By Juliet Jacob Ochenje
It is mid-day at the ever bubbly Dutse Alhaji market in the outskirts of Abuja. 11 year-old Tahir Abdullahi moves about from one row of stores to another. He is in a familiar place, Dutse Alhaji Market is home to him.
He said he has been away from his parents since he was 7 and since then, has been striving to survive on the streets along with other almajiri kids.
As he speaks with our correspondent, Tahir clutches his rubber plate. He said him and his fellow students were given the plates by their mallam to use to hold the food they will be given when they go round begging for what to eat. Whatever they’re able to get is what they’ll live on throughout the day.
Another boy simply called Kadir joins in our conversation. He told AHR that he came to Abuja from Yobe State months ago, along with other children, in a trailer bringing some goods to Abuja, and since then, he has been on the streets begging to survive.
Kadir’s story is common among young children who fend for themselves in major cities in mostly the northern part of Nigeria. They are generally referred to as almajiri. Almajiri is a system of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria. The male student in this type of education is called almajiri, while the female is almajira. The plural is Almajirai.
In everyday context, the term has expanded to refer to children who beg on the streets and do not attend secular school. Almajirai are children, usually from poor rural backgrounds, who leave their hometowns to study Islamic learning with malammai (mallams), teachers of the Qu’ran.
While acquiring such knowledge is a noble quest, the system has suffered a lot of abuse by some of the operators who take advantage of these young children, or simply neglect them to their fate. In the city centres, especially in the northern part of the country, it is common to see young children of Tahir’s age out of school and roaming the streets in a quest for survival. The education they seek remains a tall dream for thousands of these children.
Mr Mohammed Sabo Keana, founder and team lead of Almajiri Child Right Initiative in Abuja, is an expert in matters related to children like Tahir and Kadir. Speaking with AHR, he noted that there are multiple factors that drive the almajiri situation in Nigeria; issues that have to do with culture, religion, socio-economic factors like poverty and failure of governance.
He explained: “The main driving factors are culture, religion and socioeconomic factors like poverty. The almajiri situation in Nigeria, lot of people attribute it to different factors but for me as someone that has worked closely with the situation or organisation, I attribute the problems to failure of governance, especially in the community level. I strongly believe that the lack of accountability at the local government level causing the absence of education and general infrastructures to serve as an alternative to the almajiri situation at the ward level is the main driving factor.”
Mr. Keana
When asked if almajiri exists in other Islamic nations, he answered in the affirmative, but noted that they are mostly in the West African Islamic nations like Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Niger.
“These countries also have almajiri situation as well, and the reason is not far fetched. The reason is that during the early days of Islam in West Africa, they all practiced Islam in the same way Nigeria practiced in the Sokoto and Borno empire. They also practiced in the other West Africa countries mentioned. So we can say yes, the almajiri situation exists in other Islamic nations and the main reason for its existence is the desire of parents to send their children for Qur’anic knowledge. It is the major reason parents send their children to the almajiri system but now, it is more like a social norm as they see it as part of their culture. This is the reason the almajiri practice is still common to date.”
“In 2020 when COVID-19 broke out around the world, governors in northern Nigeria in 2020 made a pronouncement against the almajiri system. Though they collectively banned it, there has not been any implementation because the children went back to the street immediately the lockdown was suspended. The reason for the return to the streets is not far fetched, the governors did not create a long lasting alternative for the children to survive and until such a provision is made, it will be impossible to outlaw the practice.
“Although the almajiri has no direct link with banditry and other security challenges in the country, the only link that exist is the fact that if children grow up without proper knowledge and also lack of educational empowerment, it means they’ll grow up not having the ability to think rationally and also they will not have the opportunity of getting a well paid job so if anyone should offer them any little, they’ll surely get involved in doing those bad things because like the saying goes, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. When children are left to grow up on the street without any parental guidance and no proper education aside the Qur’anic knowledge, they’ll be exposed to many bad things like banditry and kidnapping.
“They’re not taught those evil things at the almajiri schools, rather they tend to learn those things from the streets while growing up because of the exposure, experience, exploitation and abuse the children encounter on the street daily. The only way to enhance the almajiri situation in my own view is by providing an alternative to it and also reform the system because providing food and money to them and their mallam will not help the situation. Rather, there should be total reform to create accountability from the mallam to the children, and also the Mallams should undergo certain training and also involves some western knowledge to the system to help them with social norms. They should also be put on salary payment and they should also have limited power on the handling the children so he won’t trample on their rights as individuals of the society,” he said.
Many Muslim faithful could be said to be encouraging the ‘almajarai lifestyle’ by giving ‘sadaka’ (alms) to them on a daily basis. Some say they do it for divine reward and protection. But Mallam Abdulraman Saidu, the Imam of Mpagbe Central Mosque, Ushafa in Bwari Area Council, Abuja, in an interview with African Health Report, declared that street begging by children has no basis in Islam. He challenged those engaging in the act to find other means of earning a living.
According to him, “Almajiri system of begging is not representing Islam and must, therefore, be dissociated from Islam. Islam encourages scholarship and entrepreneurship and frowns at laziness and idleness as exemplified by itinerant almajiri.
“Therefore, attempt must be made to stop the practice of Almajiri system of begging among Muslim faithful,’’ he said.
Mallam Saidu noted that hunger and poverty were responsible for children begging on the streets, urging the government, particularly at the local government, state and federal level to prioritise the welfare of their citizens to address hunger and poverty.
He also urged state governments to strengthen the institution of ‘Zakkat’ and endowment to address wanton poverty and live up to their responsibilities of ensuring welfare of every citizen.
Contributing to the discussion, Mrs Justina Ogbudu, speaking as a Nigerian, said the almajiri system that the children left to fend for themselves through the means of begging from strangers without parental guidance potends a danger to society.
For her, the solution to the abuse of almajiri includes implementation of laws to regulate almajiri education and sensitisation on family planning.
Saying there are no advantages of the almajiri practice because most of the children are abused due to exposure to the world at a very young age, she explained: “Most of the children end up on the streets without any proper education or parenting and become a danger to the next generation. They also end up indulging in hard drugs and criminal activities.”
Another solution to the problem, she added, would be an enhancement of the almajiri education system by the government to make it more productive and safe for all parties in the society.
Over the years, the almajiri education system has co-existed alongside the formal school system but it has failed to be subsumed into the formal education sector. For instance, Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan, reportedly spent about N15 billion in building almajiri schools in an effort to integrate basic education into the almajiri system.
There have been reports that the structures built by his administration for that purpose have either been used for conventional education or wasting because the pupils have gone back to the old ways of street begging.
According to Wikipedia, between 2015 to 2022, the numbers of Almajiri across Nigeria stood at 8.5million.
