Their verdict at the end of the talk shop wasn’t that favourable, as the North gave him a long shopping list which literally said “Perform in these areas, or you will not enjoy our support in 2027.”

The assessment parley, tagged: ‘Two-day Interactive session on Government-Citizens Engagement’, with the theme ‘Assessing Electoral Promises: Fostering Government-Citizen Engagement For National Unity’, was held at the Arewa House, with Tinubu sending a high-level team of over 10 senior government officials to attend.

Organized by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, (SABMF) with the full support of the Arewa Consultative Forum, (ACF), the talk-shop was a bold statement from the North on the direction the 2027 election would take.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ACF, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, fired on all cylinders when he told the gathering that the North gave Tinubu 64 per cent of the entire votes he got across the country, which eventually gave him the presidency in 2023. Hear him: “Northerners went out en-masse on the 25th of February, 2023, and cast their ballots for Bola Tinubu. At the end of the day, 5.6 million out of the total 8.8 million votes he got (or 64%), came from the North. And yet, two years into the four-year tenure of President Tinubu, the feeling among the people of the North is, to put it mildly, completely mixed. To our surprise, those who did not support him, did not vote for him, and hardly wished him well have emerged from nowhere and are trying to push a wedge between him and the North. Whether or not they are succeeding, we do not know. But we cannot pretend not to observe that President Tinubu’s budget priorities, his infrastructural projects, his appointments and other executive actions, have, over the last two years, largely sidelined Northern Nigeria. As far as we can see, nothing or little is being done to address the major issues of concern to the North, details of which were presented to him in writing by various groups over the years.”

He was not done, as he went ahead to list insecurity, low budgetary allocation to agriculture, poor electricity supply to the North, lack of functional health care system, the rehabilitation of the Ajaokuta Steel project, continuous search for crude oil up north, political appointments to Northerners, and the rehabilitation of more roads across the North as some of the areas the Tinubu government should quickly look into in order to pacify the region ahead of the 2027 polls.

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To show that the North is actually getting the short end of the stick, Dalhatu used the 2025 budget size of N1.013 trillion to buttress his argument. According to him, the entire North ended up with a mere N24 billion in the budget. Now, he wants the President to “start, re-start, expedite, or complete the construction of some of the major roads that are of great strategic importance to Northern Nigeria”.  These include the Abuja – Kaduna- Zaria – Kano; the Ilorin – Jebba- Tegina – B/Gwari- Kaduna road; the Abuja – Lokoja- Okene – Auchi road; the Zaria- Funtua – Gusau – Sokoto – Ilela road, the Keffi – Akwanga – Jos – Bauchi – Gombe –  Yola road, the Calabar – Ogoja – Wukari – Numan- Biu – Maiduguri road; the Wudil – Kafin-Hausa – Katagum – Potiskum road; the Kano – Katsina road, the Enugu – Otukpo – Makurdi road, the Gombe – Biu – Damaturu – Gashua – Gusau road; the Lambatta – Lapai- Agaie – Bida – Mokwa road, and the Birnin-Kebbi – Yauri – Kontogora – Makera – Tegina road.

Again, he cited the example of a press statement published by the Federal Ministry of Works on the 5th of May, 2025 with the title: ‘President Tinubu Has Approved The Allocation Of N787.14 Billion And $651.14 million For Road Projects’. When the total sum was broken down region by region, the North, again, he said, got a meagre amount from the federal government.  According to him, the Southwest got N1.394 trillion, the Southeast got N205 billion, the Northwest, N105 billion, and the Northeast, N30 billion.

These figures, he added, should be read together with the figures that the federal government had earlier allocated to some federal projects such as the Lagos – Calabar Highway, valued at N15 trillion; the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, valued at N195bn; the Lekki Corridor, valued at ($651.7m, equivalent of N978bn; the Outer Marina Shoreline, valued at N176.5bn; the Second Niger Bridge, valued at N148bn; the Delta State Section, valued at N470.9bn; the Enugu – Onitsha road, valued at N150bn, and the Benin – Lokoja road, valued at N305bn.

The North, he said, only got a meagre presence with the approval for the rehabilitation of the following roads: the Maiduguri – Monguno at N21bn, the Abuja -Kaduna – Kano at N242bn; the Sokoto – Zamfara-Katsina – Kaduna at N105bn; the Wusasa – Jos at N18 billion, and the Cham – Numan, at N9.3bn.

As expected, there was immediate push back from the Presidency, with the Minister of Works, Engineer Dave Umahi listing all projects done by his ministry and showing that no single section of the country has been left behind. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, who led the federal government team, also pleaded with the North to support Tinubu in 2027, with the promise that power would return to the region by 2031.

It is when all the stakeholders are on the same page in their desire to give qualitative education to youths, particularly the largely uneducated Northern youths, that the nation would be on the road to solving the security challenges we are currently battling.

Dalhatu is indeed a good representative of Northern Nigeria. In a federation, there is nothing wrong with a region advocating for more federal presence from those in power, what Dalhatu failed to tell Nigerians is whether a similar shopping list was handed over to former President Muhammadu Buhari when he was elected President for eight years. Was an assessment of his eight-year tenure ever done by the ACF? After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Many northern leaders kept quiet when one of theirs held forte at the helm of affairs even though most of them knew that his regime was a disaster.

