The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC,
has praised former President Goodluck Jonathan’s attempts at ending the
Almajiri system through construction of schools in Northern Nigeria.
The group blamed Northern
Governors for showing no political will to end the system.
The group made its position known
in a statement signed by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola and available
to newsmen. It said, “While we commend the Jonathan administration for building
al-Majiri 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 al-majiri 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 al-majiri system has been rated at over ten million.
“Recent studies have revealed that kids metamorphose from this ugly phenomenon
to members of street gangs.
“It is strongly suspected that
many al-majiri children are now commanders in the dreaded Boko Haram
insurgency.”
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
frowns at the poorly arranged educational system which resulted in the
al-majiri syndrome. “It is escapist, pernicious, retrogressive,
counter-productive and inhuman,” it eplained.
The statement said that Al-majiri
as practiced in Northern Nigeria today was a bastardisation of the Islamic
education system.
“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
bread 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, al-majiris 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 al-majiris in Maiduguri area sell
sachet water while some do scavenging and sell whatever they find to
recyclers,” it noted.
It lamented that in thunder, rain
and flood, al-majiri children crowd up in open spaces to spend the night.
“The few who find shelter share
single mosquito-infested rooms with scores of others. They are prone to all
sorts of contagious diseases. Their personal safety cannot be guaranteed and
many fall into the hands of bad gangs, like the notorious Yandaba boys of
Kano,” the statement observed.
“It cannot be called Islamic
education in any sense as the focus of the children involved is fully on
begging, searching for food and making a living. It makes mockery of the
institution of parenthood as envisaged in Islam.
“The Qur’an commands parents to
take charge of the educational, social and economic responsibilities of their
children from infancy till they reach the age of full maturity and capability.
“This age is forty years (Qur’an
2:233 and 46:15). It is therefore the height of abdication of parental
responsibility to give out children to Islamic teachers without caring for the
needs of such children and without paying the teachers for their services. No
wonder the teachers end up exploiting the children for their personal needs.
“MURIC exhorts Northern governors
to come up with a master plan capable of resolving the al-majiri debacle once
and for all.
“This plan should take cognizance
of the need for a census of all those involved in the system, buildings to be
used as hostels, modern structures to be used as schools, adequate remuneration
for the Islamic teachers, free feeding and capacity building for the kids,
among others.
“In the final analysis, the blame
rests squarely on Northern politicians dead and alive for failing to see the
threat coming and for their inability to evolve a means of combating it and
bringing it to a halt. It may have been callous and myopic, but the present
crop of politicians must not repeat the mistakes of history. Al-majiris must be
reined in if the North really wants Boko Haram and gangsterism to become
history,” the group explained.
A point of correction, The word almajiri it did not mean almuhajirun, almajiri means a student ALMUTA'ALLIM. For blaming northern governors, you could have blamed those whom the almajiri schools were build in their States. You said at KANO state they turned to Yan,daba,which is not true,is weakness of parents for not discipline their child,must of them are either runaway or they are addicted smoker's just as we have them at the other parts of this country. May Almighty Allah guide US to the right path. Ameen
ReplyDeletePlease stop this jahilinci ie ignorance. MURIC is quite correct and exact about the origin of the word. The word almagiri comes from Almuhajir meaning one who migrate in pursuance of islamic knowledge.
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