The Chairman of the North Central Governors’ Forum and Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has warned that if the North fails to address the problems associated with the Almajiri system, the August 1 to 10 violent protests across the country would be child’s play.
Sule spoke yesterday in Lafia while flagging off the regional conference on population dynamics, security, climate change, out-of-school children/Almajiri, and vulnerable children in Nigeria.
The event was organised by the National Population Commission (NPC) and hosted by the Nasarawa State Government in Lafia.
Sule said the Almajiri system is common to the North and constitutes a “huge problem”, the region’s leaders must collectively seek an end to it.
He advised the North not to continue using the Almajiri system to further hold Nigeria to ransom.
‘’Why should Northern Nigeria continue to hold the entire nation to ransom when we know that it (Almajiri) is our problem? We have to go out there and find a way to solve it,” he said.
The National Commission of Almajiri and Out of School Children said unverified report puts the number of Almajiri in the country at ’over 30 million out of the 251 million globally.
The governor described the Almajiri as a time bomb that if left unchecked, could have dire consequences not only on the region but the entire country.
He wondered why the Almajiri practice in the North is different from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan which are Islamic nations.
His words: “If the North fails to address the problems associated with the Almajiri system, the August 1 to 10 violent protests across the country would be child’s play.”
“The Almajiri problem is indeed a huge problem for us. I think, just as I told my colleagues in Kaduna during our last meeting of the Northern governors, I said we should stop complaining. It is time for us to take the bull by the horns and see how we can resolve the problem by ourselves.
“We should no longer expect anybody to come and solve the problem of the Almajiri system. We must be the ones to solve this problem if we are serious about solving the problem of the Almajiri system.”
Peoplesmind
