Education

By Aminu Mohammed

I nurtured my desire to study abroad during my undergraduate days at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. It was the era when ABU was the hotbed of Marxism and radical thinking in the North, led by the late Marxist historian Dr Bala Usman and others like Dr Bako, Prof. Sadiq and Prof. Ayo Dunmoye. I was fascinated by the writings of Karl Marx and Max Weber, which prompted my desire to study in Germany.

Germany is the wealthiest country in Europe and a global leader in education and research. It is the land of scientists like Albert Einstein, Max Plank and philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Goethe, among others. The education in Germany is top-notch, especially in medical sciences, natural science and engineering. Studying in Germany is also cheaper and more cost-effective compared to other countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Many of you may wonder why I choose to write on this topic, considering the high cost of studying abroad. Many of you may still think that only the elite can afford to send their children to foreign universities and others from a humble background are not capable of doing so, probably due to their circumstances.

I want to tell you today that you should perish such thoughts that have limited our people, especially in the northern part of the country, making them doubt their abilities. I want to tell you that there are no limits to where you can go and what you can achieve if you believe in your dreams and work towards them. We live in an era of information technology where you can use your smartphone to search for information that will aid you in improving your life and career. There are many Nigerian students from the Southern part of the country; most do not have wealthy parents and are thriving in this environment.

Studying in German universities is tuition-free for both local and international students. There are two options: you can either study through scholarship or self-sponsorship by taking care of your living expenses on your own through a system called blocked account. The first option is highly competitive and more tedious than the second one. Therefore, I suggest that people without solid financial capacity focus on the first option by applying for a scholarship. You can check the universities’ websites offering your courses and see the requirements for obtaining the scholarship.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) currently offers scholarships to students from developing countries for the 2023 academic session. The scholarship covers everything, including a monthly stipend of 861 euros for master’s students and 1200 euros for doctorate students. So, you should apply as soon as possible before the deadline. It would help if you had an outstanding grade in your first degree, a minimum of two years of work experience, a good motivation letter, and volunteering experience, among others, to be accepted for the scholarship programme.

The second option, through a blocked account, requires a lot of money, which means that you are on self- sponsorship, hence will cater for your living expenses which include payment for accommodation, health insurance and other costs in Germany. This option is for those who can afford the blocked account stipulated by the German authorities, which is currently 10,332 euros approximately (N6.7 million). You must deposit this money in a German bank after getting admission before securing a study visa. Most students who arrived in Germany for studies used Fintiba bank, a financial institution based in Frankfurt, Germany.

Once you get admission, you can check the website of the German embassy in Abuja or Lagos, look for the requirements for the study visa, and then apply for a visa appointment. I will advise that after getting admission, you check the official website of the German embassy in Nigeria or visit the embassy in Abuja or Lagos to get information on how to deposit the money in Fintiba bank. Don’t give your money to anybody.

You can go to any Nigerian bank to do the international transfer to Fintiba bank once you get the details on how to go about it from the German embassy. The money belongs to you and is for your living expenses here. Once you arrive in Germany and go through a system referred to as legitimization at the bank, Fintiba bank will then transfer 848 Euro monthly to your account for 12 months. The money will not be transferred in bulk to your account but bit by bit.

.Of course, you can work here and earn money to support your living expenses. Students are entitled to 20 hours per week and can work more than 20 hours during holidays, especially when the university is on break. Most international students work here and earn good money. An hourly wage depends on cities, but it is mainly between 10.45 to 16 Euro per hour (N6, 500 to N10, 000) depending on the city and company you work for. Wages in bigger cities like Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Dusseldorf are higher than in smaller cities like Kiel, Flensburg, Cottbus, Magdeburg, etc.

Public universities do not charge tuition fees in Germany. Depending on the University, you only pay a semester fee (alias social fee) ranging from 200 euros to 380 euros per semester. For instance, students in my university pay 264 Euros per semester. This covers dues for the student union and transportation. In other words, students do not pay whenever they board a bus or train, as the semester ticket covers the fare for buses and trains within the city of Kiel and up to Hamburg. So, our semester ticket covers movement throughout the state of Schleswig Holstein and Hamburg.

Most Nigerian and international students I have met here are on self-sponsorship. Theystudy and also work to take care of their living expenses. There is always a part-time job available for students, especially in big and smaller cities, and you can take advantage of that to earn money for your upkeep. Some students focus on studies only during the semester and only work during holidays, while some attend lectures on weekdays and only work part-time during the weekend. The choice is yours.

