The Nasarawa State governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, has threatened to sanction parents who gave birth to children without taking care of them, thus subjecting them to beg in the name of Almajiri.
He stated this at the weekend while appearing on Weekend File, a programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) where he bared his mind on the concept of Almajiri system of education in Nigeria.
He said that, “there are about 10 million children that are operating the Almajiri system in the entire northern states, with most of them serving as beggars, spending all time on the streets begging.”
The governor said that “the Almajiri system of education is completely misunderstood, same way the Rural Urban Grazing Area (RUGA) project, which came with good potentials, was misunderstood by Nigerians and the government had to back out.”
According to him, “Government must establish that it is a crime to abuse a child; it is a crime to bring children to this world and send them to Almajiri system where you cannot take care of them; it is a crime to send children on the street begging.”
“Parents must take responsibility, you can’t bring children to this world and dump them somewhere and expect somebody else to take care of them; so parents must not shy away from their responsibility,” he said.
He explained that in Nasarawa State, where Almajiri system had become a menace and security threats, his government was presently approaching insecurity in three different ways which include providing jobs through agriculture, vocational and technical skills as well as ensuring that parents who send their children to Almajiri school are able to take care of such children, saying a bill to that effect will soon be in place.
He vowed that Nasarawa State government, under his leadership, will make sure that begging on the street is a crime, adding that the rights of children must be protected.
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