The almajiri system currently being practised largely in the North is a ticking time bomb. Standing I was across the street, when I saw some almajiri eating food that poured on the ground from the flask of a food vendor as a result of a tricycle accident. Most of the almajiri are minors meant to be under the care and love of their parents. The street, they are left for to fend for them. Parental love and care is a fiction far from reality to them. Insecurity is one of the major challenges in the North; these groups of unloved children are potential recruits for the bad elements of the street.
When Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and a member of the National Peace Committee made the offer to take a certain number of almajiri off the street; an outcry and uproar it raised from so many Muslim organisations, Islamic scholars, elite and social commentators. A whole lot of noise they made, like they really cared and a sense of responsibility had been awoken in them to face the almajiri issue, proffer and implement a workable solution. A hoax it all was; for the issue didn’t even burn or trend for more than a week.
As a northerner and a Muslim this is a slap and a disgrace. When it comes to politics and other frivolities that benefits no one but just the elites, we are on the forefront and make the loudest noise. The northern elite are the North’s greatest bane; feeding fat they’re from the region’s high level of poverty and illiteracy. Save for a very microscopic few of them, in poverty, ignorance and illiteracy they want their people to remain in perpetuity.
It is high time the North re-echoes its social problems; call and mount pressure on its elites, religious leaders and organisations to address same. Enough is enough of our being just a tool to secure political dominance.
Umaru, Enemona Ismaila, Jos, Plateau state; 07039102092
Kehinde Akinfenwa, Lagos
