Almajiri Bill

Almajiri Bill: The Masochism of Integration

Mustapha Shehu

An article on gamji.com titled “Almajiri Bill: The Masochism of Integration” (whatever that means) by one Attahiru Muazu Gusau from Zamfara state made me sad. My sadness was compounded by my inability to easily grasp the high sounding words in the text despite my vocation of putting down words together.

My initial sadness was due to Gusau’s assertion in the third paragraph that:

“The Almajiri Bill called Child Destitution Bill, sponsored by Senator Umar A. Tafida and some 54 northern senators, is just another melancholy line in the sombre poetry of Africa’s enslavement. The masochistic undertone of the bill makes complete mockery of our independence and the ability of the senators to face and solve simple domestic problems like the Almajirci phenomenon has become seriously questionable. Should the bill pass its second reading in the near future, having already passed the first in July 2009, it would be a colossal transgression of the integrity of the African person; it would have dealt the final blow to all indigenous institutions and values a feat that even the colonialists themselves failed to achieve.”

I have read the English and Hausa versions of the bill and cannot see what is “masochistic” about it. But before I focus on the assertion, I must point out three untruths in the paragraph that would, in my profession, call to question the integrity of the writer and the article. Being falsehoods, these are enough to turn off the reader. The first untruth is that 55 northern senators including Senator Umaru Tafidan Argungu sponsored the bill. The truth is that 41 senators in all, including 7 Southerners and 13 Christians, did.

The second and third untruths are that the bill is yet to pass second reading and that it passed first reading in July 2009. The truth though is that it has actually passed second reading, and it was in 2008. But despite these, I read on and found myself shaking my head in sadness from Gusau’s claim that the bill is “just another melancholy line in the sombre poetry of Africa’s enslavement,” and that “… (it) makes complete mockery of our independence.” He went on to add that should the bill pass second reading (it has already passed) it would be “a colossal transgression of the integrity of the African person.” And this is a bill that is aimed at giving the Almajiri modern education alongside his Islamic religious studies, give him food to curb begging and make him a better citizen.

I cannot see how colonialism or neocolonialism has anything to do with trying to make the lives of these children better. Almajirci is purely a Hausa culture in which the Almajirai are separated from the loving warmth of their parents very early in life. It is in fact un-Islamic because the child is Allah’s trust to the parent who is supposed to cater for his well-being, education, health, discipline and proper moral upbringing. Ustaz Idris Abdulaziz, an Islamic Scholar in Bauchi, gave credence to this in a THISDAY interview in 2007 when he dismissed the claim that Almajirci is an Islamic culture. He said it is “a Hausa culture” pure and simple. Of all the countries in the world with a substantial number of Muslims, he further explained, the practice is found only in Nigeria from where it spread to other surrounding West African countries.

According to a report by Daily Trust, Hajiya Aishatu Dukku, Minister of State for Education said there are about 10 million child beggars (Almajirai) on our streets in the north. This number is more than the populations of The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Togo and Liberia put together. Yet Gusau sees the Almajiri problem as a northern one and should not come under the purview of the senate. In a world where modern education is a tool for progress, if bringing up 10 million children to be “manicurists” or “shoe shiners” or “water vendors” is not a national security problem, I wonder what is. It is no wonder that the states in the north where Almajirci is rife are far behind in modern education.

Take the example of JAMB admissions into medical schools in the country. I want to use this example because even an illiterate knows the importance of medical doctors. In the JAMB 2008/2009 UME admissions into Nigerian medical schools, only 6,724 candidates from the northeast geopolitical zone comprising Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states were successful despite the low cut-off points. These states are the poorest; they have the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the federation and compete with those in the northwest geopolitical zone in terms of the number of Almajirai. In Benue and Kogi, two northern states where the system is not entrenched, the numbers are 4,002 and 5,238 respectively. The figure for Delta, a south-south state where the system is absent, is 12,473. This is about twice that of the six northeastern states put together. The figure for Oyo, a predominantly Muslim state in the south west where the system as practiced in the north is absent, is 7,611; more than the total number for the six northeastern states. These states have better development indices than the northeastern states.

I then wondered who between the medical doctor and the “shoe shiner” contributes more to the GDP. I also wondered in what way will producing a million doctors, for example, from these 10 million children “enslave us” or make a “complete mockery of our independence” or be “a colossal transgression of the integrity” of our persons. I think you are beginning to see why I shook my head in sadness when I read Gusau’s academic piece. There are in fact, many Islamic scholars the world over, who have not gone through the Almajiri system. I would rather listen to the CBN governor and eloquent economist, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, when it comes to Islamic religious issues than listen to a Gardi in Jakusko for example.

Gusau, for whatever reason, poured harsh words on Tafidan Argungu the author of the bill. But Tafidan Argungu, who could have passed by these children in his tinted-glass and air-conditioned Jeep without a care like so many other leaders do, felt disturbed by how we are wasting their potentials. I have met him on this issue and I believe he intends through the bill to bring out the best in these children who are forsaken by their parents and the wealthy in society. This is why we have governments: to look after our collective interests. And I pray we don’t wake up with promoters of shoe-shining as a tool for national development in positions of authority.

Mustapha Shet Shehu

Graduate Journalism Program

Harvard University

Cambridge

USA