Almajiri and Repatriation
Usman Danlami
The term “Almajiri” is a Hausa word for pupil or student which emanates from the Arabic word ‘AlMuhajir’ which means a seeker of Islamic knowledge. In Nigeria, the word “Almajiri” means those who left their villages or town, parents, relations, and friends in search of Islamic religious knowledge.
The Almajiri, usually, is expected to be educationally oriented in the tenets of Islam in his early childhood to groom him for a decent Muslim adulthood. But the common norm in Northern Nigeria today has deviated from this practice, giving way to a mob of bowl-carrying children wandering the streets in search of one thing or the other. Begging is the most discomforting aspect of the Almajiri system as it brings the pupils out of the supervision of the Mallams (teachers) and gives them away to negative habits as they come in contact with morally deficient people such as cultists and terrorists.
The contemporary Nigerian society is characterized by violent conflicts over ethnicity and religion, most especially in the Northern states of the country. Widespread violence and simultaneous sporadic and reprisal attacks have culminated into high level of insecurity and uncertainty to the continued existence of Nigeria as a federal state. The most devastating acts of violent extremism has no doubt been perpetrated by the deadly Boko Haram group. The relationship between the Almajiri and Boko Haram is not impossible, as shown by Nigerians. The belief of most Nigerians is that Boko Haram is an Islamic terrorist group who proclaimed that Western education is a sin. This background is justified by the fact that the Almajiri do not attend formal school.
The violent Northern Nigerian sect Boko Haram draws some of its recruits from the Almajiri. Diverse scholars note that the Almajiri system in the Northern part of Nigeria made the vicious membership mustering of Boko Haram simple.
For instance, it has been widely reiterated that the reason Boko Haram insurgents have continued to wage war against the Nigerian state is as a result of a robust recruitment source. The Almajiri system has created a mass of vulnerable younglings who are susceptible to the antics of conflict promoters upon the promise of material reward or psycho-social brainwashing.
The deportation of the Almajiri children in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic has cast more light in the dark. For the many years the Almajiri system has existed, it has been perceived by many as constituting public nuisance. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, where free movements have been banned and social distancing greatly promoted, the Almajiri way of life is greatly threatened. Hundreds of almajiri children have been deported from across different states of the federation; in a bid to flatten the spread of the Coronavirus. In some cases, some of them have tested positive to COVID-19. Nigeria’s House of Representatives has also called on the Federal government to stop state governments from repatriating Almajiri children.
Beyond COVID-19, the Almajiri system requires collective action. This should involve both the federal and state governments to map out a holistic policy action to address the issues around almajiri system. Also, traditional and religious institutions have a vital role to play, considering that the practice is deeply rooted in cultural and religious sentiments. Governmental actions can only provide the capacity for reforms; it will require the collaborations of relevant stakeholders, including the Northern elites, for meaningful impact to be achieved and sustainability guaranteed. Without a comprehensive policy initiative, the Almajiri children remain the evidence of dearth of social security for citizens of the country.
In September 2019 the Nigerian police rescued more than 300 boys and men found chained at an Islamic School in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria. The victims some as young as five were not only chained, but beaten, with multiple scars and sores on their backs.
The Kaduna students’ rescue is one episode of many rescues of people many of them children from harsh Islamic schools in Northern Nigeria, as Nigerian authorities launched a crackdown on informal Islamic schools and rehabilitation centers in September. Nearly 1,500 people have been rescued in schools in Kaduna, Daura, Ilorin and Ibadan.
In Daura, Katsina State, 300 men, including drug addicts, were rescued on October 14, where they were chained and sexually abused. Other reformatory Islamic schools in Ilorin, Western Nigeria, and Ibadan and southwestern Nigeria were also raided and closed recently.
Those from the north and those who are not from the North are worried that while the Almajiri roam the streets in search of support from people, they pose a threat to national security as they could be vulnerable to the re-orientations of the Boko Haram terrorist group. This shows a strong nexus between Almajiri and Boko Haram. In as much as there are over 10 million uneducated youths in Northern Nigeria there will always be a very high tendency for these youths to be used as instruments of violent extremism and ethno-religious conflict.
To contain the rise or the high rate of insecurity, there should be constant supervision and monitoring of the schools’ programmes and curriculum so as to check negative instructions and orientation. And of course all forms of street-begging and parental neglect should be criminalized by the government while poverty reduction programs be implemented to reduce the juvenile delinquency of Almajiri in Northern Nigeria and if possible in all parts of the country.
