Category: Saturday Magazine

• As floodwaters rose on May 28, about 870 almajiri boys got swept into its maw

• Neighbours allege hundreds died in storm as cleric claims ‘just 48’ missing, 241 alive

• The nation mourns Niger’s loss but not the boys it buried

• I saw children, small children, drown – Teen survivor

Tiffin Maza pulses in a mournful rhythm. That shattered expanse in the heart of Mokwa, Niger State, implores the passing tribute of a sigh. Between the dirt paws of the township, a persistent draft of misery stretches its slack, indifferent limbs and leapfrogs through the ruins, as if to reenact the tragedy of Wednesday, May 28.

On that day, a deadly flood tore through Tifffin Maza, until it got to the Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya, a Quranic school hosting about 870  almajiri boys and the mosque opposite it.

The river did not knock. It found the boys sleeping, their bodies curled like commas in the sentence of dawn. It peeled them from the floor like ripened fruit and flung them into its mouth. AbdulMalik, 15, from Sokoto, screamed his mother’s name until the flood washed it  from his tongue. Abba, also 15, from Sokoto, thrashed in the dark until his frail limbs stilled. Lawwali, 16, from Niger, equally got swept away, vanishing beneath the serpentine tide. Salamanu, 18, from Niger, had barely opened his eyes when the water closed its mouth around him. Muhammadu, 20, from Niger, equally drowned. The harder he fought, the deeper he sank. The sixth boy, unnamed, was found with a body battered beyond identity, yet no less mourned.

The flood did not care that they were almajirai, mostly underage boys learning prayer and survival. They screamed for help, but no helper came. The water devoured them slowly, stifling their wails and sweeping them along in its tide.

On May 28, 2025, floods spurred by hours of relentless rain ravaged Mokwa, a town tethered to the belly of the Niger River. By dawn, the market town lay submerged. Officials later confirmed at least 206 people dead and over 1,000 missing, and more than 400 homes destroyed. Some 121 were injured. A disaster among many in a country fast becoming familiar with watery graves. In 2024, flooding across Nigeria killed over 1,200 people. This year, Mokwa became the weeping eye of a nation’s swelling crisis.

Deathflow at dawn

Fourteen-year-old Saminu Abdullahi saw it all. He remembers the moment before the flood, like a wound. Speaking to The Nation, he recalled how the first gush of water slithered into the mosque. “We were sleeping in the mosque, opposite our school. Suddenly, there was water everywhere, and it was rising fast. Through the pandemonium, we all tried to escape. Some of us were able to run to the hilly side of the affected area, but others, like me, panicked and didn’t know where we were going. I saw houses being swept away by the water, roofs floating on the river. I saw children, small children, drown. It was a sight that will haunt me forever,” said Abdullahi. Somehow, through it all, his legs carried him to safety. How? He cannot say. “I just ran. I kept running. I thought I would drown if I stopped.”

When he stopped, he found himself in a strange place, ringed by strangers. “They said I was crying. They held me. I didn’t even know I had survived.”

The 14-year-old cannot recall how many of us were in the mosque.  “I don’t know the exact number, but we were many. After our Quranic recitation each night, we’d find a spot in the masjid or some open space or room to sleep.”

The teenager, while bemoaning the loss of his friends and fellow almajirai, revealed that he was brought to Tiffin Maza five years ago, and apprenticed to Mallam Hassan Alhaji Umar, the proprietor of the Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya, where he schooled. “My parents brought me to Tiffin Maza,” he said, blinking into the distance. He doesn’t remember when he last saw them or if they know that he is still alive.

According to neighbours, more than 120 almajirai were washed away by the flood. They recalled the almajirai’s cries; how it split the morning. “We heard the children screaming,” said Aliyu Maza, a trader whose house stood three blocks away. “Their cries got louder as the water rose. Then, we heard nothing again. Nothing. The water drowned them all.”

Another resident whose house borders the Quranic school claimed that some of the boys probably got swept away by the flood because their movement was impeded by shackles placed on their feet. “Some of them were chained,” he said.

However, the proprietor of the school, Mallam Umar, disagreed.