However, the take away for me from the talk shop was the late acknowledgement that the North is pained by the little priority given to education by leaders from the same region. Dalhatu, in his speech, admitted that the North is in trouble, as proven by the most recent World Bank estimates of out-of-school children put at 20 million, 80 per cent of whom are in the North. But again, he put the blame squarely on the doorsteps of the federal government when he stated that the sector is grossly underfunded. He is also of the view that teachers training and welfare must be improved in the North. Let me quote some of the measures he recommended to improve the lot of the educational sector. “We must make the implementation of the UBE scheme more efficient and ensure that all children of school-going age do actually go to school, including the children of nomadic herdsmen, fishermen, and other itinerant tradesmen. As a matter of fact, the President should be advised to relaunch the UBE Scheme and commit the country to a comprehensive, free and compulsory basic education in Nigeria.”

I am happy that Dalhatu and other opinion leaders in the North have finally seen what many of us saw as a ticking time bomb decades ago when the agitation began in the South that the North is not placing much priority on education. The fad in the North is for parents to send their children and wards to Madrasa (Qur’anic School), with little or no attention given to western education. From their early ages, children are sent to far-off places to learn the Qur’an, and many elites in the region soon started to use the cultural and religious practices to hold down the masses.

I think that Dalhatu should be told that it is already too late in the day for the North to be emphasizing the importance of western education. The toddlers of the past two decades who were denied western education have now become brainwashed adults and now being used as foot soldiers by Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers in the entire North. When Mohammed Yusuf who founded Boko Haram was looking for a name for his group, Boko Haram (‘book, or western education is forbidden’) became the adopted catch-phrase.

The neglect of those children years ago is largely responsible for the unfortunate acts of terrorism now facing the entire country. Perhaps Dalhatu should come to the South west to see what Northern youths – those who chose not to take up arms against their fatherland – are doing to survive. Many of them – uneducated – have taken up menial jobs to survive. Some are riding Okada, while some are picking waste as scavengers (popularly called Baban bola – the waste man), yet some are into shoe shining and other sundry jobs just to make ends meet. Most of them sleep in makeshift sheds along the rail line, some, on top of refuse heaps at dump sites or wherever night meets them.

The criminals among them are into burglary, always on the lookout for completed but not yet occupied houses which they strip of all its wiring, iron doors, and windows. They have become a nuisance in the South while their bigger brothers up North are into kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism.

Dalhatu should be told the plain truth that the billions of Naira that the federal government has devoted to fighting insecurity in the entire North could have been put into infrastructural development of the entire country if Northern children are educated. If elites like him had embraced mass education, as it is being done in the South, we would not be in the mess we are in right now. Dalhatu should provide answers to the nomadic education policy of the Jonathan administration and what eventually became the lot of the scheme.

A former education Minister, Adamu Adamu, in 2022, told the world that the Almajiri system of education which sought to infuse western education into Qur’anic school was poorly implemented after several billions of Naira was spent on the scheme. Adamu was in charge of the Ministry of Education for eight years and he should be bold to tell the world what he did to correct the poor implementation of the policy by the Buhari government that he served.

Again, it should also be pointed to Dalhatu and other Northern leaders that education is under the concurrent list on the Constitution and Northern governors should point out what they did to improve the lot of northern youths through education. Northern governors should be made to show more interest in the education of northern youths by providing the needed environment and infrastructure at the primary and post-primary levels. They should get competent teachers with the right motivation to salvage the sordid state of education in the North. For how long would the country continue to admit students into unity schools with low grades all in the name of coming from educationally disadvantage states? Still, it is better late than never. If the North is now ready to change the narrative on education, all hands must be on deck to turn the situation around, and quickly.  Islamic clerics, parents, opinion leaders, and government at the local, state, and federal levels must be fully involved and carried along.

It is when all the stakeholders are on the same page in their desire to give qualitative education to youths, particularly the largely uneducated Northern youths, that the nation would be on the road to solving the security challenges we are currently battling.

See you next week.

The post 2027: The North’s shopping list to Tinubu, By Kazeem Akintunde appeared first on Frontpageng.

I witnessed the debate about who owns the home between the man and woman fortuitously last Monday as I found my way into the premises of the Lagos State Television and Radio Lagos, both owned by the Lagos State Government, along Agidingbi Road, directly opposite Coca-Cola premises. I was rushing in from Agege to catch an appointment within the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises when traffic snarl caught up with me just before I got to Cadbury.

At that time of the day, the traffic was unusual. The harsh economic situation, especially the unbelievable hike in fuel price, has driven many motorists off the road. So, traffic in Lagos is low these days and traffic flow is usually smooth and seamless. Getting ensnared in traffic that day and time got me thinking.

Was there an accident? Is any of those unmindful traffic agencies at it again, piling misery upon an already distraught citizenry? I consulted my wrist watch incessantly as the traffic grudgingly moved at slower than the proverbial snail’s speed. I am sure you know that in such a situation, every moment lost looks like an hour and one’s blood pressure must have begun to surge upward.

Gradually, we got to the epicentre of the traffic snarl. There was a sea of heads akin to what our people would describe as “oja meta”; that is, three full markets converging into one. Men and women, old and young; children as well all struggling to get into the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises. An interesting programme must be taking place there, I reckon. Usually, when these “elewe omo” or traditional medical doctors converge there to advertise their wares and prowess, the place witnesses a surge. That was then when things were still a million times better than what they are now.

