Pulse.ng : Muslim Peace Network, WCREF moves to achieve sustainable, inclusive livelihood for Almajiri children

Agency Report

By Sani Idris

Muslim Peace Network, an NGO, and Women and Children’s Rights and Empowerment Foundation (WCREF), have moved to achieve sustainable, inclusive livelihood for `Almajiri’ children in Kaduna State.

At a meeting with stakeholders on Tuesday in Kaduna, Executive Director of Muslim Peace Network, Imam Hussain Makanjuola, noted that insecurity would continue to dog the society if the `Almajiri’ phenomenon was not addressed.

He said that street begging (Almajiri) hidden under the guise of seeking Qur’anic knowledge needed reform, especially as it had been ignorantly tied to Islam.

Imam Makanjuola stressed that no verse of the Holy Qur’an permits begging.

According to him, insecurity can only be eradicated when the Almajiri menace is tackled holistically especially in the northern parts of Nigeria.

Makanjuola urged governments at all levels to conceive the political will to ensure that Almajiri children were catered for in their quest for Qur’anic knowledge.

He observed that the phenomenon had turned the “Almajiri’ children into instruments of insecurity and social disorder.

In her remarks, Executive Director of WCREF, Barrister Maryam Abdu, said there were lots of ways to curb the issue of Almajiri.

According to her, the best solution is to integrate the Almajiri system with western education system so as to lessen ignorance and mis-education about how the Almajiri children operate.

Abdu stated the need to sensitise Qur’anic teachers and parents on the Almajiri system, since the concept had changed over the years.

“The Almajiri system has changed over the years from Qur’anic schools, learning about Islam and Prophetic teachings into street begging, veering away from the original intention of the system,’’ she noted.

She also listed skills acquisition and establishment of rehabilitation centres or halfway homes to reintegrate the Almajiri children into the society.

Abdu called on parents, especially those from rural areas to stop sending their children to other places for begging for whatever reason or in the guise of seeking Islamic knowledge.

A stakeholder, Mr Ado Tanimu, said the age-long practice of migrating to various places in search of knowledge which is the true meaning and practice of ‘Almajiri’ had been bastardised.

Tanimu is the Kaduna State Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

He called on governments to have the political will to address the challenges of the Almajiri by coordinating and monitoring all their activities to ensure there is no abuse in the system.

Tanimu said NAPTIP had regularly sensitised scholars and teachers that run Almajiri schools to prevent abuses that were intrinsic in the practice.

Another stakeholder, Hajiya Amina Kazaure, a development worker at Vision Trust Foundation, lamented that parents, especially from the rural settings sent their children to Almajiri schools without provision for upkeep.

She noted that the practice posed the challenge of daily livelihood for the children, making them to resort to begging and becoming vulnerable to all sorts of crimes and social deviance.

Kazaure added that the teachers themselves also contributed to the problem, as they used the children for cheap labour to make ends meet.

This, she said, was at the expenses of the actual contract which was to teach the children the Qur’an and Islam.

She called on Almajiri schools to have proper records of their pupils, while urging government to ensure proper monitoring and provision of subventions for the schools.

She also called on governments to set up model schools for Almajiris at each senatorial zone in Kaduna State and equip them with all necessities to cater to the daily livelihoods of the pupils.

The meeting, held in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Kaduna, had the Kaduna State Ministry of Education, officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, UNICEF, NGOs and Civil Society Organisations in attendance. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)