic education for Almajiris’
Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world today because of the failure of the past governments to plan for the future and it remains unabated because the current administration is paying lip service to it.
The administration continues to issue statements upon statements; making promises upon promises even to the extent of shifting the blames on state governments. Meanwhile, the daily increase in the numbers of children out of school shows that action so far signals nothing different from what obtained before.
Now, the latest discourse is the issue of N37 billion for the renovation of National Assembly Complex. While our lawmakers insist that is necessary to ensure better representation, those they claim to represent are battling poverty, poor quality of education and insecurity.
It is high time the government moved from endless promises to real implementation. After all, statements not matched with action are like trees without fruit.
- Femi Oluwasanmi, Ibafo, Ogun State.
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