By Abel Leonard Nzwanke Lafia
The governor of Nasarawa state Eng. A. A Sule has observed that there are over 10 million Almajiris in the northern parts of the country and called on his colleagues to take urgent steps against it as the system is largely misunderstood.
He spoke in his office while granting audience to government house correspondents in Lafia the Nasarawa state capital.
He noted that the Almajiri system “is a system where children leave the comfort of their homes and parents to go out to acquire knowledge and to understand the culture of other people”.
However, according to the Nasarawa state governor, the Almajiri system is now completely compromised with begging on the streets which is now causing menace in various places. he observed that more than 10 million children are operating the system in the entire northern states. Most of them are serving as beggers which is contrary to the set goal of the system.
A.A Sule also expresses his feelings that most of the children who leave their home for the system do it with the consent of their parents.
Reacting to what should be done about the situation, the Governor Said “Well I don’t think the northern governors’ forum have not approach it but like I said, it is time we approach the issue more vigorously, we must not back out. We are establishing a law that will ensure that these children are protected, but when we say education is free, we must enforce it by making sure that parents are responsible for their own children? We have to collectively solve this problem”.
He further emphasised that the Almajiri system is for the acquisition of knowledge not for street begging “no government in the world can say you cannot acquire Islamic education, what the government probably should do is to abolished street begging. As far as Nasarawa state is concerned, we are going to make it actually a crime for a child to be begging on the streets as Almajiri, if it makes me unpopular, so be it”. He said.
He also disclosed that the right of children must be protected in Nasarawa state noting that his administration is ensuring that all those who graduated from school get jobs through agriculture and become employers of labour.
He also drew the attention of the people of Nasarawa state on the efforts of his administration to open up areas for agriculture, the sugar production, livestock and milk production scheme among others. In the area of education, the governor made it very clear that people will be giving technical and vocational skills so as to effectively become employers of labour.