I must emphasize that studying in Germany is tough, and you must put much effort to succeed. People fail here quickly, especially students who focus on work without paying much attention to their studies. But the main thing is to strike a balance between your studies and part-time work, if you want to achieve your goals. Of course, many students have been able to secure jobs after their studies here. A lot of Nigerians that I know here work after completing their studies.

Moreover, for those apprehensive about their religion, there is a large population of Muslims in Germany, mainly from Turkey, Syria, and Egypt, among others. There are mosques everywhere. At least we have six mosques in my city, with even a mosque mainly for Africans to perform their prayer.

I still reiterate that you can do everything independently with your computer or laptop. You do not need the help of anybody or an agent to assist you in applying for admission, scholarship or the visa process. Don’t fall for any scammer. You can do this from beginning to end on your own until you find yourself in Germany. You don’t need to know anybody to be able to secure admission, scholarship or visa to Germany. I arrived in Germany in 2018 without knowing anybody or even a friend. My communication was with the University strictly. If I can do it, you too can do it. So, believe in your abilities and go after your goals. I wish you all the best in your endeavour.

Aminu Mohammed is at the School of Sustainability, Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He can be reached at gravity23n@gmail.com or 219013@mail.uni-kiel.de.

By Aliyu Idris

Anyone aware of the lingering strike in Nigeria’s public universities nationwide will sympathise with us students. Now it’s clear that students understand the government’s negligence and I-don’t-care-attitude towards the education sector because none of their sons and daughters goes to public universities.

The government that is supposed to take the necessary actions regarding the strike is showing a lackadaisical attitude towards it as if the education system is normal. Thus, the ASUU strike is not the topic of discussion today.

The government is hellbent on political affairs more than returning the students to their classes. Unfortunately, the issue of the ASUU strike has become a secondary matter to the government in national affairs, sad.

The strike has shattered the dreams of public university students. As a result, The graduation period of million students has been extended to another subsequent year(s) (I do not pray for that occurrence).

It’s an arduous task for public university students to graduate within the stipulated period allocated for their studies. Hence, almost every student’s ID card expires before they graduate.

The victims (students) of the ASUU strike have lost hope in learning and scholarship. Thus, since the government has failed to save their future, they have shifted their focus from education to other life activities such as businesses and learning skills to build their lives.

The statistics of students called up for NYSC in the camps nationwide is low compared to when public universities are not on strike.

The NYSC camps are filled with HND students, students from universities abroad, students from private universities in Nigeria and students from affiliated universities (FCE/CEO/Polytechnic graduates).

There may be the hope of fulfilling the ASUU demands soon (I pray) because I know the Nigerian politicians and INEC will need serving corps members to work for them in the 2023 general elections. However, until the strike is called off, the current corps members are insufficient for the election’s tasks.

The (our) striking lectures are not the problem but the government. May Allah put an end to this strike menace, amin.

Aliyu Idris is an undergraduate at Bayero University, Kano. He can be reached via aliyuidris063@gmail.com.

By Lawan Bukar Maigana

 I was spoofed when my father changed my school from a public school to a private school. I remember the first class I had. Our teacher, a lady, asked me a question, and I answered it. She asked me again where I got the answer, and I told her that I got it from my brain. She laughed at me, and everyone laughed at me because I spoke poorly. Our school fee was 16,650.

My friends were always laughing at my spoken English because I didn’t know how to speak good English. I still can’t speak good English, but I am working hard to perfect it. That same lady—my teacher—forced me to start reading a novel in class every day, and she mostly asked me to explain what I understood from the book. She corrected me as I explained it to the class, and that was how I started speaking gradually.

My proprietor had always told me that I would become a perfect English speaker one day and encouraged me to ignore my classmates and teachers who made jest of my English. With His mercy on me, I started speaking well with confidence until our graduation. Right now, I speak better English than some of my friends who laughed at me because of my English.

Today, she is proud of me anywhere she sees or hears about me. Had I worried about what my friends did to me then, I wouldn’t have become who I am today because they mocked me well. Some of them are on this platform. They will read this post and laugh at themselves because they know they have done many bad things to me.

Honestly, those days were difficult for me because there were days I didn’t talk from morning to the closing time in school. I didn’t know how to speak good English; English was our school’s only means of communication. So I chose to keep quiet because I didn’t want to be laughed at or mocked by my classmates.

Don’t taunt people with English and don’t laugh at people’s spoken and written English because everyone makes mistakes. No one has a monopoly on English knowledge, including native speakers. Don’t stop learning English because of what people think about you or what they do to you. Continue learning. You will perfect it one day; they can’t laugh or mock you anymore.

