No, those minors cannot be liable!

No. They cannot, given the preponderance of evidence before us, be guilty. We are, on the contrary, guilty. Yes. We. We are all guilty- their parents, their guardians, the Ummah etc.  We should be held liable for their crime. For example, recently in the United States, parents of a high school student who was found guilty after bringing a gun to his school and killing about five people, were also arraigned for their culpability, for their negligence in providing parental guidance for their son. 

But more importantly, Quran 2 Ayat 233 reminds us that the responsibility for catering to the welfare of the child rests squarely on the father. The word ‘rizq’ mentioned in this instance, exegetes have posited, refers to the provision of those necessities of life that would facilitate the development of a responsible individual who would be useful for himself and the community in future. The oft-cited tradition of our leader, Prophet Muhammad (upon him be peace and blessings of the Almighty) finds relevance. ‘You are (like) Shepherds’, he once said, ‘and you all shall be called to account for them…’ 

Thus, to bring a child to the world is to enter into a covenant with the Almighty; it is to shoulder a trust.  In fact, some deviant medieval scholars and men of letters in Arab-Islamic history (Al-Ulama Al-Uzaab – The Bachelor Scholars) decided against marriage out of their concern that they would not be able to bear the consequent responsibilities particularly that of child-care.

Thus, in order to ensure that the arraignment of those minors for treason enjoys validity, their parents need to be docked too; the latter are liable. But unfortunately, is it not true that the majority of those minors would not have been on the streets if they truly have ‘parents’? Yes. Those young boys are actually ‘children’ of a failed society.  They are metaphors for a community in the abyss of multidimensional poverty and one that is seemingly incapable of reinventing itself in order to take new pathways to the future. 

• Media owners, editors, urge Tinubu to save industry
• ‘Japa’: Our members migrating due to lack of legislative bill – Physicists

Those minors are products of our lazy conception and practice of charity in the Muslim world. Acts of charity in our milieu has partly and quite ironically led to the ‘institutionalization of beggary. For some, begging is now a profession. For others, it has become an identity marker. In other words, the big assemblage of beggars in neighbourhoods occupied by the rich is now deemed to be a pointer to the depth of his philanthropy, not a signifier for the ailment from which the Ummah is suffering.  

Thus, while the rich derive some sense of security from the congregation of the poor close to his house, the latter rejoices without measure for the crumbs that the former extends to him on a daily basis.; crumbs that are sufficient enough to guarantee the existence of the beggar, not to make him live, with dignity.

In other words, in order for the prosecution of those minors to enjoy validity, the coterie of wealthy indigenes in all Muslim settings across the nation who have profited from affluenza should first be arraigned.  Liable should be the political office holders whose failure to enthrone good governance is partly responsible for the dysfunctionalities and the multidimensional poverty that we encounter across our nation. 

Liable should be our royal fathers under whose jurisdictions these minors live and thrive.  Liable should be the Ulama who have become inured and desensitized to the negative implications of those young beggars on the Islamic heritage in their domains and the anomaly that beggary represents relative to the Almajiri system of education.  Liable is the totality of the socio-political and economic ecosystem that birthed these unfortunate boys as products of a heartless precedent!

A couple of days ago, I learnt that the Federal government was considering the withdrawal of the case against the young boys. In other words, those young boys would soon be free. They would be free to go. But where exactly? Do we want them to go back to the streets and begin to eke life and living from the margins? Do we want them to go back into the hands of the vermin – those agents of Beelzebub, who have continued to unleash terror and violence on parts of our nation with reckless abandon? Or do we prefer that they go back and join their co-travellers at the city-centre, near our central mosques, close to the palatial mansions of the rich in order for them to begin to sing and chorus: ‘give me money by the name of the Almighty’? Ask yourself this question: are you not also liable to a degree that is relative to you for the unfortunate circumstance of those boys?