So, imagine what it would be like now when many people no longer can afford Western medicine. Cost of drugs has shot through the roof. Doctors are scarce to find in the hospitals. For ailments that need urgent attention, people are given six months’ appointment to return to try their luck whether a doctor would be available to see them. Many die before the appointment date. For those with contacts who are able to get appointments fixed for them, that is how lucky they can get.

No one is sure of the quality of attention they get these days. A recent study gives medical errors as the third highest cause of death in the United States of America. If that can happen there, imagine the margin of error here – which is not only a developing country but one in which thousands of qualified, competent and experienced medical personnel have “japa” abroad. And the tide is yet to abate or recede.

I was wrong, however! The sea of heads were not in search of medical attention; they were in search of something more important – stomach infrastructure – made popular by a one-time governor of Ekiti state. A banner, which hung on the gate of the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises said food palliatives were being distributed there!

The premises were filled. Getting an opportunity to drive in took minutes. A queue formed from the premises, stretching up to the nearby Ikeja Mall aka Shoprite. A horde of Police/LASTMA vehicles and officers were on hand to maintain order. The people were there to collect a handful of grains of rice and cups of garri. I saw people carrying all manner of sacks on their head. Some clutched polythene bags containing items I could not fathom. Others carried small kilograms of Semo on their head. Let us not bother to name those who said they were responsible for this show of shame. They must have thought they were doing something noble; don’t you think?

And I remembered what the governor I had earlier mentioned told me when, on one occasion as he distributed his own stomach infrastructure to the people – and I was there – he noticed that my countenance was sad (like that of Nehemiah before King Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2: 1- 8). He said, “Sir, it is because you have food to eat: that is why you discountenance what we are doing here. Those who haven’t eaten for days and who do not know when and where their next meal will come from will appreciate our gesture and fall for it”

He was right! More so even now! Poverty has been weaponized to bring many of our people on their knees. Some think it is illiteracy that is responsible for the abject misery and servitude that the people are willing to subject themselves to. They may partially be right! Others argue that it is realism of the worst order. They, too, are right in a sense. The people have come to accept their powerlessness against their oppressors. If they refuse the tokenism they are offered, where do they go from there? What power do they have against their oppressors?

Some say the vote is the power of the electorate but our people are knowledgeable enough to know that their vote does not count. The historic vote they cast on June 12, 1993 that should have counted was annulled before their very eyes. They cried; they yelled, they struggled; they kicked; they fought; they marched in the streets; they laid down their life – yet, nothing came out of it. MKO Abiola refused to relinquish the mandate freely given unto him until death removed the shoes from his chicken’s legs, as they say. So, our people have come to realize that, head or tail, they lose!

The unfortunate thing is, they will be better able than us to cope with, and manage it because, for them, it is both cultural and religious imperatives. It has become, for them – and for years and decades – the social structure on which their entire society is built. Is that what our own present political leaders are trying to import into the South-west? Our best bet, if I may advise, is to quickly stem the tide before it is too late.

Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, was quoted as saying that those who vote in an election determine nothing but those who count the votes determine everything. That was then – and in his own days and clime. These days in our own time and space, those who count and record the votes do not even determine anything – the judges who sit in judgment in election disputes determine everything! And the judges are not saints. The most ridiculous and putrid judgments have oozed out of their mouth. Tell me, where do we go from here?

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So, the people accept their fate and move on. As I waited on a queue of cars that had formed, trying to meander my way into the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises, I listened to the argument of some woman trying to eject the men who had also joined the queue. What has this world become! Men were struggling with women to collect their own “Ounje Eko”!  Lagos food, is that not what they say it is called? I read some days back that some university professors queued to collect a loan of N36,000 or thereabout to buy subsidized “Ounje Eko” and I marveled that things have got that bad! More than, someone quickly corrected me! But that is a topic for another day!

The women on the queue told the men: “Obirin l’o ni’le”; meaning that it is women that own/run the home. It was a ploy to eject the men who had also queued for the measly grains and items being dished out but the men fought back bravely! “Okunrin ni baale ile”, one of the men yelled, and another supported him: “Ati okunrin, ati obirin l’o ni’le”! What the first man said, for the benefit of those who do not understand the Yoruba language, is that men are the head of the family while his supporter said both men and women are joint owners/managers of the home! The philosophy of poverty!

I finally found my way in, conducted my business and drove out. The crowd kept enlarging and surging. The successful ones carried all manner of sacks on their head. Some held their own catch in one or both hands. As I drove in to Shoprite to pick a few items, the queue was still dangerously close to the shopping mall.

There at Shoprite another spectacle confronted me: A woman picked up choice items and waited at the cashier begging everyone to help her pay for them! Few weeks back I had also seen a man by the food stands in the same Shoprite telling everyone he was hungry and they should buy food for him! What are we turning into – or is it, what have we turned into?

And my mind went back to kilometre-long queues of almajiris that I saw weeks back on social media, of children and adults with bowls in their hands waiting for food from God-knows where, when and how in one city in the north of the country! Many social ills that we thought were exclusive to other climes and peoples have crept in on us here in the South-West. And you wonder why? Our people say a lamb that walks with dogs will eat feaces. The mind-boggling scenes that we witness around us here these days (that get us worried) are the usual sight in other places. What ails us here is their own way of life. There is no way the vortex won’t suck us in.

The unfortunate thing is, they will be better able than us to cope with, and manage it because, for them, it is both cultural and religious imperatives. It has become, for them – and for years and decades – the social structure on which their entire society is built. Is that what our own present political leaders are trying to import into the South-west? Our best bet, if I may advise, is to quickly stem the tide before it is too late.

