Sani MUHAMMAD SANI, Gusau
An unusual spectacle in Zamfara State is the sight of female urchins popularly called almajiri roaming the streets in many of the towns and villages, particularly in Gusau, the capital city. They include young girls as well as married women and even octogenarians. They are found on the streets of Gusau even in the darkest of hours.
Young girls aged six or seven, who ordinarily should be in school, are seen leading their blind parents through the streets, begging for alms. More often than not, they fall victim to hit-and-run drivers while it is often difficult to trace their homes.
Lately, there have been reports of male almajiris sexually abused in reformatory homes in different states in the north, leaving one to wonder the fate that awaits the numerous girl-children in the almajiri schools that pimple the state.
Age-long phenomenon
To be sure, the almajiri phenomenon is a very old practice in Muslims dominated north. Travelling from one part of the region to another in search of Islamic knowledge is also as old as human history.
The practice had seen its better days when it was used as a tool to impact the knowledge of Islam to young boys and girls in the hope that they would become Allah’s ambassadors and also live the good life. But the system has been abused by evil-minded patrons who are bent on exploiting it for selfish ends.
Historically, the girl-child was originally not in the reckoning when the almajiri system was contemplated. But the introduction of rehabilitation homes like Gidan Malam Kawu in Bauchi and the Gidan Mallam Nigga in Rigasa, Kaduna State, which was busted by security agents last year, as well as others in states like Kano and Katsina among others, where recalcitrant youths are admitted purportedly for rehabilitation purposes has changed all that. Many young people admitted into some of the so-called rehabilitation centres have turned out to become more hardened in their waywardness.
Many parents who want to shy away from their parental responsibilities now see the almajiri schools as an escape route. They enroll their children in such schools and simply abandon them there.
Asked who provides the treatment when they fallsick, Sama’Ila Isa, a 16-year-old member of an almajiri school in Gusau, said: “Nobody. Not even our teacher.
Also asked what the inmates of the centre do with the moneys they generate when they go out for alms, he said: “We give everything to our teacher.”
Further investigation by our correspondent revealed that behind the façade of wretchedness often exhibited by teachers in the almajiri schools, many of them make huge savings and are also proud owners of landed properties and other valuables, as they make good fortune at the expense of their poor pupils.
In Gusau, for instance, one could see a child whose age is as low as three years begging for alms and food, and trekking long distances on bare foot.
As if that was not bad enough, the girl-child almajiri schools started springing up unchallenged. Like their male counterparts, girls aged between three and seven are kept in the centres until they memorise the Qur’an. And in many of the schools, both sexes are kept together.
A leader of one of the male and female almajiri schools known as Makarantar Malam Mai Mari and situated at Gangaren Makabarta area Gusau, Malam Muhammad Bawa, said he had run the almajiri school for more than 60 years.
Bawa, who said he started running the school even before he got married, recalled that he started the school with about 100 almajiris.
“We have both male and female children in this school. Their parents bring them from the villages. Most of their parents are graduates of this school,” he boasted.
Concerns over menace
SDGs Platform, an NGO under the Canadian Sponsored project, Reaching and Empowering Adolescents to Make Choices of their Health (REACH) in Nigeria, appealed to the Zamfara State government to tackle the girl-child almajiri issues in the state.
The Secretary of the platform, Malam Yusuf Yahaya, who led members of the platform on a visit to one of the schools sometime ago, said: “We visited one of the almajiri schools in Gusau and we are not happy with the discovery of girl-child almajiri there.
Girls are kept together with their male counterparts in the name of almajiranci. This is disheartening. It is a wake-up call to government and well-to-do individuals in the society to intervene and address the issue.”
Yahaya added that “while the male almajiri scheme is not new, as it has existedfor many years, and we know its challenges and problems, it is very unfortunate that we are now beginning to have girl almajiris in the state.”
If care is not taken, he warned, the problem will spiral into uncontrollable proportion and could aggravate the problems of child abuse, child molestation, child labour and rape.
He urged the state government to, as a master of urgency, check the activities of the scholars in charge of the schools and provide them with means of livelihood.
He also appealed to the governor of the state, Dr. Bello Muhammad, and members of the state house of assembly to intervene quickly in the matter by promulgating laws to checkmate the trend and provide lasting solutions to the problem.
Responding to the matter, the Community, Engagement and Advocacy Coordinator of REACH project, Hajiya Fatima Musa, said visits made to the almajiri schools by the platform was the outcome of a roundtable discussion on child rights issues in the state, where they decided to visit some of the almajiri schools to interact with the children, especially the vulnerable ones among them.
She thanked the media, civil society organisations (CSOs) and other relevant stakeholders for their cooperation to ensure the success of the activities of the project in the state.
Read Also: Almajiris are not criminals but victims of circumstances – Sultan of Sokoto
The project coordinator of REACH explained that the project is a three-year arrangement funded by Global Affairs of Canada and implemented in three states of Northern Nigeria, namely Gombe, Katsina and Zamfara, by an NGO known as Save the Children International.
She said: “The project is working to ensure improvement in the ability of adolescent boys and girls aged 10 to 19 years in hard to reach rural communities in Northern Nigeria. The project will ensure that this group of children claim their rights to sexual and reproductive health.
“It will also improve access to quantity gender-transformative and adolescent-friendly, Sexual and Reproductive Health services and rights for unmarried and married adolescent girls and boys.”
Buhari wades in
President Muhammad Buhari, during the inauguration of the National Economic Council for the 2019-2023 in Abuja this year, stated that it is now a crime for parents to deny their children basic education in the country. The President pointed out that there is need to enforce rigorously the law on free and compulsory basic education.
He said: “Section 18(3) of the 1999 constitution as amended places on all of us here an obligation to eradicate illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education.”
He added: “Section 2 of the compulsory free Universal Basic Education Act provides that every government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary schools education.”
The question a lot of people are asking is if President Buhari believes in what the constitution says on free and compulsory education and truly believes in the provision of criminal offence for parents who deprive their children of universal basic education, what has the present administration done to refurbish the already dilapidated almajiri schools which former President Goodluck Jonathan built?
There are about 25 Almajiri Special Schools built by the immediate past administration of Jonathan with a view to catering for both the Islamic and modern educational needs of the uncountable children roaming the streets of the north, begging for alms and heading towards becoming nuisance in the society.
The almajiri schools built by the federal government are now left at the mercy of criminals and reptiles and are now meeting points for marauders and other evils.
Taming the almajiris, according to some educationists, is practically impossible as most states in the north would neither renovate nor furnish their western schools with desks and other learning materials. Pupils still take lectures under the shade of trees, inside dilapidated classrooms, on floors filled with of potholes and under roofs of classrooms that are threatening to fall on the pupils.
The proprietors of almajiri schools have simply taken advantage of the trend to make money and pollute the minds of their pupils and push them to become recalcitrant and with tendency to become terrorists.
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