Almajiri: Northern Leaders Shifting Its Burden To South – Ohanaeze

Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, an Igbo Apex socio-cultural group, has expressed its worry over the influx of almajiri kids from Northern Nigeria down to the South.

The almajiris are otherwise referred to as street kids in the North between the age of four and 15 years. Ideally they are sent from home to learn islamic teachings but often resort to alms begging on the street.

However, with the emergence of coronavirus pandemic, they became a source of acute concern for mostly Northern governors who began taken conscious efforts in repatriating the kids to their home states, as measures to limit the spread of the virus.

But despite the ban on inter-state travel by the Federal Government, most of them still found their way down South of the country.

In an interview with The Punch, the National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr Uche Achi-Okpaga acknowledged that the almajiri question was a multifaceted problem but lamented over the neglect by leaders of the north, despite efforts by former president, Goodluck Jonathan in building schools to get the kids out of the street.

Achi-Okpaga said the northerners were in power all the while and they never thought that the almajiri kids would become a very big problem to the region.

“I think this is an orchestrated game plan,” he said.

“The Almajirai are moving in large number and travelling in trucks and buses. The question you should ask is who are those people providing those buses? The Almajirai we know don’t have money and they cannot afford to travel to far places in buses.

“So who are those providing the buses that are used to transport them within and outside the north? That is the question. The leaders of the North are aware that the Almajirai question has become a problem and they want to shift the burden to other places where people have been able to mind their business and manage their populations well.”

The ohanaeze spokesperson however alleged that the almajiris’ movement down South was a guise of sending criminals to the region and called on southern leaders to wake up and begin move to prevent such an iminent danger.

“It is a very serious problem and I think that southerners, especially the state governors, should begin to tackle the problem immediately,” he said.

“They have to make sure that the boundaries are secured and ensure that these people are sent back to where they are coming from.”