Almajiri children walking barefooted in a wet-cold morning.
This rant is directed to the northern leadership and a challenge to every northerner. It's also a Nigeria's problem too, because this is a show of shame, and it sums up the state of the debacle of a society we're living in.
A society that neglects its own children is a time bomb waiting to implode. (_Tahir Usman_)...
I'm not going to go into the history of almajirenci in northern Nigeria, my interest this morning is to call out the hypocrites and challenge those whose responsibility it is, to correct this anomaly. The north has been in the center of some terrible statistics in Nigeria, as it regards social welfare, extremism, education, political jingoism, just to mention a few. For the most populated region in the country, the north has only been good for politics, with nothing else to show for. The political class in the north only see their people as a conduit for self realization.
Should a Christian individual or organisation make attempt to help almajiri children through social welfarism and education, Muslim scholars and politicians would wail the loudest, somehow keeping things the way they are is good for them politically and what not, northern social media influencers will say they want to convert those kids to Christianity, and all manner of propagandist statements just to get the people (who're already jinxed by poverty and illiteracy by the way) pumped up, and ready for a holy war. They neglect the state of the children, but are focused on fighting anyone or group trying to change the status quo.
It's safe to say that: we deserve what is happening today in the north, and what is to come. Maybe it will become loudest when the effect of our neglect begins to affect the families of the elites.
To the northern elites, you all travel outside this country to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the US etc. you see how children live with dignity, and their right protected by law. Then you come back home, and you don't just watch, but you enable the maltreatment and subjugation of children, while you build a psychological wall to separate your children from the children of the poor. It is not in my person to lay cusses, but posterity will eventually do justice (Karma sure do have it ways)...
I call upon the northern leadership including Islamic scholars, to work on modalities to ending almajirenci in the north(make una dey try dey shame small), I call on northern influencers to use their platforms to canvass for the end of almajirenci in northern Nigeria, call on the leadership to prioritize education of children, and improve on social welfarism, as necessary steps towards ending the scourge of almajirenci.
Several NGOs in collaboration with states agencies and foreign backers have worked on policy documents to help the northern leadership deal with the problem of almajirenci, but our leadership are not interested in doing the right thing. I could recall, former president Jonathan, built almajiri schools in the north, as part of measures to integrate Islamic education and western education, including school feeding program, that would take the children off the street, I knew how northerners, including the political class politicized it, just to serve their evil selfish interest, now, we're reaping the effect of our stupidity. But our political class are in our faces with same old tricks.
Apparently, we're not angry enough.
That almajiri child walking on the street barefooted, with rubber plate, looking very unkept is a part of our future that is being wasted, because our mentality is selfish-individualism, apparently, we're not a society that place any sort of value to anything other than our individual interest. We do not care about the society itself, we're all just a bunch of selfish people with individualistic mindset, we do not learn from our past(apparently it's a human issue),
Enough!... I just hope we can begin to live with intention in this part of the world, enough damage done already.🤦