In many states in northern Nigeria, they parade the cities and towns – an army of dishevelled boys of school age moving from house to house in search of alms. In various communities, it is like some sort of grotesque carnival. Each street parades a band of juvenile mendicants, each boy armed with his begging bowl.
Over the years, several people have bemoaned the practice that deprives millions of youngsters the opportunity of a Western education, but advocates of the almajiri system have always countered such arguments, insisting that the system is an integral feature of the Islamic faith.
Nigeria’s immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, initiated a system of education for the almajiri, which proposed a mixture of Arabic and Western education for the kids. It was gathered that about N15 billion was expended on the schools across some northern states But the initiative was suspended after he was replaced by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Some state governments in the North are, however, determined to remove the culture of begging from the almajiri system. Nasarawa State government, for instance, has declared a war on what it termed child abuse and child labour. Governor Abdullahi Sule, an engineer, has insisted that begging has never been a part of the almajiri system.
The governor asserted that parents in the state would have to take responsibility for their actions, noting that each family must be conscious of their responsibilities to their children and to society. He vowed that parents that take their kids to Islamic teachers fully aware that such children would be forced into a life of begging must shun such habits or face justice.
While appearing as a guest on a television programme last year, Governor Sule said his government was working on a law that would criminalise child begging in the state. He regretted that the almajiri system in the northern states accommodates about 10 million children, the majority of whom had been turned to itinerant beggars who solicit alms from place to place.
He averred that his government was determined to eradicate child begging in Nasarawa, assuring that a bill to that effect would soon be in place.
While insiting that the rights of children must be protected. The governor also stated that the army of jobless children parading the state in the guise of begging also constituted a security threat to the people.
“Government must establish that it is a crime to abuse a child, it is a crime to bring children to this world and send them to Almajiri system when you cannot take care of them.
“It must be established that it is a crime to abuse a child, it is a crime to bring children to this world and send them into Almajiri system (begging) where you cannot take care of them. That is what we are trying to do. Parents must take responsibility. You can’t bring children to this world and dump them somewhere and expect somebody else to take care of them, so parents must not shy away from responsibility,” he said.
Last month, the governor signed the Child Rights Protection Executive Order into law. The executive order seeks to ban street begging for children in the state. The law prescribes a ten- year jail term of parents who allow their children go into street begging.
The law partly reads: “This law, apart from the prohibition of street begging, provides punishment for parents who, out of irresponsibility, threw away their children to street begging.”
Governor Sule allayed fears that the new law could induce security challenges in his state. He said his government was already tackling insecurity in three different ways – providing jobs through agriculture, providing vocational and technical skills and ensuring that parents who send their children to almajiri school are able to take care of such children.
At a brief interaction in Lagos recently, the governor spoke more on the new Child Rights Protection law in Nasarawa State.
His words: “The law is actually to protect the child rather than ban street begging. But it is in the process of protecting the child that street begging automatically gets stopped. In the North, the Almajiri system is actually a noble system of acquiring Islamic education. Every Muslim would like his children to go into the system to acquire Islamic education. But it is the abuse of this system that is bad. People give birth to children they cannot take care of, and from the ages of six, seven eight, 10, they take them from one village to another and say they are going to acquire Islamic education. It’s a very awkward way of trying to shy away from responsibility. Most of such parents don’t even leave enough resources for the upkeep for their children with the Malams. They just abandon the children for the Malams.”
The governor said the Malams deliberately send the children to the streets to beg and earn money, so the money could be used to pay for their education.
“The Malams will tell them to make daily contributions according to their ages. Some might pay N300, some others N500 and so on. The children are exposed to danger. You have all kinds of child abuse. There is child labour and the issue of protection of the child is zero. But at the end of the day, they end up acquiring no education. The time they should have used in acquiring education is what they use in begging. The law that we enacted is to protect the child from abuse,” he said.
He also explained how the law would work. He said any child between six and ten must not be separated from the parents or guardian. Such children should return to their parents to sleep each day after leaving the Almajiri school.
“The parents should take responsibility for feeding them, clothing them and providing shelter for them. For those whose parents are not in the state, they should be with their guardians.
“By the time they are 10, the state government will now provide some assistance. We will go to the school, know the number of each children and provide some assistance for the feeding, clothing.
“Islam doesn’t allow begging. Islam forbids begging. Parents must learn to have the number of children they can take care of. Why should you have 10 or 15 children when you can take care of only three or four? It’s very controversial but that is the truth. I know some people have got into trouble because they said the right thing. But we cannot run away from saying the right things, even when saying the right things might be unpopular.”
The governor has also vowed to send about 30,000 underage children from other states that are being used for child labour across Nasarawa back to their respective states.