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of the Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the “ON THE LORD’S DAY” column in the Sunday Tribune and “TREASURES” column in the New Telegraph newspapers. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

The post Is the almajiri system being imported into the South-west? appeared first on Frontpageng.

It was meant to be a peaceful nationwide protest with the slogan ‘EndBadGovernance’ in Nigeria, but in most of the states in Northern Nigeria, it was more like an opportunity for the poor to show their grievances against the state through the only way they are familiar – looting and destruction.

The #EndBadGovernance protest provided an opportunity for the Almajiris, colloquially referring to any young person who begs on the streets and does not attend secular school, to vent their anger on the state and the rich amongst society.

Anger and hunger are a deadly combination that should not be allowed to fester in the minds of people. But in Nigeria, it has been allowed to germinate in the minds of the Northern youths for several decades. Now, at any given opportunity, they are ready to vent their anger against those that have failed them and left them to a fate of misery – their family, the state and the society.

What took place in Kano, Katsina, Niger, Maiduguri, Jigawa and Yobe states was not protest against bad governance. It was the release of pent-up anger against a system that has impoverished over 12 million youths. It was a cry against the exploitation of the masses by the rich and those who claim to be leaders in the North. But those actions (looting and destruction) were done out of ignorance fuelled by the natural instinct to survive excruciating poverty.

When television stations started showing video clips of what was happening in Kano as early as 11 a.m. on the first day of the protests, it became clear that the pent-up anger of the Almajiris would be let loose on people’s properties and government-owned institutions. Youths as young as 12 years old simply constituted a mob and armed with stick and stone, attacked any property in sight. One of their early targets was the yet to be inaugurated Digital Innovation Park in Kano built by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC).

The ICT Park that was looted and later set ablaze was slated for inauguration this Thursday so that secondary school students who are on holiday could make use of the park to learn a thing or two about ICT and bring them up to speed with their colleagues in other parts of the country.

Six of such ICT Parks were to be constructed for each of the six geo-political zones in the country. In 2022 when the idea was conceived by the Umar Danbatta-led NCC, the organization felt that it would aid digital penetration across the country and assist in creating jobs among the teeming unemployed youths. Already, such parks have been inaugurated in Abeokuta, Ogun State, for the South West, Enugu for the South-East, Maiduguri for the North-East and Kano for the North West. The whole idea of establishing the Parks was to produce youths that can be self-reliant, generate employment for themselves and provide job opportunities for others.

But the Almajiri, many of whom have not had a decent meal in a long time, could not be bothered about information technology and job creation. Rather, they were more interested in anything that they could steal and resell for money to feed themselves. The looted Park, with a section of it set ablaze set a temporary end to the noble dream of turning young and vibrant youths in the North into tech experts in the near future. Even though it was not the only government institution that was looted and vandalized up North.

A pharmacist watched helplessly as his pharmaceutical shop was looted in the same Kano and by the same Almajiri, who were provided an opportunity to carry out their dastardly act by those who championed the ‘10 days of Rage Protest’ to vent their anger on the society.

Several private businesses were looted alongside many government institutions. It was so bad that traffic light indicators, as well as concrete slabs on drainage channels were broken so that they could extract the iron reinforcement in those slabs which they intend to sell in order to buy food to feed themselves. By the time the police moved in to calm frayed nerves, several government properties and private establishments have been vandalized, although over 250 miscreants were arrested and most of the looted items, recovered.

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In Niger State, there was really no peaceful protests but an opportunity to loot and vandalize government properties. It was the same sad story in Katsina, Maiduguri, Kaduna State and Yobe State, where miscreants wreaked havoc. In Abuja, the Police and other security agents were on red alert for over 24 hours before they could prevent miscreants from looting Shoprite at Lugbe on Airport Road. Hunger and anger at its peak.

After several years of neglects and the I-don’t-care-attitude of most northern leaders, it is now glaring that we are all sitting on a keg of gun-powder. Did we need to say more why the Boko Haram crisis is yet to abate a decade after it started? There is no way a society will grow when you give birth to a child and throw such a child unto the streets in the name of getting Qur’anic education.

This was not the intention of the Almajiri system of education and leaders in the North should cover their heads in shame. The word Almajiri was borrowed from the Arabic Language, specifically derived from the word ‘Al-muhajir’, meaning an emigrant. In this case, one who migrates from his home in search of Qur’anic knowledge.

Until we take education seriously in the North, I do not see a way out of our self-imposed quagmire. A country with over 12 million out-of-school children should be ready to face the consequences of its foolishness. The North is bleeding and requires urgent attention from those in government.

During the pre-colonial era, the Almajiri Education System, originally called the Tsangaya was established under the Kanem-Borno Empire, one of the oldest ruling empires in the world, extending from the frontiers of Northern Nigeria across the Chadian region up to the borders of Libya. It was established as an organized and comprehensive system of education for learning Islamic principles, values, jurisprudence and ultimately the recitation and memorization of the Qur’an, and they became basic Islamic learning centres in all Muslim communities. At that time, the system was funded through the state treasury as well as Zakat funds, and was under the control of the Emirs of the traditional government system that existed before the coming of the British.

Since Islam encourages charity to a wayfarer and to a student of learning, the community also readily supported these Almajiri who mostly came from faraway places to enroll in the Tsangaya schools. In return, the Almajiris offered services such as laundry, cobbling, gardening, weaving, etc, as charity to the community that contributed to their wellbeing; hence they gave back to the society, what the society gave to them as reciprocal gestures. That was when the Almajiri System was at its zenith.

