Almajiri Headaches

Almajiri Headaches: Emirs Declare War

Haruna Manu Isah

The Saturday Sun Newspaper of 19, Nov. 2011 made an interesting reading for it carried a screaming cover story captioned “Almajiri headaches; Emirs declare war”. In the said story which featured on the page 13 of the publication laid claims to a document purported to have emanated from a committee set up by the Northern Traditional Rulers Council (NTRC) and headed by the Etsu Nupe, Dr, Yahaya Abubakar. Indeed, the committee did a thorough job but the recommendations as quoted copiously by the Saturday Sun were diametrically out of tone with reality and if allowed to go unquestioned would further threatened the already parlous state of security in the North. And were it not for the picture of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, only a few would have given the story a serious thought, equally, had the name of Etsu Nupe not featured prominently as the Chairman of the said committee, one would have not ventured into this rejoinder in a modest attempt to finding a solution to lingering problem without any collateral damage. Therefore, be that as it may, its not part of veneration to leave an error un-refuted for its seeming dangerous implication on the country’s collective strive and the North’s in particular.

Indeed, Almajiranci can be construed to mean the act of taking particularly male children between the ages of 5-9 to renowned local Islamic scholars to different part of the region for the purpose of seeking qur’anic knowledge. The Islamic scholars (Mallams) would serve as surrogate parent until the child graduates after about 7 years or so. This has taken undignified dimension for the children so taken end up as street beggars. The act of begging by these children is called almajiranci (verb form) while the child so involved is call almajiri (singular) and almajirai is the plural form.

Now to the document entitled “Position Paper of the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council Towards Ameliorating General Insecurity in the North for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development”, the Saturday Sun reports that the NTRC recommends the banning of the current Almajiri system and further submitted that “this could be achieved by appropriately apprehending, prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators of these heinous crimes”. One may be tempted to ask out of curiosity that what has the NTRC as a body or the Emirs in their individual capacity done to ameliorate the menace of almajiranci in their respective domain, knowing fully well that most of them are stupendously rich. Indeed, almajiranci is an aberration to true Islamic teaching and understanding, but as it is today, it is deeply entrenched in the core North or Hausa community in particular that to proscribe it without cogent and well thought out solution will further jeopardize the perilous situation and may be misconstrue as a subtle fight against Islam. I began wondering whether such recommendation was a product of any systematized research where the primary targets were engaged in a robust discussion before arriving at that weird position. The NTRC, according to the paper equally declares that “most of those use as suicide bombers graduated from the current Almajiri school system, which have been so thoroughly dehumanized that it will be a welcome thing to commit suicide after being brain washed by their mallams that would have many virgins to marry in heaven”. Well, despite the reservation harbored against this report, it irks the mind that the ideal profile of a suicide bomber is not statically known because is a global phenomenal, so to arrived at that conclusion without any seeming in-depth studies speak volumes of relevant seekers which the NTRC seemingly represents. This could easily be discerned when the NTRC equally declares thus; “the official involvement of traditional rulers in security matters will ensure that bad eggs do not find hiding places in their localities since new faces in the communities will easily be detected and investigated”. The paper further reports ...”Equally, their involvement in the recruitment of the police, the army and the other security agencies will go a long way in the elimination of possible recruitment of miscreant into the security forces”. “This”, according to the Northern Traditional rulers as reported by the paper…” could be done by integrating traditional rulers into the screening process to ensure that officers and recruits are of good character and upbringing”. This is the central objective of the NTRC, it wants to be recognized in the constitution in view of a review being nursed by the president, pure and simple. But to venture into making recommendations like that would put our Royal Highnesses on a black spot and this will further deepened the crisis of confidence between the masses and a large number of the Emirs. If the Emirs need constitutional recognition, they mustn’t bring the entire North down with this recommendation of not only banning, but also arrest, trial and punishment of offenders without any solid, reliable and sustainable solution in place. I agree with the Emirs that the act of begging(almajiranci) is ” un Islamic and therefore strongly condemned” but our point of divergence is how to go about it.

Now, if our sense of history is to serve us right, prior to colonial occupation and western education, almajiris and their mallams were sponsored by Emirs and the local rich. This patronage is either totally lacking or in steady decline, hence they (almajiris) are forced to seek alternative means for survival. And they resorted to begging and recently into waste picking. Therefore, it can not be out of place to say that the Emirs were the brain behind the almajiranci syndrome in the North by their act of action and inaction over the years.

According to a 2009 statistic from the Kano state ministry of education, there were about 1.6 million almajiris in 26,000 tsangaya (almajiri-school) across the 44 local government of the state, sokoto state has 1.1 million almajiris in 19,167 schools, Kaduna state has about 824,233, while Borno state reputed as a center of Islamic learning has only 389,048 almajiri pupils. A breakdown for Borno with 4464 mallams shows that; Borno indigenes were 266,160, those from other states were 118,280, and non-Nigerians 4,608. So the argument that Boko Haram had its origin from the almajiranci system of Islamic education does not hold water otherwise Kano state with 1.6 million Almajiri pupil would have been the nucleus of Boko Haram and not Borno state with just 389,048 almajiris. With the current revelation from SSS, Boko Haram is a political creation which later went haywire.

Way Forward: Waste to Wealth

Waste, by its technical consideration is a resource in the wrong place. Nigeria with 167 million populations produces about 3 million plastic bottles daily as waste. This only, is a huge resource. An industry is gradually emerging out of this waste collection and disposal business in major cities across the length and breadth of the North, due to rapid urbanization. Sadly, the Emirs and the Northern Governors are oblivious of this or they only feigned ignorance in a shameless attempt to shy away from their responsibilities. They equally must have not taken notice of the role being played by the almajiris and if enhanced or integrated would go a long way in enhancing public health and also keep the now despised Almajiri away from street begging.

In a study conducted recently and sponsored by Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden shows an informal waste sorting system is evolving based on activities of itinerant buyers of scraps with the active support of almajirai in the chain of waste recycling process. And a potential market is in the pipe line with the introduction of waste plastic bottle house being constructed along Kaduna-Zaria express way. These are opportunities not only for the waste recycling business but the almajiris if properly integrated. It was also discovered during the study that most of the almajiris interviewed abhor begging hence resorted to waste picking to make ends meet. And their major interest have been tin collection, plastics, sacks, glass bottles, metal scraps etc. But curiously, depending on one’s age, the 15 year olds and above hardly go to households for waste collection and prefer to do so at the major dump site while the 10 year olds and below choose to go from one household to another to pick waste for onward dumping at the major dumping sites. This is a chain that needs to be enhanced. What this suggests is that what educational integration failed to do would be achieved with economic integration. The government had promised to build Almajiri boarding school across the North; this should be done first or are the Emirs jumping the gun?. I suggest equally that the NTRC and the Northern Governors’ Forum should as a matter of cardinal impotance commission a study to unravel the potential of waste to wealth to solve the problem of not only almajiri syndrome but also unemployment in the North.

The unemployment rate in the country has doubled from 12.5% in 2007 to 23.9% in 2011 with the highest being Yobe with 60.6%,, zamfara, 42.6% and Niger 39.4% and about 40% of those affected are 14 years and above. Equally, poverty is skyrocketing on a daily bases. What has the NTRC done or plans to do about this twin evil of unemployment and poverty upon which almajiranci thrive?