The 58-year-old native of Sokoto, who was born in Mokwa, dismissed such claims, stating that none of it was true. According to him, just 48 students are missing, of which six have been confirmed dead. He said, those spreading such rumours should fear God. “We come from Allah and to Him, we shall return,” he said.

“Before the flood, I had 870 Almajiri students, but unfortunately, many were displaced. Only four have returned so far, and we’ve received word that six more will be coming back,” disclosed Umar, adding that it is quite challenging to determine the exact number of students who were killed or survived the flood.

Findings revealed that when the incident occurred, some parents evacuated their children without Umar’s knowledge, thus making it difficult to account for all the students.

He said, “I have been compiling a list of those who are confirmed alive, and as of yesterday, I have 241 names. Initially, the number was around 100, but more students have been returning. I’ve also been informed that more students are returning. As more students return, we will be able to determine the accurate numbers better once everyone is accounted for.”

Umar stated that he has received helpful assistance from the Sarkin Hausawa of Ibbi town, who contacted him and facilitated the return of two of his students. “They had been trying to trek to their families in Sokoto due to a lack of funds, but fortunately, they were stopped and brought back to safety. The trauma of the flood likely led them to make such a decision,” he said.

The Malam denied ever chaining or beating his almajiri students, though he admitted to occasionally threatening to use chains to deter theft. He claimed to have returned over 1,000 mobile phones found by the boys, who are taught to hand over lost items so the rightful owners can reclaim them. Hosting students from across Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, and beyond, he stressed his focus on both Quranic memorisation and moral upbringing. “If a child becomes difficult,” he said, “I ask the parents to take them home until they are reformed.” He ended with a solemn oath, declaring his conscience clear before God.

Umar disclosed that the May 28  flood was unprecedented. “I grew up in this area and I can remember that the water would flow from the other side of the railway track opposite our community without causing any issue,” he said. “However, this time, the water accumulated behind the railway track, overflowed, and caused significant damage.”

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A town submerged…

Mokwa, with its estimated 416,600 population, sits like a throat between rivers and trade routes. Traders come from the south to purchase agricultural produce from the north. But on May 28, commercial activities came to an abrupt halt as the Niger River, once a source of life, became a harbinger of death.

The Mokwa bridge—an artery of connection—collapsed in the flood, severing the town from rescue and government interventions. Vehicles were washed away, including a tanker truck. Whole families vanished as several homes crumbled and floated away in the tide, like driftwood.

The Tiffin Maza and Auguwan Hausawa districts were hardest hit as residents were swept into the river and borne away as if they never existed. An excavator was brought in to dismember a mangled debris pile to recover human remains stuck beneath it. Beneath the bridge alone, 153 bodies were recovered by June 1. The local authorities subsequently halted rescue efforts, claiming that “There is no one left to find.”

This was, however, not the first flood. On April 16, weeks before the Mokwa tragedy, the Jebba Hydroelectric dam had released water, flooding the town and killing 13 people. Three of them died in a canoe that capsized. Paddy fields were drowned under water, and over 10,000 hectares were lost, causing dry-season farmers indescribable pain. Mokwa had barely recovered before the rains returned.

As reactions trail devastation caused by the flood, the Federal Government has refuted claims that the recent deluge was caused by water released from Kainji or Jebba dams, affirming both dams remain intact and operational. Minister of Water Resources, Prof. Joseph Utsev, attributed the disaster to torrential rainfall, climate change, and blocked waterways due to poor urban planning.

Why do almajiri boys drown easily?

Notwithstanding, the flood did not discriminate in its fury. Although it did not seek out the almajirai, they were the easiest to drown. Dispersed across the urban belly of the north, tens of thousands of almajiri boys live in abject circumstances. Their schooling, a threadbare form of Islamic tutelage, is often underpinned by struggle and denial. Their homes are makeshift dormitories; sometimes mosques with no walls, unplastered buildings, underneath market stalls, verandas, and the underbellies of township bridges. They do not live within society. They hover beneath it, often one step removed from the shelter of legality and care.

So when the rains came, the boys enjoyed no high ground. No radio to warn them, nor a parent to call their name in the dark. And so, they drowned. “Many of them were already sleeping on the floor when the water began to enter,” said a volunteer who helped identify some of the drowned boys. “They didn’t have the instinct or training to escape.”