Today, on a daily basis, what we see are children roaming about the streets in tattered clothing, bare feet, extremely dirty- looking, malnourished children with dry lips and dry faces with rashes all over their heads and bodies. They move in groups from house to house, street to street, looking for what to eat. You will find them everywhere all in the name of Almajiri in most of the northern states. Now, they have become a burden as well as nuisance to the society.

It is really sad when you see these boys hungry in market places, car parks, restaurants, supermarkets including churches and mosques, begging for food.

These victims of neglect are also victims of exploitation. Many give them leftovers out of sympathy or after exploiting them for menial jobs. Some amongst them have resorted to pushing wheelbarrows to earn a living.

It is now an established fact that the Almajiri system has deviated from its original purpose and is currently giving Islam a bad name.

The Goodluck Jonathan administration came up with an innovative way of giving these lads western education,  which would also incorporate Qur’anic education, but many Northern leaders turned their noses on him. His Almajiri School education programme died immediately Jonathan was out of power. Any sort of Western education was frowned upon by many of the Northern leaders. Yet, they send their own wards to the best schools outside the shores of the country. They knew that once the people are educated, their liberation from oppression is on the way.

One of their own, Muhammadu Buhari, who took over from President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 was not really interested in getting western education for his people. Why should he be bothered? After all, he is barely educated himself. His economic policies were ill-fitting for the 21th century, and the Northern Governors and community leaders kept mute. They should not be the ones to castigate one of their own. They brought him to power through their massive votes and it would be out of place to disgrace him. That was the kind of politics we play in Nigeria. The once flourishing North soon became a shadow of its former self due to rising cases of banditry, kidnapping and terror-related attacks on the residents. The uneducated lot have now become ready-made weapons in the hands of insurgents.

The Almajiri’s hatred for the state and the rich is so glaring from the protests to the extent that what could not be stolen were destroyed. And do not be deceived that the arrest of some of the looters would resolve the crisis. It won’t. Many of the youths have lost hope of a better tomorrow and they are ready to do whatever it takes to put food in their stomachs.

Until we take education seriously in the North, I do not see a way out of our self-imposed quagmire. A country with over 12 million out-of-school children should be ready to face the consequences of its foolishness. The North is bleeding and requires urgent attention from those in government. We need to find a way to reduce the price of fuel, tackle insecurity and kidnapping, resolve the farmers/herder’s crisis, and President Bola Tinubu should speak directly with the youths by assuring them of a better tomorrow. Above all, primary and secondary school education should be compulsory and free all over the country. Without education, what is presently happening will be a child’s play in 10 years to come. By then, I hope the poor won’t have started devouring the rich.

See you next week.

The post Rage of the Almajiris in Northern Nigeria appeared first on Frontpageng.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Schools Feeding, Dr. Yetunde Adeniji, made this known on Friday during a courtesy call on the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi A. Sule in Lafia.

A statement by the Special Assistant to the SSA, Mr. Oyedokun Oyewumi, indicated that the programme targetted children in public schools, adding that her office was open to suggestions.

She said her interactions with relevant authorities demonstrated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare and educational opportunities for children through the school feeding programme, with a focus on incorporating marginalized groups, such as the Almajiris.

READ ALSO: Appeal Court affirms judgment sacking Abba Yusuf as Kano gov

Speaking during the visit, Governor Abdullahi A. Sule called on the federal government to make it a priority to include Almajiris in the home-grown school feeding plan.

He recognized the efforts of the Senior Special Assistant to bring about reforms that would ensure the success of the schools feeding programme.

Governor Sule appealed to the SSA, to provide an improved livelihood for the almajiris, adding that that would eradicate child destitution and remove beggars from the streets.

Governor Sule said, “the incorporation of the Almajiri, a group of traditionally itinerant Islamic students, into the programme would help in taking them off the streets and provide them with proper nutrition and education.”

The governor assured Dr. Adeniji of Nasarawa State government’s support in achieving the objectives of the programme.

“We call on the Office of the SSA to in collaboration with Northern States, relevant institutions, conduct a census of Almajiri schools and headcount of the destitute children with the view to enrolling them in the ongoing National Home-grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP, he said.

Earlier in the week, the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani commended the Senior Special Assistant on her proactive methods in getting familiar with institutions and states that would add to the success of the programme.

He equally said that the Kaduna State government would partner with the SSA’s office to ensure success of the programme when it begins, with a view to improve the nutrition value of the children.

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Sharada has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication from Bayero University, Kano and a Master of Business Administration from University of Chichester, United Kingdom.

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Mr Babaji Babadidi, Executive Chairman, Gombe State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Gombe, on Thursday.

He said the schools would be cited in Dogonruwa, Gombe South, Garin Hardo, Gombe Central and Tudun Wada Central senatorial districts.

The chairman said the language of instruction in the schools would be Arabic, English and other languages commonly spoken in the area, such as Hausa or Fulfulde.

READ ALSO: Almajiri: Why the North should own its problem

He said the establishment of the schools would help boost enrollment, reduce out of school children and expose learners to information and communication.

Babadidi said the state government had also approved the construction of model boarding Almajiri School in Yulunguruzu quarters of the state metropolis.

He said the construction which had reached advance stage, would be equipped with the necessary facilities found in all conventional schools across the state.

