Afenifere Blasts Kwankwaso, Says Almajiri Is A Menace

The publicity secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has said that until the Northern elites accept that the children they call Almajiri were created by God and should not be used to foment trouble or create crisis, a million Almajiri schools in the north will not work.

Odumakin made this remark while speaking on Boko Haram and how education can be used to tackle insurgency in the North, through the Almajiri education initiative.

“Well, I don’t think so. Until the elite of the North accept that Almajiri is a menace, we cannot solve that problem. You read the interview of former Kano State governor, Musa Kwankwaso, in a national daily where he said that former President Jonathan’s wife, Patience, abused the Almajiri and they (northern leaders) used them to flush him out, and that Almajiri is a thing of pride for them (northern leaders).

“So, until the elite of the North accept that the children they call Almajiri were created by God and should not be used to foment trouble or create crisis, a million Almajiri schools will not work. As long as northern leaders, the like of Kwankwaso, have the mindset that Almajiri is a social system for breeding children that can be used for a variety of negative purposes, we cannot make any progress,” he said.

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He said sufficient recommendations that will deal with the root causes of insurgency and stem extremism were made during the 2014 National Conference.

The publicity secretary of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin

Speaking on whether pressure will be piled on President Muhammadu Buhari administration to implement the report, he said: “We need to give the government 100 days since its inauguration and see the direction it is moving. The government came to power with some policies, so let us see their direction first.”

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According to him, “Part of the issue of terror war is also dependent on nationhood, the fault lines and the clash of civilizations. We have made sufficient recommendations in the Conference report that could stem extremism. In the area of insurgency, there are different parts.

“There is the question of maintain law and order, there is the question of combating the ideology that gave rise to this extremism and fundamentalism and, more importantly, we touched on the issue of reconstructing the areas that were devastated. Education is important and, of course, ensuring that there is no breeding ground for extremism”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Almajiri education system, though seen as a means to preserve northern Nigerian culture, has also become a subject of concern due to controversial and often disadvantageous position of children.

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