Their tragic end was inescapable because their lives were perhaps smaller than others’ lives. Less visible. Less mourned. The disaster that struck Tiffin Maza and the rest of Mokwa was hydrological; the consequences that followed was societal.

Why almajiranci thrives

The almajiri system, once a noble vessel of Islamic scholarship, now bleeds at its seams. The system involves sending boys, typically aged 4 to 12, to distant locations for religious study under nomadic scholars. For families who are unable to afford formal schooling of their wards, this system seems a lifeline. However, the idyllic vision of pious learning often shatters as these children, instead of being sheltered by their supposed guardians, find themselves thrust into the streets, begging for survival.

More worrisome is their exposure and vulnerability to danger in times of environmental disasters, like the May 28 flooding of Mokwa.

Poverty is a major cause of almajiranci. Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, Salim Bashir Magashi, argued that, traditionally, African societies cherished large families, considering children assets. The progress of an agrarian family, for instance, depended on its size. A large family seldom required paid labour to work on its farmland. As a duty, every member of the family participated in farm labour and even helped other members of the community as a neighbourly gesture, which is reciprocated.

For this reason, men married as many wives as was permissible. However, the society became capitalist and individualistic, owing to cultural imperialism by Western civilisation and its attendant traits, the use of money as a medium to get goods and services affected the erstwhile communal and egalitarian societies fostered by traditional African families.

The size of the family, over time, became a burden to family heads, who must provide the necessaries of life to the entire household. Hence, parents sent their children or wards away to seek knowledge, thus reducing their familial responsibilities.

Many Almajirai emerged from this family divide. On the other hand, children from affluent families rarely left the comfort of their homes for such a purpose; whenever they did, the families made proper arrangements for the children’s welfare, said Magashi.

There is also a lack of political will by the northern elite to address the issue because they fear it might result in a loss of political advantage during national elections.

What Islam prescribes

Islam prescribes that the primary legal and moral duty of parents is to take care of the welfare of their children, to provide them with food, shelter, security, health, and education. Parents are also instructed to instil morals into their wards, to the best of their abilities.

Thus, memorising the Qur’an, which is largely what an almajiri does, is a desirable (mustahab) act. It is not compulsory for every Muslim, though it is encouraged, but because of bandwagon following (and of course poverty), most parents would rather trade their compulsory duty (wajib) for a desirable one (mustahab).

The Hausa word almajiri was derived from the Arabic term almuhajir, meaning ‘a migrant.’ In a Nigerian context, it could mean a boarding student of Islamic studies; a student learning the science and truth of the Qur’an, as revealed by Almighty Allah, while committing the text to memory.

In Hausa, almajiri means ‘child-student’; almajirai is its plural, and almajiranci is the process or practice of learning, travelling, and all things that come with travel.

The school itself is called makarantar alio or tsangaya in Hausa. Historically, it was rooted in Muslims’ religious obligations to learn the Qur’an and acquire knowledge for this world and the hereafter.

Types of almajiri

According to Jimoh Amzat a Professor of Medical Sociology and Social Problems at the Department of Sociology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, it is pertinent to distinguish three sets of almajirai. The first set of almajirai is sent to the urban centre to live with an Islamic scholar (Mallam) permanently until the completion of their Islamic education. Those almajirai are generally given in trust to a resident mallam but they have to fend for themselves and may not return until they graduate. Another category may return to their parents during the rainy season for farming activities. The last category migrates from rural areas with their Islamic scholars during the dry season to the urban centres to return to rural areas for learning and farming in the rainy season. However, the majority of them now live on the streets and attend lessons according to their whims.

Past attempts at reform

Several attempts have been made to modernise the system, ranging from personal efforts to government intervention. For instance, Sunni (Izala) Muslims, who view the practice—the method, not the teaching—as anti-Islamic (bid’a) for dehumanising the child, established Islamiyya schools, which teach both conventional Western education and Islamic education simultaneously. However, these schools are elitist in character, commonly situated in urban areas, and rarely appeal to rural dwellers.

Again, Islamiyya schools, unlike the almajiri (or tsangaya) or makarantar allo are organised as conventional schools and are mostly day schools. The pupils continue to enjoy the comfort of their daily lives from their homes, as against the almajiri system, which is mainly a boarding and nomadic setup.