The chairman said that formal education would be introduced in to integrate the Almajiri school system with conventional schools.

“It is the responsibility of government to provide education to all manner of people; we do not want them to be going around without a formal education.

“We want the Almajirai to acquire both Islamic and western education in order to be better citizens tomorrow,” he said.

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I don’t think anyone can doubt the commitment of Governor Nasir el’ Rufai to ending the practice of Almajiri system in Kaduna State.  Give it to him, his actions of late have shown that he is indeed tired of seeing child beggars on the streets of northern states. He didn’t mince his words either in a recent interview on Channels Television when he talked about leaving other northern governors behind should they decide to continue to treat the issue with levity. To him, that would be the governors’ business. But as far as he is concerned, the system is dead in Kaduna State.

That was probably the first time any northern governor would be emphatic about ending the age-long tradition in the region. To further prove that he meant business, he said the state had expanded its school capacity to integrate the freshly transferred Almajiris from other states into formal schools. According to him, the state has also reviewed the law that will formally prohibit the system.

Ordinarily, no governor should be celebrated for promising to enrol out-of-school children in school. After all, the Universal Basic Education Act of 2004 makes it compulsory for children to have compulsory nine years education. But it is obvious that our leaders choose the laws to implement and the ones to ignore. The northern governors in particular have always talked about integrating the Almajiri system into formal education, but the children have always been on the streets. It was not until a few weeks back that the Kano State government decided to send child beggars in the state back to their home states. Other states in the north also did the same thing and somehow, it’s been a season of transfer and counter transfer of Almajiris amidst ban on interstate movements by the Federal Government.  I may not support the way the children are being transported from one state to the other, especially at a time of a serious health pandemic like COVID-19, it is at least heart – warming  that the governors are owning up to their  problem and trying to take responsibility.

Ordinarily, no governor should be celebrated for promising to enrol out-of-school children in school. After all, the Universal Basic Education Act of 2004 makes it compulsory for children to have compulsory nine years education.

However, these governors would be deceiving themselves if they think that a mere transfer of kid beggars to their home states will solve the problem of street begging and illiteracy in their states. It goes beyond that. Education is just a means to an end. What happens when these children graduate from school? What plans are the governors making in terms of creating employment opportunities for them?  What are the moves being made now to expand the states’ economies and provide business opportunities outside of government jobs? The governors must have a plan in place to sustain the army of children being born in the region on daily basis? Can the resources in these states match the current rate of population growth? These are valid questions that should be answered. I doubt if there is any northern state expanding economically at the rate at which its population is growing at present.  I am concerned about a region that has kept on breeding children as if they are going out of fashion and yet increasingly depending on  federal allocation for survival. That is why I  think the governors may have to confront the problem of overpopulation in the north once and for all.

I know that some people believe that the north deliberately allows its people to have many children in order to gain electoral advantage over other parts of the country. They think the huge population figures often work wonders especially during elections. Besides, they argue that these small children are handy when politicians want to foment trouble.  Unfortunately, in reality, high population figures also connote great responsibilities. That is probably why some states would rather they keep the figures controlled than overstretch their resources.   Does the north want the region to keep breeding at an uncontrolled rate or does it want children that it can adequately cater for?

Understandably, any conversation on population reduction can be tough, delicate and controversial especially in a region steeped in religion and tradition. Or, how for instance, do you tell a Muslim not to marry more than one wife or have as many children as he wants more so when the Holy Book sanctions it?  But, truth be told, there is no escape route to this conversation.  So, the sooner the governors address the situation, the better things would be for the region and by extension, the rest of the country. It should be obvious to all by now that governors in other parts of the country are weary of allowing the Almajiris in the north to escape to their states. Nobody wants to pay the price of uncontrolled births in the north. That is why some of them mount checks at their entry points to prevent these children from escaping to their territories. There are instances where some governors personally check vehicles carrying food items to be sure that these children are not hiding under the goods. Amazingly, some of these children have been caught hiding under goats and all kinds of stuffs in their bid to escape to other parts of the country.

To imagine that this is still the case in a country that launched its first population control policy as far back as 1988, is unbelievable!  More than 30 years ago, the policy had recommended an average of four children per family, marriage age of 18 for women and 24 for men. It had also advocated that pregnancies should be restricted to 18-35-year age range and at intervals of two years. I remember that a former military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida, led a popular campaign of four children per family during his regime as head of state. Similarly, in 2012, former President Goodluck Jonathan tried to encourage legislation on birth control. Unfortunately, the two of them did not achieve much success in this regard. Today, there are places in this country where you dare not talk about child spacing or birth control.

The time has come for northern governors to lead the campaign on population control. Religious leaders should stop preaching that men should marry more than one wife.

Honestly, this country is a hypocritical and highly religious society.  Christians will tell you that God commands them to reproduce and fill the earth, never mind there are several aspects of their lives where they conveniently ignore God’s instructions. Likewise, the Muslims will claim that the Quran permits a man to marry up to four wives. These men will also cleverly remain silent on the precondition for marrying more than one wife -loving the women equally.  I stand to be corrected, but I don’t know how a man can love two women equally.  The other time, a lawmaker had the temerity of parading his four wives and 27 children at the National Assembly.  Imagine a lawmaker publicly flaunting such in a country that is supposed to have a population policy of four children per family. Let’s be frank with ourselves, how many men can truly take care of 27 children and four wives under the current economic realities in today’s Nigeria?

