NextierImage Credit: BBC
Most sprawling cities and squalid seminaries in northern Nigeria are populated by itinerant Qur’anic pupils known as almajirai. The rumpled street children, mostly
young boys between the ages of three and twelve, have become a terrible blight in Nigeria. The Almajiri (singular and adjective) crisis has led to growing concerns about the safety of the street children as well as the threat they pose to others.
In June, 2019, the National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno declared the Almajiri system as a breeding ground for insecurity. Yet, the Almajiri population is growing rapidly in northern Nigeria following inadequate birth-control measures. Puzzlingly, Nigeria seems largely confused on how to address the problem despite the 2003 Children’s Rights Act which expands the human rights of children. A 2017 survey in Kano State estimated a 3 million out-of-school children in the 13.4 million population of the State.
According to estimates of the United Nations, the population of out-of-school children in Nigeria has exceeded 13 million. Over the years, efforts by the government to effectively address the Almajiri syndrome have not succeeded.
