2019 for the almajiri children in Northern Nigeria must have started like every other January till a few days into the year. The media ran with the reaction of the Muslim Rights Concern’s (MURIC) objection to the proposed education of about 10 million almajiris by the Bishop Kukah Foundation. In the normal childhood innocence, they have been living their lives oblivious of the two adult groups’ decisions over their lives.
MURIC cautioned Muslim elders against accepting the idea and insisted that it is “a ploy for modern colonialism and a potential time bomb.” It proposed that the idea should be handled by Muslim NGOs in the region adding that it would be too naïve of them to entrust their Muslim children in the hands of Christians.
However, we believe that the almajiri system is authentically an Islamic tradition rooted in history as the word itself is of Arabic originally called Al-Muhajirun. It refers to someone who leaves his house in search of knowledge in the Islamic religion. The children are pried from their parents at an early age to learn the Quran at the house of respected and knowledgeable Mallams.
However, like everything in life, with time, some adulterations crept into the system. There are obvious cases of abuses, exploitation of the vulnerable, child-trafficking, recruitment into many anti-social behaviours by cynical elites, behaviours that neither benefit the children nor the society made up of individuals of varied religious leanings or even atheists.
Professor Idris A. AbduKadir at the convocation of Bayero University, Kano, in 2003 decried the bastardisation of the system, lamenting that begging, lack of moral upbringing by parents and other forms of systemic aberrations were not in the initial plan.
Before the chaotic system now in full operation, the schools were located in the immediate communities; the great revolution by Uthman Dan Fodio even made structural changes that had supervisory roles over the schools, teachers and mode of teaching and learning. Today, a lot has changed about the almajiri system in Nigeria, sadly, for the worse.
We believe that in view of current global problems and changes in developmental economics, both the Muslim leadership and governments at all levels must work together to draw up a road map that can preserve the tenets of the religion while making children and their holistic development the focal point of the discourse. Some governments have started in modest ways in Kaduna and Sokoto to address the problem. But it requires a radical, not piecemeal measures.
In a country with deeply varied religious beliefs, we propose that both Bishop Kukah (laudable as his project is) and MURIC who speak for the interest of the Islamic religion must sit at the table of human brotherhood. There must be realistic and realisable targets that must be mutually agreed to help stem the tide of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, overpopulation and the myriad of problems besetting the North and Nigeria in general, due to a very amoebic almajiri system.
With the volatility and mutual suspicion existing amongst regions and creeds in Nigeria, Bishop Kukah must realise that the odds against his laudable proposal are huge and ingrained in the system, so he must be ready to dialogue and not sound too messianic so as not to jeopardise or crumble a noble project.
On the other hand, MURIC and other Islamic groups and individuals must take a hard look at how low the almajiri system has sunk the Northern economy and the country in general. Global statistics on illiteracy, poverty, diseases and sundry problems brought about by the present almajiri system disempowers and creates more problems for the religion and the country.
The world is moving fast and leaving Nigeria behind literally due to an army of uneducated and unskilled youth population in a world ruled by ideas. In an ironic twist, some great Muslims have received western education without injuring their faith, even in cases where those under reference had attended Christian mission schools.
We want to plead caution and proper introspection over Kukah’s proposal, from him and from the Muslim community. We believe the interest of the children and the future of the country must be paramount because education is too empowering to be denied any child under any guise. It is even curious that this almajiri system appears very disempowering especially in Nigeria. Other Muslim countries seem to have drawn progressive developmental graphs that incorporate both the religion and education to the good and prosperity of such nations. There must be a productive dialogue.