The time has come for northern governors to lead the campaign on population control. Religious leaders should stop preaching that men should marry more than one wife. All the talk about the Holy Book saying a girl shouldn’t start her menstrual circle in her father’s house is only a message for the poor. How many rich people’s children have their first menstruation in their husbands’ houses? I don’t think persuasion can achieve the kind of results expected here. Therefore, the governors may, for instance, enact a law, restricting the number of children that a family could have to four.  An average woman in the north could give birth to seven children whereas her counterpart in the south west may not have more than four children. By the time a man married to four wives, has seven from each wife, the children become 28. Is that not outrageous?

A report by the United Nations Population Division has predicted that Nigeria’s population will double to over 400 million by 2050. The population is said to be growing at between 2.6-2.8 per annum while our GDP has been on a constant decline. When you have more mouths to feed than available resources, you don’t need a seer to tell you that you will end up in penury. The population growth in the north is not sustainable. If the north continues to allow its people to give birth to children without restraint, the state will keep bearing the burden since hapless parents will keep abdicating their responsibilities to the state. For how long can a state take care of children born without planning?

Even if we don’t want to follow the model of the developed world in terms of their small family structure; we can at least take a leaf from them in terms of how they are managing their population in relationship to their resources thereby enhancing the well being of their citizens.

*Deji-Folutile is the Editor-in-Chief, Franktalknow.com and member, Nigerian Guild of Editors. Email: bisideji@yahoo.co.uk

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The agreement was reached at a meeting held via teleconference and chaired by Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State.

Lalong is the chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum.

The decision of the governors was made known by the Director of Press and Public Affairs to Lalong, Simon Macham, in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Following the decisions, the children involved in the Almajiri system would be returned to their states of origin.

The statement reads: “On border control and lockdown measures, the Northern Governors retained their earlier decision for the States to individually decide on the measure to adopt, but reaffirmed the need for border closures to stop the inter-state spread of the disease, which is rising in the region.

“The Governors also discussed the risk that Almajiri children are exposed to because of the Coronavirus disease where they unanimously decided to totally ban the Almajiri system and evacuate the children to their parents or States of origin.

“They agreed to take a cue from Kano, Kaduna and Nasarawa States who have begun returning Almajiri children to families and States of origin, while those within their States who do not have parents are taken care of by the Government.

“They vowed never to allow the system to persist any longer because of the social challenges associated with it, including the perpetuation of poverty, illiteracy, insecurity and social disorder.”

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Of recent, a preponderant number of Northern elite have been talking about the social and security threats posed by the army of out-of-school children otherwise known as the Almajiris in the North and the nation in general. Prominent Northerners, including the deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, have expressed concerns over the menace that has denied so many children in the region their rights to basic education.

Sometime ago, Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, disclosed that the horrors locked in the Northern forest were as a result of children denied education. Similarly, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and his counterpart in Kano, Abdullahi Ganduje, have taken steps to ensure that children in the states are enrolled in school. For keen followers of education matters in Nigeria, it is no longer news that the north harbours majority of out-of-school-children in the country. As of December 2018, there were 13.2 million out of school children in Nigeria and majority of them were said to be in the North, according to a survey conducted by the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF).   Many of these children have been reportedly involved in the spate of kidnappings and banditry across the country.

Just this last Tuesday, the Senate also added its voice to the call for solution to the problem of the Almajiris in the north. A member of the upper chamber, Senator Adamu Aliero, representing Kebbi Central, had sponsored a motion on “the need to integrate Almajiri into modern system of education in Nigeria.’’   Subsequently, the Senate issued a three-point resolution, asking the Federal Government to among others, upgrade the existing Almajiri model schools in the North and build more in the region to increase school enrolment. Prior to this, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had noted that out-of-school children was a big challenge facing Nigeria as a nation.

I wouldn’t know why Senator Aliero decided to sponsor a fresh motion on the integration of Almajiri into modern system of education in Nigeria, because for me, there is really no basis for it. First, many states in the north where Almajiri is a problem, seem to have an integrated Almajiri school system in place already. In many of the states, the school curriculum is designed to take care of the Almajiri at basic education level. Whether this is adhered to is a different issue entirely.  Besides, eight years ago, precisely April 10, 2012, the Federal Government launched a project aimed at integrating the Almajiri education into modern system of education in the northern region. That project cost the Federal Government a whopping N15bn under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. The Federal Government built over 400 schools in the North at the time. The schools, popularly known as Almajiri schools, were to provide both Islamic and Western education to the children. Some of the schools were equipped with language libraries, recitation halls, classrooms, dormitories, clinics, vocational workshops and quarters for teachers among others.  Unfortunately, this huge investment is yet to bring any tangible dividend as the schools have either been abandoned or converted into other uses.

Now, here is the puzzle. If the states in the North have integrated Almajiri school system, how come we still find so many children begging on the street?

In Zamfara State, for example, the Almajiri schools were converted into conventional secondary schools. The school in Talata Mafara local government, according to a Daily Trust report, was converted into Command Science Secondary School while the one in Damba was converted into Government Girls Secondary School. The situation is not particularly different in Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto, Bauchi and Kebbi states.  The states probably saw the Federal Government largesse as free facilities that could serve better purposes than the trivial issue of Almajiri.

