How Nigerian State Continues To Fail Almajiri Boys

Oladimeji Daniels

Muslim traders first ventured into Nigerian regions of Kanem and Borno in the 9th century, spreading the Islamic religion through trade and migration. Two centuries later, the almajiri kicked off in Kanem-Borno when many of the rulers embraced Islam.

The almajiri is a migratory system of education that was inspired by Prophet Mohammed’s migration from Mecca to Medina. The word is from the Arabic word Al-Muhajirun, which simply means someone who leaves his home in search of Islamic knowledge.

These young boys would be handed over to Malams, many of whom were products of the almajiri system themselves.

Prior to the era of British colonisation, the Almajiri system of education was funded by scholarship from the emirate.

With the colonisation of Nigeria, emirs were deposed and funding for the almajiri system stopped. To worsen matters, there was no clear-cut plan for these kids. The schools established at the time were run by Christian missionaries.

With the loss of funding, life became difficult for the almajiri and their malams, hence the start of street begging. They move in groups, begging and scrambling over food, sometimes leftovers. At other times, they move from house to house, singing begging songs and calling on inhabitants of such houses to help them.

The almajiri boys fall within three age groups. The first is the adults. The second group which are the adolescents and the third, the infants are mostly into begging to earn their livelihood.

No doubt, being on the streets exposes them to all sorts of danger such as extremism. But poverty, parental and societal neglect are doing more harm to these kids. This is why many of them are testing positive to COVID-19 at this time and are curiously being rejected by not just the society, but the political class which has fed on their large numbers in election period.

Today, the almajiri constitute a large number of Nigeria’s 13.2 million out-of-school children. They are mostly without any skill and are not prepared in any way to make life meaningful for themselves. What then do they turn to?

It is on record that the notorious Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was an almajiri who migrated from his village to Maiduguri where he met Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram.

Wasn’t former president Goodluck Jonathan right in 2012 when he said the almajiri was dangerous to national development and that Nigeria should ensure that they receive secular education?

The Jonathan administration reportedly spent about 15 billion Naira to erect 165 Almajiri schools in an effort to integrate secular education into the almajiri system. But reports say some of the structures lay waste and the kids have gone back to street-begging.

With COVID-19, governors in Nigeria’s North have been internally deporting the almajiri boys to their home states. The look on the faces of these boys on TV tells it all that they are the victims, especially as some states have rejected them. Many were too young when they were handed out and cannot be said to really know where they are from.

The northern governors have not proferred any solution to the problem of almajiri, but have further made these boys victims of our collective failure. They are being tossed around and treated as stateless within their own state.

It is not just the northern governors and the federal government that are at fault at this time, but all of us, including the southern governors who have turned this into their latest pastime.

COVID-19 has only thrown up the century-long reality of how Nigeria failed the almajiri boys who were definitely not consulted in this terrible choice that their country has thrown at them.

With the ban on free movement and campaign for social distancing, the almajiri’s way of life is threatened, hence the migration down south, especially states where lockdown are not seriously enforced and states considered to have economic prospects for them.

All of us, especially governors in the south, must first stop seeing these kids as “one of them”, but rather as “one of us”.

Also, this is the time that northern governors must effectively enroll these kids in schools where they can learn economic skills.

We should know that if we fail to do this now, we would all live with the consequences as COVID-19 has shown us.