Addressing Almajiri out of school menace: How committed are the candidates for 2019 Elections? | EduCeleb
Contributor
16th February 2019
By Mohammed Sabo Keana
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, states that the security and welfare of the citizens, shall be the primary responsibility of the government, but successive administrations have made little or no commitment towards this constitutional obligations to millions of children who are sent into the life of Almajiri in northern Nigeria. Accordingto recent government statistics, there are 13.2 million children who are not in formal education in Nigeria – the highest in the world. Out of these, about 9million of them can be found in Northern Nigeria— in form of Almajiri children—who also experience some of the worst form of child rights violations in recent history.
The 2019 general elections, presents an opportunity for us as Almajiri Child Rights Advocates, to engage and bring this to the consciousness of those seeking various offices in the coming elections. We asked the major contenders for the Presidential, Governorship and legislative candidacy about their plans to address the Almajiri crisis— which is one of the most pressing issues in Northern Nigeria today and here are some of the candidates’ commitments.
The Almajiri problem is one of the most strikingmanifestation of breakdown of social order in many parts of Nigeria, especiallyin northern Nigeria. My government will work with relevant state governments inthe northern part of this country to eradicate the problem of Almajiri, byproviding them with both quranic and formal education, skills and alsoaddressing poverty which makes their parents send them into the street.
We are going to do this without compromising theirfaith. They are Muslims and they have the right to remain Muslims, but allMuslims have the right to productive live.
The Almajiri problem, where millions of children areroaming the street of an important part of the country begging, homeless, poorand uneducated is unacceptable to me as president of Nigeria. These childrendeserve a better life, they deserve to be educated and skilled, they deserve tohave healthcare and protected and we will make sure we provide all these Aspresident, I will work with northern leaders to arrive at a consensus as to howwe can end the Almajiri crisis but whether it will be done, it must be done!You can take it from me, we will work to end the Almajiri crisis.
When asked a question by an Almajiri child advocateon the issue of the Almajiri children, during “The Candidate” debate session,Buhari said, “On the Almajiri issue, we have to look at the 3 tiers ofgovernment responsible. The federal, state and the local government and theallocation of resources relative to the resources available. The question ofAlmajiri children is lack of basic primary education which are local governmentproblem, even if the Centre has extra money, it won’t take money to build classrooms, equip them and employ qualified teachers from the federal revenue, whileit is the duty of the local government.
“If the local government are not given the money bythe governors, then it is up to them to come together and scream loud enoughfor Nigeria to hear them, so that there will be proper allocation of resourcesby the constitutional means’’.
Buhari emphasized that, the responsibility ofprimary education for Almajiri children is under the state and localgovernment, absolving the federal government of the responsibility for theAlmajiri crisis.
Regarding the issue of addressing the education ofAlmajiri children, my plan is specific and we are going to match them withbudgeting per head. As soon as we are sworn in, we will allocate a hundredthousand Naira to return every child that is out of school in Nigeria back toschool, until such a time they graduate.
If Nigeria today spends N14,000 on every prisonerper day, my government will spend a N100,000 per year on a child to take themback to school. About 1.3 trillion for 13.5 million children out of school.
The classification of children as Almajiri or purewater sellers are unnecessary. A child that is not in school is a childdeprived of education. It doesn’t matter the location—whether you are in thenorth or south and you are not in school, I will have a problem with yourparents, and if I cannot send your child to school you should have a problemwith me as a president of your country .
We will bring police to enforce the education or thearmy if necessary, it will then become a crime for a parent for not lettingtheir children go to school. Parents will be prosecuted as they are levelingwar against the state if they don’t send their children to school. It’s betterto use funds for our children than to be paying millions to senators who arenot doing anything.
The first thing we are going to do, is to strengthen and upgrade all the systems of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for it to function better and for us to know the number of Almajiri are out there. We also need to work with the parents, because when we identify them (the Almajiri through NIMC) we would be able to trace their parents and work intandem with them. We are also going to look at the Child Rights Act because itis important for the Child Rights Act to start working across all the States.
Another thing is massive sensitization, going intocommunities, working with Civil Society Organizations to ensure that they workin partnership with more people and organizations that are into child right developmentor education to go into the hinterland of the communities especially in theNorth, to dissuade people from taking their children out and lastly, parentswould be given a certain stipend to take care of their children and supporttheir welfare.
The issue of Almajiri is really linked to a broaderissue of the number of children that are out of school in the region. In Bauchistate, we have more than 1.2 million children that are out of school.
numeracy and literacy in Bauchi state and in part ofthe northeast, is less than 30% among children between 5 and 16 years of ageand there are hundreds of thousands of children roaming the street in the nameof Almajirranci that are not in school and probably not getting the rightreligious education that their parents have hoped for. To me, that is a sign ofa broken system that does not value the basic right of a child to get educated.
If we are successful, our administration will settarget to reduce the number of out-of-school children and ensure that rightlegislations are in place for parents to uphold their parental responsibilitytowards their children in our states.
The issue of Almajiri crisis is something we must bevery serious about. What we will do first, is to have a census of the numbersof children and to identify their true locations or state of origins—those thatare indigene of kano, we will ensure that they are taken off the street toschool and those from other states or nations are returned to their homes. Ouradministration will enact a law against street begging, we are going to enforcethe law to make sure no Almajiri child is on the street begging.
Hon. Ben Johnson, ANN
If I am elected as member of state assembly, one ofthe major thing that I will do, is to focus on the issue of education bybringing a radical law that will enhance the girl child education and theAlmajiri children are forced to school.
Yes, we will force them to school because some ofthem wouldn’t want to go to school but we will force them and it will be made afree education. We will have a special task force that will follow street bystreet to make sure every child of school age are in school. We will use forcebecause that is the major obligation any leader can have for his children andfuture leaders. Formal education is compulsory for every child in this countryand as a legislature, we have to make sure every child gets the opportunity.
One of the reason I joined active politics is to bringan end to Almajiri crisis in Northern Nigeria and we will ensure that we getthese children off the streets and their enrolment level well enhanced byincreasing investment in their education and welfare. If elected, I am going towork with my colleagues to make sure we propose policies that will do awayCompletely with the growth of Almajiri practice in northern Nigeria.
According to a recent UNICEF report, Nigeria currently accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all of Africa’s births and 5 per cent of the global total. This projected population increase underscores the need for government at all levels to prioritize and increase investment in the education system that can take 13.5 million children back to school while ensuring that the educational system is adequate enough to accommodate more in the future. Failure to do so, will mean that the country’s out-of-school population, will triple between now and 2030, preventing children from developing to their full potential, which could have far more consequences for our country.
Prioritizing investing in children and youth isimperative to establishing the strongest foundation for Nigeria’s future thatis safe, secure, prosperous and equitable for its most precious assets—itschildren and youth. Investment in the education and wellbeing of our childrenis an investment that our politicians we will be voting for come February 16and March 2, 2019, must and should prioritize.
Whoever wins, we must demand for accountability toensure they live up to their commitments!
Mohammed Sabo Keana is the Team Lead of Almajiri Child Right Initiative[ACRI]—a support and advocacy platform that advocates for social inclusion of Almajiri children who are out of school, abused and exploited in the northern part of Nigeria.