Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State said the Almajiri practice in Nigeria is fueling the region exploiting out of school children and working challenges of insecurity the country 8s facing, urging Northern leaders to turn summit discussions into actionable draft Bills, emphasising that, policy changes are the only way to defeat regional poverty.
Governor Sure stated this in Abuja during a Summit on Enhancing Human Capital Development in Northern Nigeria.
With an estimated 18.3 million out-of-school children. Governor Sule said, Nigeria faces immense education emergency. Stressing that, the Almajiri system in Northern Nigeria is the single largest structural contributor to this problem.
According to hom, recent data reveals that Almajiri children make up roughly 72% to 81% of Nigeria’s total out-of-school population, concentrated largely in the Northern parts of the country. But addressing the problem requires a total collaboration of the Northern intelligentsia, the political class, and the traditional system.
Governor Abdullahi Sule warned that many minors recruited into banditry graduated from the Almajiri system.
Governor Sule recalled the 2020 mass repatriation of Almajiri children by Nasarawa and Kaduna States and notes that enforcement requires alternative solutions. Nasarawa, accounts for about four hundred and thirty thousand (430,000) of that figure.
His proposal is radical, and it is a total ban of the almajiri system, and a replacement with mandatory formal education and skills acquisition.
He called on the National Assembly to outlaw the Almajiri system permanently.
