Professor Munzali Jibrin is a retired Professor of English Language from the Bayero University, Kano (BUK) and former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC). He was also the Coordinator of the Nigeria Police Academy in Wudil. He shares his thoughts on the situation in the North with Weekend Trust.
You must have seen the behavior of youths, especially from the northern region during the recent protest. Why do you think the action turned violent?
The violence and other vices we witnessed during the #EndBadGovernance protest was due to the societal neglect of the youths. These people have no future prospects; no education and no skills to sustain their lives.
These are people waiting for any form of demonstration or crisis to occur and then seize the opportunity to loot. The development was caused by the bad governance in the country; people are aggrieved and hungry and as such, they threw caution to the wind and behaved like criminals, which perhaps they are not.
If you can recall, during past protests such as this, these youths attacked properties of non-indigenes residing in the state, but this time around they decided to attack properties of fellow Kano people that happen to be around the hot spots.
You mentioned lack of proper education, can you elaborate?
I have done the survey, but I believe some of them are not illiterate because they have secondary education or even higher. I don’t think it is lack of education only, because if you have acquired education that cannot put food on your table then it makes you angry against the society as a whole, especially given the level of corruption by our politicians. These are the things that trigger the people.
For years, efforts to tackle the Almajiri syndrome failed, how best can the issue be addressed?
Almajiri is indeed an issue; recently someone did a recap of all the Almajiri’s recommendations made in the last 70 years or so. From the little that I know on Almajiri, given my background as somebody who attended School for Arabic Studies, Kano, and also did a combine honours degree in Arabic and English at the Bayero University, Kano, and also served as member of a committee on reform of Almajiri system in Kano State, during the second tenure of Governor Kwankwaso, this triggers a special interest in me.
What I found in summary is that, the recommendations usually offered by the body saddled with that responsibilities are not the ones that can work, because parents that take their children to Almajiri schools are fully aware of the other system, but they don’t want it for their children either for some ideological reasons or some other reasons that border around economy.
The problem is that the way the so-called elites want to reform the system by integrating it into the Western system will never be accepted because of the fear that the system will be lost. We have seen how other countries have developed theirs and it works; check countries like Indonesia, Egypt and other countries.
Unfortunately, what we were doing is to finish what the colonial masters have started; by wiping the Almajiri system off the face of the earth. What we ought to do is to recognise the Almajiri system as an autonomous system and also reform it by introducing some form of vocational skills and things like that and not to make it look like the Western education.
We can also go back and adopt the system practiced years ago, when people with no background of Western education; that is those who came from the traditional form of education, the Almajiri system, studied for four years and at the end of the course they had the standard of English of someone who had finished primary education. After that, a pathway was created for them to study at the Bayero University Kano, where they participated in a three-year preliminary course which led to acquiring A level in Hausa, Arabic and Islamic studies and within that period their English upgraded to O level standard. At the end of the course, they had 2 ‘A’ levels and 1 ‘0’ level which gave them the opportunity to enter the university.
This is the kind of integration we would like to have, but what we are doing is what the people have been rejecting all these years.
- We must be united to address challenges in North — Dr. Bitrus
- North is a victim of itself; solutions to its challenges lie within – Wazirin Katsina
Aside the Almajiri issue, there is also the problem of out-of-school children, how can it be addressed?
The irony is that even within the current system, authorities are not able to provide adequate room for effective learning because you will find schools without buildings, people learning under trees.
Obviously, there is a lack of commitment by some governments to adequately accommodate those in school, not to talk of those that are out of school. People have also pointed out issues related to people giving birth to children they cannot care for and have no plans for.
How do we address that?
We have to address this problem by calling parents to account and also there is this policy in Kano State; of free and compulsory basic education. This needs to be expanded and that means pumping more money into the sector.
However, the manner at which government officials have been embezzling public funds is alarming and detrimental to not only the educational sector, but to all sectors. It is not impossible to tackle. We saw what the then Governor Abubakar Rimi did between 1979 to 1983, therefore, it is possible with commitment and political will.
What do you suggest should be done?
I believe that the present government in Kano State has taken a step as it announced a plan to revive the training institutions which they established in the past, but which were neglected by their successors. I think that is the way to go. But I strongly believe that multiple approaches need to be adopted to address the situation. Moreover, governments should think out of the box to come up with multiple and sustainable solutions.
Do you believe there is a vacuum in northern leadership?
It is obvious that we do not have people that we can call leaders or people who will intervene in our affairs. A lot of people are afraid to be involved in issues that will tamper with their honour and also a lot of people have compromised because the so call elders we have now; quite a number of them do not depend on themselves. From time to time they have to go to whichever government is in power to seek assistance on various issues and that compromises them. Therefore, they are not as independent as the elders before them, who were able to look after themselves. In a nutshell there is a vacuum at the state level and at the national level as well, we really don’t have leaders that we can rely on if anything goes wrong.
Does it mean we do not have leaders that can speak and people will listen to?
Unfortunately, there are none. However, there are many people that are respectable enough to be listened to, but they are not showing up for various reasons. You know, sometimes the issues are so messy and you are retired, sitting in your house and you don’t want to be involved in anything that is messy. Moreover, we can’t say that absolutely there are no leaders; the issue is that they are not showing up.
How do you think this vacuum can be filled?
I would have suggested a formation of a very active association or a forum, but there so many of them at the regional level. We have the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) which was designed to encompass everybody, and I believe they went out of their way to ensure conclusion, then another rival one emerged; that is the Northern Elders Forum and it you were asked to tell the difference between the two, it would be very difficult to do so.
What can be done to salvage the region?
As I told you earlier, there are many people that are respectable enough to be listened to in the North, but, they are not showing up for various reasons. I strongly believe that things will be better if these people can make the sacrifice by speaking about the issues. I know people have reputations to protect, but it is obvious that we have to make one form of sacrifice or the other to make things right. The North really needs these people to come out and do the needful.
Moreover, the ACF should be up and doing, irrespective of all the huddles. No doubt, there are issues and challenges, but the truth remains that the ACF has played a vital role in the past and ought to have continued with the good example it set initially.
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