By Abbas Yushau Yusuf.
The issue of Almajiranci has pervaded every nooks and cranny of Northern Nigeria; Almajiranci is associated with core Northern Nigeria, particularly Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states.
The concept Almajiri or Almajiranci is misunderstood by our counterparts from the southern part of the country, they regard Almajiri as a beggar, criminal, someone who roam the street carrying bowl without a focus,.
The word Almajiri is an Arabic word meaning (someone who migrate in search of knowledge), that is Quranic, knowledge; there is no instance in Islam where seeking knowledge is associated with begging. Begging is different from knowledge.
When someone leaves his destination to search for whatever category of knowledge, that education is sought with the following characteristics, understanding, commitment, patience, guidance from the teacher and above all the means to seek the knowledge, that is to say, the capacity to afford the expenses to carry out the study from beginning to the end.
Parents are shouldered with the responsibility of training their children from infancy to adulthood, upbringing and nurturing of children to be productive members of the society is not a privilege, is a must according to islamic injunctions, they are not only to procreate but to give their children the best in terms of education, shelter, clothing.
Considering the above scenario most parents in the states of Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, send their children to Almajiri, Schools, immediately they attain the age of seven.
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The first agent of socialisation is the family, then peer groups, but the families that are presently sending their children to Almajiranci after they reached the age of five or seven have forgotten the impact of distancing teenagers from the importance of parental care that is why most of these children’s Transformed into nuisance and vagabonds of the society.
There is no conducive atmosphere at all in most of the schools the parents send their children to acquire the knowledge, because the lone teacher, that take care of them too don’t have the required means of livelihood to take care of themselves and their families let alone accommodating other people’s children to educate them, shelter them, clothe them, the only means of survival on the part of the Almajiris is to resort to begging the 3 square meals in their host communities.
How can somebody who resort to illusionary means of survival is able to comprehend and concentrate on one of the difficult aspects of life which is education.
I once met a small kid in my domain, begging in the night as usual, the boy has already emaciated, grows a big stomach, i was drawn into sympathizing the boy and asked from where he is, he told me that he is from one of the distant Northern states.
The point Iam trying to make here is that there is no way an individual, will sleep and wake up in a bad environment and expect that person to concentrate on his study, and this is impossible as far as Nigeria is concerned with the poverty that has permeated deep into our society.
These children concentrate more on begging the three square meals which is very hard to get because even those that are not Almajiris use to beg for food.
The Almajiri School initiated and inaugurated by president Good luck Jonathan in the year 2012 is a step in the right direction if our people really want the children to have the sound quranic education.
Your children can memorise Quran in your presence without ejecting them from your house and denying them the necessary parental care, this is because when I was in the university most of our Imams are our fellow student colleagues who are undergoing their undergraduate studies in the fields of engineering, medicine and other related disciplines, but they have already memorise Quran in the presence of their parents before been admitted into University without handing them over to anybody.
Therefore ,Almajiranci is not begging as misunderstood by some people but it’s a means of acquiring Knowledge, misconceived and understood by many people because the trend in which the knowledge is imparted to our brothers have totally been misconstrued and changed showcasing it as a means of begging.
NOTE: This Article was written Eight years ago.
