The Association of Concerned Almajirai (ACAJ) has called on Northern
Governors Forum (NGF) to adopt the Almajiri system with marital
counseling of parents.
According to Association, the premarital and marital counseling of
parents could effectively enable them take responsibilities of their
children, instead of roaming the streets to beg.
ACAJ’s leader, Onuchi Abdulghaffaar disclosed this at a news
conference held in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
“The Governors should make provisions for high sensitive and
premarital counselling of their citizens,” he said, noting that will
make parents wake up to responsibilities of child parenting.
“In cases of child abuse and any other defaults of parents or
guardians; proper actions be taken by the 19 Governors in North,” he
said.
While lamenting ban of Almajiri system, he said: “What moral standard
has such people to talk about banning the rich, traditional Islamic
Almajiri System?”
He also urged the governors to should recognize and involve the
Tsangaya teachers in decision making process improve on the Almajiri
system.
“The Governors should accept the Almajiri system as formal system of
knowledge seeking; considering the much it has done in civilizing the
north, before the coming of colonial masters,” he said.
He said that a high-powered Committee of Stakeholders be set up to
produce a blueprint to overcome the challenges of Tsangaya system.
Abdulghaffaar described the system as: “A formal system of knowledge
seeking which has been in existence and practiced in Northern Nigeria
before the evasion of colonialists.
According to him, the Almajiri System has lasted for hundreds of centuries.
Continued; “The system is a process of migration of an individual or
group of people from one place to another in search of the knowledge
of the Quran and Islam in general.”
On the misconception of Almajiri, he said: “It is a Hausa corrupted
Arabic word which has Almuhajir as its original meaning of a migrant.
“In Northern Nigeria it refers to someone who migrates from one place
to another in search of knowledge,” noting that it is not restricted
to Islamic knowledge, but the study of the Holy Quran.
He said that Almajiri is being interpreted as a migrant in search of
the knowledge of Quran and Islam in general.
Asked what measures ACAJ would take, if the Governors failed to heed
calls on the integration of Almajiri and Tsangaya Systems, he said: “I
will be compelled to sponsor a bill to the National Assembly to
address the ban of Almajirai, including their repatriation to their
respective states.
“Every citizen if free to live in any part of the country, as the 1999
Constitution guarantees free movements and residence of people in
Nigeria.”
