Abdul-Aziz Na’ibi Abubakar, a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of abandoning children from poor homes in northern Nigeria.
Abubakar, who also serves as the Director-General of the Atiku Haske Organisation, said the outgoing president did nothing in his eight years in power to help the children of the downtrodden in the north.
Almajiri education is an alternative education program in the northern region of Nigeria in which the Islamic school clerics bear parental duties.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan spent a whopping N15 billion to build model Almajiri schools across the north as part of the Almajiri Education Programme.
However, years after Jonathan left power, the initiative flopped because the Buhari-led administration left the programme to state governments without interest in sustaining it.
Abubakar stated that the failure of the programme is entirely the president’s fault for not leading by example.
His words:
“I was in my room thinking of how the North could modernize Almajiri Schools and save those children from street begging; then, I remembered that Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the South, initiated Almajiri Modern Schools.
“Our own Muslim Northerner, Buhari, abandoned the project and apart from Gombe state governor, Inuwa Yahaya, I didn’t hear about any other northern governor that tried to modernize the system of Almajiranci. So sad!”
Ugochukwu Okoye, an assistant professor, noted that Islamic leaders have a role if the programme would succeed in Nigeria.
He said:
“I think it’s not about school modernization. The Imams are the major people to revolutionize this. I saw the way it was done in Malaysia. Those kids live like kings, and those devoted to Islamic studies did that graciously. In fact, it’s simple to achieve if imams will help.”
Muhammad Hadi said:
“The issue rounding almajiri system I think, requires a wholly approach begging with the reorientation of parenting and upbringing. Almajiri School alone couldn’t have been an end to the system.”
In 2021, Nigeria had the highest number of out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa, with a projected 10.1 million kids roaming the streets without formal education.
The figure grew by 400,000, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund on January 24, 2022, released to mark the International Day of Education.