The first attempt to reform the system was made in 1959, when the Kano Native Authority warned parents against abandoning their children in the name of Islamic education and the teachers were directed to refuse any almajiri. This was unsuccessful.

In 1985, the military government enacted an edict to control Quranic schools. The thrust of the law was to regulate these schools and the movements of the teachers and students to certain urban centres – however, like the previous measure, the law was ineffective, in part, because most of the teachers and the students were unaware of its existence. The law generated criticism as many considered Western standards weak and doomed to fail, because they fostered “individualism, careerism, and materialism.”

Between 2003 and 2011, the Kano State government tried unsuccessfully to improve the system by providing free food to the students and giving the mallams monthly salaries and cattle for farming. Also, the federal government, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, devised a means to reform the system by integrating the almajiri system with orthodox model schools, but these efforts remain ineffective as the rights of children to education, parental love, care, good health benefits are often bargained away without legal consequences.

Prominent northerners, including the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, have expressed concerns over the menace that has denied so many children in the region their rights to basic education. The former CBN governor said fathers should be arrested for sending out their children to take alms. He argued that fathers who can’t fend for themselves should go out and do the begging themselves instead of sending out their children.

Minna, Niger-based Islamic scholar, Mallam Ishaq Hussein, said, “Everybody accuses us of maltreating the boys but all we do is impart useful knowledge into them. Many parents are too poor to educate and take care of their children. Most times, they beg us to go with them and we do our best to take care of them. But whenever anything bad happens, we are blamed. Allah knows best.”

To sanitise almaijiranci

Good governance is at the heart of the solution. Several measures including firmer enforcement of anti-trafficking laws protective of minors and bio-data tracking have been suggested to curb the menace. Experts urge the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to track and provide specific data on almajiri children and their parents. Sourcing accurate data can help to forge a partnership between policy makers and the parents of the almajirai who are far away from their family homes.

While successive governments have been accused of displaying a lacklustre approach to sanitising the almajiri system, Sheikh Ibrahim Adam, an Abuja-based Islamic cleric and scholar, argued that aside from government and other stakeholders including non-governmental organisations, parents must also accept to play their part by having only the number of children they can cater for.

“It is very wrong and irresponsible of parents to have more children than they can care for. Islam forbids this,” he said.

On his part, Professor Magashi argued that destitute almajirai can be saved through the instrumentation of the law. He said, “To save destitute almajirai and to educate and care for them with the dignity and respect they deserve, laws already in place need only be enforced. This, however, must be a firm and focused decision, which may require the use of force and diplomacy, as well as provision of the necessary environment to benefit from a reformed, available, affordable, acceptable, and in some cases compulsory system of education.”

The northern almajirai must, however, stay alive to enjoy the full benefits of such measures. Many of them contend, daily, with dangers lurking in plain sight, like the peking order that empowers Mallams and senior almajirai to bully younger boys in their informal school setting; and the deathly flash flood that devastated Mokwa.

Study proves many almajirai die before age 16

A recent study revealed that, “half of the boys who go into the almajiri system will die in the long run; 17 percent survive, and the remaining 33 percent get lost, of which some will eventually also die. In other words, at least 50 percent of the boys born into this system die.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers across four universities including Funom Theophilus Makama, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, United Kingdom (UK); Esther Funom Makama, Department of Business Administration, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno State; Peter Maitalata Waziri, Biochemistry Department, Kaduna State University, Kaduna State; and Attahiru Dan-Ali Mustapha, Resident Public Health Doctor Community Medicine Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.

The research team noted that at least three of every six boys involved in the almajiri system die prematurely because they “are exposed to harsh conditions and subjected to begging to fend for themselves, leaving them susceptible to violence, hunger, starvation, infections, child predators, and being used as elements of violence. This decreases their chances of surviving till adulthood as a lot die even before they reach age 16.”

The research, which was carried out to determine the survival rate of boys enrolled in the almajiri system was conducted in 137 villages across two northern states, Kano and Kaduna, where the practice is endemic.

The study concluded that for every six boys sent away to participate in the almajiri system of seeking knowledge in northern Nigeria, three die, one stays alive and the other two get lost, their whereabouts unknown. This is at least 50 percent of the child mortality of boys born into the almajiri system of northern Nigeria.

