Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has blamed Northern governors for showing no political will to end the almajiri system in the area.
The group made its position known in a statement signed by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola and made available to newsmen.
The group stated that “while we commend the Jonathan administration for building almajiri schools in some parts of the North, Northern governors must be held responsible both for the misuse and disuse of those structures.
“Most of the almajiri schools are lying fallow today while some have been converted to other uses. This is most unfortunate. The Buhari administration must also intervene by initiating a special project for the almajiranci.”
It said that the number of children involved in the almajiri system had been rated at over 10 million.
“Recent studies have revealed that kids metamorphosed from this ugly phenomenon to members of street gangs. It is strongly suspected that many almajiri children are now commanders in the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency.”
The statement stated that almajiri, as practiced in the North today, was a bastardisation of the Islamic education system, adding: “Although the word is originally from ‘al-muhajirun’, that is, migrants, a reference to the early Muslims, who followed Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from Makkah to seek refuge in Madinah in 622 C.E., it is now used to refer to child beggars. These are children whose parents gave them out to teachers to learn the rudiments of Islam.
“Unfortunately the system has bred poverty, homelessness and hopelessness. It has produced a fi sabilillahi mentality plus an army of vagabonds and a battalion of bowl-carrying kids always roaming the streets aimlessly. It ends up breeding hunger, squalor and the resultant disease.
“For example, in places like Azare, Bauchi, almajiris tie bowls to their clothes and beg for just anything, anything at all. In places like Maiduguri, Borno state, they offer to carry bags for strangers and they are ready to assist in doing house chores for a whole day once a meal is guaranteed.
Older almajiris in Maiduguri area sell sachet water while some do scavenging and sell whatever they find to recyclers,” it noted.
