By: Bomba Dauda
The former Senator representing Kaduna Central in North-West Nigeria, Comrade Shehu Sani lashed out at Northern Governors against the arrest and dumping of Almajiris in their villages or “state of origin.” Instead, he urged the governors to rehabilitate and re-educate the Almajiris as a surest way to curb the challenges pose by the Almajiris system in the country and ensure human capital development across the teeming youth of the region.
“Arresting the Almajiris and dumping them in their villages or “trucking” them to their “states of origin” or shoving them to the Isolation Centers will not solve the Almajiris problem. The governors are simply deodorizing and hiding a bucket of faeces. Rehabilitate and re-educate them,” he said.
It will be recalled that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan priotized the fight against the Almajiris system by building Almajiri schools in the north, which targeted at combining both Quranic and Western Education but, northern political elites made non-sense of the effort while norther Islamic Clerics condemned the move.
”According to UNICEF, one in every five of world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria and the chunk of that is in the north. The states where the mass actions are taking place, Bauchi, Niger, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba and the FCT, have about eight million children not in school and, an average enrolment rate of only 57 per cent.
