Introduction

In the recent past, there was an attempt to repatriate all almajiris inhabiting other states back to their home time state in a good spirit of curbing the pandemic covid 19 scourge in those states. It was further postulated that the system should by all means be abolished.

On the 12th day of May,2020 members of the House of Representatives have called on the FGN to halt repatriation of almajiri children due to covid-19 pandemic (by some governors) as same runs counter with the fundamental rights of those children to reside anywhere in Nigeria being Nigerian citizen. Hence the writer’s attempt to address the almajiri sytem in northern Nigeria with some suggestions.

Generally, the two most misconceived concepts (street begging or beggars and Almajiranci) are not synonymous to each other and that’s why clarifying same is very essential for the benefit of readers of this article.

Almajiri system is a system of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria, the system is called Almajiranci,.,the male gender seeking for islamic knowledge is called almajiri. The Hausa word Almajiri is derived from the Arabic word, “المُهَاجِرْ” “al-Muhajirun,” i.e immigrant-which refers to a person who migrated from his home in a quest or for search of Islamic knowledge.

While colloquially, the term has expanded to refer to any young person who begs on the streets and does not attend secular school.

Islamic educational system is the pre-colonial educational system which had been in existence in Northern Nigeria (formerly known as Sokoto Caliphate) prior to the British conquest in 1903, and the subsequent establishment and consolidation of colonial rule, an Islamic educational system already existed.

This enduring legacy of Islamic religious educational system from the Sokoto Caliphate of Northern Nigeria continued before and after the advent of British colonialism

The almajirai usually begin their studies between the ages of 3-5- 12, to above and learn about the Quran in schools called tsangayu. Where they are not engaged in learning the Quran, almajirai in rural areas can work on farms, while urban almajirai conduct small tasks like domestic chores, running errands, and fetching water. Additionally, almajirai practice alms begging, or almajiranchi, out of necessity to eat. Beggary was not originally part of the almajirai system, but it is now said to prepare the almajirai for the hardships of life, make them strong and humble, and keep them devoted to studying the Quran.. And in most cases the almajiri’s parents are rich in their respective villages.

Furthermore there are some almajiri schools that do not beg to feed themselves. They normally cultivate their teachers farmland and in return for their teacher to feed them three square meals in addition to teaching them Quaran to memorise for free.

While describing the high level of literacy of the northern people In his book, „The Dual Mandate in Tropical Africa‟,Lord Lugard was impressed how he found the highly centralized political system, trusted social settingwell thought almajiri who knew how to read and write in Arabic alphabet called ’’AJAMI’’.

British colonial administrator in Northern protectorate Lugard who took over as Governor of Northern protectorate in 1914, following the amalgamation of Northern and southern Nigeria, Lugard claimed that there were 25,000 Quranic schools in Northern Nigeria with a total enrolment of 218,618 pupils.

Under the British colonial administration, the system of Quranic schools was maintained in order to avoid destroying the social fabric of muslim northerners. Northern Nigeria had a scholarly and literary tradition of its own. That was the problem which had left Lugard with the only option of introducing indirect rule to Northerners.

Why do we need to review and reform almajiri system in northern Nigeria rather than its abolishment

The almajiri teachers who have since committed quran to memory may be left idle by abolishing the system. They derive no pleasure in anything apart from teaching and constant recitation of the holy qur an.

It is quite unfortunate that almajiri system was more decent in the defunct northern Nigeria than what it is obtainable today. In those days, the pupils lived with their parents/guardians for moral upbringing, and all the schools were located within the immediate environment from where the pupils came from.

Many of those almajiri were either fed by the scholar or by their parents. They don’t used to beg for food or on the street. Islam has never and can never encourage begging of whatever form. Therefore is highly condemnable indeed.

The students were at liberty to acquire skills in during interval or break from Islamic lessons. It was because of that so many of them were involved in business such as farming, fishing, masony among others. It was reported that many were the farmers whose product formed the famed groundnut pyramids in Kano.

It was not too long after colonization, that so many al majirai were recruited by the British as miners in Jos.

Impressively the system had also produced the judges, clerks, and teachers who provided the colonial administration with the needed staff.

However, the hitherto existing almajiri system is filled with semi-literate almajiri teachers. This means that the system encourages parents running away from their God ordained responsibilities. The parents hand over their children to scholars without making a provision for feeding and health care of their children much less of paying the teacher a penny for teaching their children.

The appalling part of it is that, these helpless students (some are even under age) struggle to cater for themselves and support their teachers. And because of that some are lost through crime and violence in the streets, while others are lost through diseases, and starved hunger.

Conversely some writers are of the fine view that, most of the street beggars are not almajirai but indigents,poor men and women who can hardly make 2 square meal a day coming out to beg.

Since almajiri system has over the age in some villages metamorphosed into an accepted tradition, I cannot advocate for child abuse of sending teenagers or under age to Almajiri school from far away state without making a provision for their feeding

A statistic report of UNICEF from 2014 had put the number of Almajiri in Nigeria at 9.5 million, or 72 per cent of the country’s 13.2 million out-of-school children. This is quite saddening to say the least, Another estimation beholds that the number of out of school children in the country has rapidly risen to 15 million mark, and most of them are from the North.

It is therefore inevitable to review and reform the aged- long Almajiri system by enforcing a required benchmark standards.

In view of the above given circumstances the following are some of my suggestions for the system to be reviewed and therefore reformed as follows;

All almajiri schools should be registered with a particular ministry of religious affairs for the purposes of having a recorded number of almajiris, addresses of the schools and that of their parents or guardian be identified
All parents who wish to send their children to almajiri school should provide enough food stuffs or money to buy food for at least 3 month.
All parents or their guardians should pay at least a three month visit to their children to know the condition of their children.
All parents should be paying the almajiri teacher a school fee for their children being enrolled in his school
All parents should leave a reliable contact (hotline) with the teacher so that once any children’s health condition requires his attention, should be easily reached.
Any almajiri teacher who has a school should make sure that he has a sleeping rooms and toilets for those students.

Almajiri street begging or begging for food in the neighborhood house should be banned since their parents are to take self responsibility of feeding their children.
The Government should enroll these almajiri school into universal technical basic educational system with a view to introduce western education side by side with the quranic education.
The government should frequently assist those almajiri school in whatever form.
Conclusion

From the foregoing it is clear that, almajiri system need to be reformed as a necessity to meet with the modern realities. This is because repatriating them under a scorching summer to their home town may be very temporary especially with the change of government in any state. Again, these almajirai being Nigerians are covered and protected by the Nigerian constitution to reside any where in Nigeria. And that fundamental right violation may be an open invitation to enforcement of fundamental right litigations by activists.