Almajiri who became victims while in search of education

The Almajiri and out of school children have continued to be exposed to dangerous life while in search of  knowledge.  In most cases, having migrated from one state to another,   the helpless children are left to fend for themselves at a very vulnerable young age.

The Almajiri system of education, which ordinarily allows search for knowledge, which include islamic and conventional education is being challenged with the lack of funds and other relevant things to take care of the children.

This makes them hit the streets to beg and end up being exposed to dangerous weather conditions as a result of sleeping in an open space, hunger, abuse and dehumanisation from either masters or others.

Nigeria is home to more than 18 million out of school children, according to estimate by UNESCO. Most of them are found in the northern part of the country, consisting of children who roam the street begging for alms from their madrasas.

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Recently, an almajiri boy escaped being lynched in Karu, a suburb in Abuja.

He was tagged as a thief after he walked into a residential house because he was hungry and went into the compound hoping to beg for food or money to buy something to eat.

The boy, who gave his name as Usman, said he ran away from his master to seek for food after he was being starved and flogged anytime he did something the master perceived to be wrong.

Speaking in Hausa, he said: “I went to beg but when I saw some irons and children’s bicycles I was just touching it and thinking of playing with it before they came out to chase me calling me a thief, I am not a thief I am just hungry.”

Usman is not the only one who is  living a life faced with danger but so are so many across the country, especially the northern parts.

“I heard that a 13 year old boy was taken advantage of by his master who lured him into his house in the name of giving him food. And he took advantage of the vulnerability of that child and the poverty of the parents of that child.,” this is a story as shared by Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children’s Education (NCAOSCEO), Dr Muhammad Idris.

He said: “And permit me to use the word, he took advantage and sodomised the boy. He did it so frequently that the boy was, at the time I visited him, suffering from a life-threatening disease. I drove all the way from Abuja to Kano. I saw the boy and the mother. The two of them were helpless. And the boy was crying. 

“Is there anybody in this country who is willing to fight for my rights? Is there anybody who is willing to help me to get my life saved? He was crying to a mother that was helpless, that was having no cover at that time to buy even the required tea for the breakfast of that boy.

“I went and talked to the medical director. We discussed, and out of his generosity and magnanimity, decided to waive all the bills that were due for the hospitals regarding the medication that was given to the child.”

He said the child, as innocent as he could be, was taken advantage of because someone is looking at him as downtrodden, as vulnerable and as powerless and as someone who cannot take any measure to address his problem.

The executive secretary told another story of a 14 year old boy in Bauchi State, who was lured into a house and he got his two eyes removed by a cultist in the name of bringing him in to give him food.

Also, on out of school children, he said a girl in Lagos under the bridge, who is claiming to know no father, and she doesn’t know who is mothering her.

“She was forced to motherhood herself at a young age and to also mother another out-of-school child. Someone took advantage of her poverty and decided to convert her into a full-fledged woman, and took advantage of her and she gave birth to a child.”

He further said: “In Abuja, about two months ago, I was going around and I saw a young boy holding a bowl and begging, and he was crying at night around nine o’clock. And it was a rainy day. I asked him, why are you crying? He said, “For more than 48 hours, I could not get food to eat.

“I told the current president that if Prophet Muhammad and Jesus, may the peace of Allah be upon the two of them, if they could be alive by today, they would have every reason to curse all of us. Because that was not the message they left behind. That was not the guidance they gave us. That was not the admonishment they spent their time spreading,” he said.

 So, in a move to address the challenges affecting the Almajiri system of education, Dr Idris said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is concerned about the plight of the Almajiri and out of school children, which was why the commission was formed.

He said this while inaugurating a 22-member committee drawn from across the country from all relevant government MDAs, civil society including Plan International Nigeria, KDC Foundation and the Commission to draft a functional framework that will guide the development and implementation of a comprehensive and sustainable Almajiri education reform in Nigeria within four weeks.

He said the Almajiri system of education is important, but it was also important that they accept to learn some basic literacy and numeracy so that they will contribute to the development of the country.

“Another very important issue that is also disturbing all of us is the issue of the child labour, the issue of street begging, and now people with bad intention are taking advantage of those children. There is no serious government that will allow this to continue,” he said.

 He said reforming the Almajiri means making Nigeria safer because “I told you that the absence of the understanding of the correct teaching of the verses of the Holy Quran has given Boko Haram the opportunity to come and preach to them a gospel that is not in accordance with the true teaching of the Quran. So, to revitalise that system, it means to give them linguistic immunity against the acceptance of the ideologies of Boko Haram.”

The Head of Social Development Programme at Plan International, Laban Onisimus, whose organisation was providing funding support to the committee’s work to help the Almajiri Commission to reform the Almajiri and Tsangaya system of education, said “We  secured funding specifically from the European Union and the Global Affairs Canada to drive the cause, which we have been working for the last two years.”

He noted that the available resources will take them to March 2025, saying, “By then, we believe that all the sittings of the committee must have been done. So, we don’t intend to just stop at the committee. We also intend to move forward with mobilising the citizens as a result of the work we are doing by changing their mindset around the issue of their Almajiri children.

“We have also secured funding from Global Affairs Canada, who will also support us in this noble task. The funding from Global Affairs Canada will be coming in an area that has to do with the issue of safeguarding these Almajiri children and also ensuring that gender-based violence is not perpetrated in those Tsangaya spaces.

The Projects Director of KDC Foundation, Khalifa Usman Mustapha said the foundation is a member of the tripartite arrangement between the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, KDC Foundation, Plan International, and the Office of the SSA to the President on Citizenship and Leadership.

He said the term of reference for the committee is to sit down and draft a functional federal framework that will guide the development and implementation of a comprehensive and sustainable Almajiri education reform in Northern Nigeria.

“The framework is going to be presented at the national summit, where we hope the resident will be there and we hope to get a presidential commitment on this reform, which will in turn mobilise and appropriate more political will from governors and other stakeholders,” he said.