Justifying the conversion of the facilities, one of the commissioners of education in the region in an interview with  Daily Trust, said, “Who is Almajiri if I may ask? I think Almajiri means student. Let me tell you in our educational system we have curriculum designed to take care of Almajiri at basic education level. In our state we have integrated Almajiri school system, our curriculum is reflecting that. It was a decision we had to take to meet the objectives of establishing those places and we are still giving them education at basic level.”

Now, here is the puzzle. If the states in the North have integrated Almajiri school system, how come we still find so many children begging on the street? Could it be a problem of lack of political will to fully implement existing policies or a ploy by some people to keep  these children out of school in order to make them ready tools in their hands at any time of need?  It is important to understand the real reason behind the existence of child beggars in the North despite the existing policies aimed at curbing the practice. This will help in solving the problem. The Senate’s resolution that the Federal Government should build more Almajiri schools is another way of throwing money at problems which has been a common practice in this part of the world.  Of course, that has never worked and it will never work!

I know some people would say that the Almajiri system is rooted in some deep cultural and religious practices in the north, but overtime, we have discovered that this can’t be true.  Otherwise why is it that you don’t find children of the Northern elite begging on the streets? Are we saying these kids from rich backgrounds are less Northern or less religious? Let’s be frank with ourselves, the practice of sending the male children to Arabic schools without adequately catering for their needs has nothing to do with Islam. If it does, child beggars would have filled the major cities of other Islamic countries in the world.  Even here in Nigeria, child beggars aren’t even popular on major streets in the Southern part of the country.

So, if the north is truly interested in ending the problem of Almajiris, its leaders should be more committed to implementing the existing national policies on education. As it is, it is a crime punishable by law, for any Nigerian child to be denied nine years of continuous basic education, according to UBEC Act.  Let them start from there.  The states should ensure that this law is implemented to the letter and that defaulters receive appropriate sanctions. Of course, before they can do this, they must have accepted the fact that they are responsible for providing quality education for their people. A situation where the task of ending a regional problem is constantly being transferred to the Federal Government is not healthy in a federal system of government.  For instance, what is the business of the Federal Government with either upgrading existing Almajiri model schools or building more in order to increase school enrolment. Are the senators asking the Federal Government to invest billions of Naira again in the Almajiri project after spending N15bn that didn’t yield any commensurate result?  What is the guarantee that such investment won’t be a waste of resources again?

So, if the north is truly interested in ending the problem of Almajiris, its leaders should be more committed to implementing the existing national policies on education.

The truth is, the north cannot continue to depend on the Federal Government to solve its regional problem except it does not want to be fair to other parts of the country. As it is, there are few basic schools, if there is any school at all, in the southern part of the country that can boast of  the kind of the state-of -the-art edifices the Federal Government had built for the Almajiris in the North.  If these schools are abandoned or left to decay, should it be the responsibility of the Federal Government again to upgrade them? What are the states doing?  After all, education is on the concurrent list and the Federal Government is already doing its bit by funding basic education through the Universal Basic Education Commission.

Of course, I agree with the lawmakers that the Almajiri system is an abuse of the rights of children. It is wrong and callous of anyone to dump their children on others and relinquish total responsibility over them all in the name of wanting them to be taught the Islamic injunction.  However, the problem is likely to get solved when the Northern governors take ownership of their challenge.  I believe states like Kano and Kaduna will soon begin to witness a rise in school enrolment figures if they remain committed to their policy of compulsory education for every child in their states.  We cannot continue to invest the resources belonging to the entire nation in solving a regional problem. Besides, we should be careful not to turn this into another contract scam where some politicians will take advantage of a bad situation to enrich themselves.

The various state houses of assembly in the north should make the problem of Almajiri a legislative agenda and find ways of solving it. This shouldn’t be the responsibility of the Ninth Senate. It is high time the Northern governors accepted that Almajiri is a regional problem. It is not a national problem. Agreed the negative impact of the system cannot be restricted to the North alone, but this shouldn’t be a reason to blackmail or force the Federal Government to keep committing scarce national resources into solving a regional malady.

*Deji-Folutile  is the Editor-in-Chief of franktalknow.com and member, Nigerian Guild of Editors.   Email: bisideji@yahoo.co.uk

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Almajiri is the Quranic learning system associated with begging on economic and religious grounds peculiar to some Northern states in the country.

The Federal Government has, in its bid to tackle the problems of insecurity, expressed its decision to overhaul the system.

This, according to the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, was because some of the students ended up becoming criminals, drug addicts and willing tools in the hands of those who had very dangerous intentions.

ACF in its reaction to the decision of the government expressed support.

According to the spokesman of the ACF, Mohammed Ibrahim, the Islamic doctrine of learning for out of school children had been misconstrued.

His words:  “There is a misrepresentation of the concept in the Islamic doctrine of learning. Almajiri means, going to Islamic schools to learn the reading of the Holy Quran and its teachings for moral economic and social benefit of the child.

“We associate ourselves with Buhari’s concern on the need for the nation to overhaul the Almajiri system of school that will provide free and compulsory education across the country.

“The children we see begging in the streets are in the real sense not Almajiris, but children abandoned by their parents. That is why ACF agrees with President Buhari that it is indeed a crime for parents to keep their children out of school in this 21st century under any guise.

”Furthermore, the President’s appeal to state governments to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age could not be more appropriate as it is constitutional responsibility of governments to provide education to the citizens as means of empowerment in a competitive environment.

“ACF, therefore, urges the state governments to heed to President Buhari’s appeal and appropriate funds needed for improved volume and quality of education across the country leading to reduction in inequality among the citizens.”

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