A system that kills three out of every six children and subjects two more to be missing, leaving only one to survive, is not a system to tolerate, no matter its cultural or religious correlation, according to the researchers.

This is a case to be investigated and urgently resolved by all stakeholders including the parents, civil societies, religious and political leaders.

The grim fate of Almajirai

Against the backdrop of the conundrum, the sad fate of dead and forgotten almajirai presents a sour note. Few people would forget in a hurry the sad event of July 7, 2023, when three almajirai were burnt to death in a fire ignited by a burning mosquito repellent coil, killed in Yola, Adamawa State. The trio, comprising Ismaila Muhammadu, 12, Yusuf Abubakar, 13, and Mustapha Ahmadu, 17, resided in the premises of their school at Sabon Pegi, a community in Yola South Local Government Area. The owner of the school, Malam Abubakar Usman, confirmed that the pupils died due to the fire from the mosquito repellent, which engulfed their room.

Equally instructive was the sad fate of the Kebbi eight, who were crushed to death in a burrow pit while digging for clay to mend their hut.

Then there is the sad case of Abdul Malik, 15, from Sokoto, Abba, 15, from Sokoto, Lawwali, 16, from Niger, Salamanu, 18, from Niger, and Muhammadu, 20, from Niger – students of the  Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya, in Tiffin Maza, Mokwa LGA  and all casualties of the May 28 flood disaster.

In the wake of their demise alongside several others, the State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, has expressed regret over the tragedy, promising to resettle those affected and implement measures to prevent future flooding, including erosion control and infrastructure development. “Local governments will also benefit from road construction and drainage projects, such as the road from here (Mokwa) to Raba, which includes three bridges,” said

the Director of Information at the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Dr. Ibrahim Audu Hussaini. Hussaini described the Mokwa flood as a major catastrophe affecting a large population. “As of the most recent count, the flood has claimed approximately 207 lives, destroyed 458 homes (with over 500 affected), displaced more than 3,000 individuals, and impacted over 9,000 people in total,” he said.

Despite the scale of destruction, he noted that the situation is being handled with coordination and resolve. Interventions have been extensive and collaborative as all relevant ministries and agencies are actively involved, ensuring that no one is left out, said Hussaini.

According to him, “The federal government has dispatched 200 trucks of grain and pledged ₦2 billion to aid resettlement. Governor Bago, on his part, has allocated ₦1 billion for temporary shelters. Additionally, Certificates of Occupancy have been issued for lands designated for federal housing projects.”

On the issue of missing persons, Hussaini stressed that NEMA is taking a cautious and thorough approach. Misreported cases often turn out to be individuals later found deceased or discovered to have travelled. Thus, officials are carefully verifying each report before making formal declarations.

Of course, the debate persists on the number of the missing. Mallam Umar dismissed claims that over 120 almajirai in his care were swept away by the flood, stating that “just 48” of his students are missing. The Sarkin Hausawa (Chief of the Hausa people) of Mokwa, Alhaji Tanko Bala, corroborated him, stressing that although he has personal records of families that lost as many as 10, 20, 26 members, and so on. “The number of persons missing based on my records is above 200, while the number of those confirmed dead and buried is 165, that is aside from Mallam Hassan Umar’s almajiri school. Honestly, I don’t have fully verified information on the school. Just accept any information that he tells you as the truth,” he said.

Yet, beyond the numbers war, death has no interest in clashing arithmetic. On May 28, one day after the “Children’s Day” celebration, a manic flood slithered through the streets of Mokwa like a reptilian beast, collapsing bridges, vanishing houses and entire families in its tide.

More heartrending is the fate of the almajirai of Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya in Tiffin Maza. While hundreds of boys are still missing. The dead have been buried quietly. There were no marble tombstones. No televised mourning. Just rows of anonymous graves, rapidly dug amid the mudflats.

The boys’ cries, like the floodwaters, have completely disappeared from public consciousness. And yet, their memory still lingers. In their drowned jotters left with ink smears in a ditch. In their worn sandals, found buried in mud.

In the voice of Saminu Abdullahi, 14, who ran from death until he collapsed into life.