Dr. Abdulkarim Abubakar Kana, Attorney General of Nasarawa State, has said that Northern Governors did not ban Almajiri system of education.
He said in statement in Lafia that: “No body has banned Almajiri system of Education, the system in which under-aged children are sent to far away land without a means and source of livelihood is different from the historic system established during the age of Islamic renaissance in Sokoto caliphate.
“The parents then did not simply abandon the kids at the mercy of hunger, weather and abusers.
“The world has changed, the streets now are riddled with more social hazards, health risks and physical dangers,” he said.
READ: Almajiri and un-enforced child rights
According to him, there is a surge in number of Islamic learning centres now spread across all towns and mosques in the North, compared to ages past.
The decision of northern Governors is premised on the need for parents to take more responsibility for their children and ensure the children learn under the guidance of their parents or consanguineous guardians until they reach the age mature enough to be sent out to far away lands.
Dr Kana said the Almajiri or Tsangaya as practiced today is a distortion of the original, adding many of the children are not actually learning the Quran, but spend most of the day on the streets begging.
Those that are advocating for the retention of it as distorted as it is are either parties to the abuses, benefiting from it, or simply being partisan.
The Attorney General said the system needed to adopt to present realities.
He stated that most of the Almajirai centres and Tsangayas were not equipped with the basic boarding facilities and the children are generally undocumented thereby leaving them vulnerable to disease and insecurity.
Dr Kana said” ” The Northern Governors must cater for Islamiyyas, Almajirai and Tsangayas but, this can only succeed when parents take responsibility for children and for the children to grow up with a sense of belonging and genuine faith, fear of Allah and respect for the Authority.
“Repatriation of Almajirai to be reunited with their families at time of pandemic may be controversial but it is a task that must be carried out at one point or another if Northern Nigeria wants to start social reconstruction.
“Ensuring kids are looked after by parents is key to society’s growth,” he said.
