Nigerian govt describes Almajiri as security threat, vows to proscribe it

The Nigerian Government has described Almajiri as one of the groups causing problem in the country, and said it was going to proscribe it along with others like it.

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, stated this on Thursday when he spoke to State House correspondents after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said, “As the president mentioned earlier, when he was inaugurating the National Economic Council, we need to make education compulsory and free for every child in the country because the problems we face today are rooted in the fact that a lot of people who have been denied the opportunity to get formal education end up over the years.

“There is accumulation of large mass of human beings who end up becoming criminals, drug addicts and so on and so forth. And they end up becoming tools to be used by elements in the wider society who have very dangerous intentions.

“Therefore, it is very important to proscribed certain groups ultimately running around under the guise of maybe getting some kind of education that is not really formal and then begin to cause a lot of problems for society.

“The group I spoke about on illiteracy is the Almajiri. Ultimately, government will have to proscribe this Almajiri phenomena, because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them in a couple of years or decades to become a problem to society.

“We are not saying that they are going to be contained in a manner, that you might think we want to do something that is harmful to them, no. What we want to do is to work with the state governments to enforce the policy of education for every child.”

Earlier, the NSA explained that $1 billion approved in 2017 by NEC from Excess Crude Account (ECA) for security, was earmarked for the military.

He said he cannot say if the money earmarked for the military had been released or spent on security.

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“I also made suggestions regarding the way forward, which include employment creation and reduction of poverty, and being the culture of impunity and looking at stabilising certain areas of the country by giving rise to affordable education.

“This is very important because in most parts of the country, we have a lot of children roaming around without any formal education.”

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