The world reads me today. I want to read your articles and watch you talking to a large audience one day. So, don’t stop speaking in public. Those who condemn you today can’t do so tomorrow. They won’t have the opportunity.

Lawan Bukar Maigana writes from Abuja and can be reached via lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has called on the National Examinations Council, NECO, to adjust its examination timetable to accommodate Muslims who would be celebrating Eid-el-Adha, aka Sallah.  

NECO has scheduled Data Processing (Practical) from 10 am to 1 pm on July 9, which clashes with the first day of Eid.

MURIC Director and Founder, Professor Ishaq Akintola, made the call on Sunday, July 3, 2022, in a statement.

“We are fully aware that the clash was not deliberate as NECO had actually demonstrated goodwill by setting aside a whole week for Sallah celebrations (Monday, 11th July to Friday 15th July), and this reflected in its timetable.

“We, therefore, appeal to the NECO authorities to kindly shift the examination of that day alone (Saturday 9th July 2022) to another date in order to enable its teeming Muslim candidates [to] sit for their examinations.” Part of the statement reads.

By Nura Jibo

Let me start by saying that I am not holding any brief for the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities(ASUU) because I was its victim of strike for three (3) years. I am not holding any brief for Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education and government either, as I very seriously hate their mishandling of Nigeria’s education sector. 

Today, I write as a concerned individual who believes in teaching and providing free education to Nigerian and global citizens. 

Hence, I write this as a classroom teacher that taught in a Nigerian State’s Polytechnic for three (3) years as a volunteer lecturer. I did not collect a single Kobo or Naira from that college throughout my volunteerism teaching at the College of Business Management. I only wanted to pay back what I had taken from the excellent teachers that made me who I am today. 

Therefore, it is very pleasing whenever I reflect and have a flashback over certain moments that contributed to my making, particular via the teaching and mentorship of my amazing teachers. 

Indeed, I sometimes feel very disgruntled whenever I see a certain Minister of Education who once upon a time advocated through his long essays in Daily Trust stable a 30% allocation of Nigeria’s budgetary provision to the education sector. However, that Nigerian Minister now develops a thick skin on resolving this simple yet terrible antecedent by hiding under his Ministerial gown to suffer and implicate an already ailing system! 

The issue is simple: It is either the likes of our laconic and apt Prof. Farooq Kperogi amplified that Minister’s writing prowess beyond or above what he is, or he’s exaggerated as someone with firsthand knowledge of Nigeria’s education system. I am unsure whether writing long pieces of literature in the name of Friday columns and reeling towards power qualifies one as an expert to lead a very large and delicate African educational system. 

Therefore, I believe mastery of achievement so-called via writing newspaper columns or “Definitions in Humour” does not preclude one from being considered a novice and a toddler in leading an education system that is deliberately beleaguered in the name of politics. The way the Minister portrays himself as a man of God by writing all sorts of educational polemics in Nigeria, one would not have expected less from Nigeria’s presidency that offered and entrusted such a complex Ministry in the hands of a chronic accountant who never had a clue or better put never practised and excelled in his profession – Accountancy! But that’s Nigeria, where many people get away with its sensitive positions provided they can write pep and glib talks and share with the dull and ignorant. 

To quickly put the record straight, Nigerian leaders should refrain from allowing people to assume public office because of their writing prowess or mastery of oratory language. The duo are clearly very different and distinctive in acquiring or having a practical knowledge of teaching and education. 

I shall come back to this point later if time permits!

Indeed, three things made me raise my concern about ASUU Strike and the exaggerated disappointment from the Federal Government. First, the ASUU’s demands on an improved education system in the country. Second, the students’ extravagant hopes of acquiring a Nigerian education that is today by far less and very low in quality. The third is the bastardizing of the education sector by political leaders in Nigeria. 

Indeed, there are three global measurable indicators in gauging an education, whether it is qualitative or not. One is the availability of state-of-the-art teaching facilities. Two, stability in academic programmes. Three, quality of teaching staff. 

In Nigeria, none of the three(3) is available at the moment because the teachers and all university lecturers are already frustrated by the Nigerian political leaders, that are mostly half-baked or uneducated. 

The level of frustration is deliberate, though! And the way things are going, it is better and advisable for all Nigerian students to come out and demonstrate en masse by matching to Aso Rock villa to express their displeasure on the denial of their rights to education by Mr President and his education cabinet. As they do that, they should make the Nigerian government aware that the monthly salary of a Nigerian professor is not more than a primary school teacher’s salary in the UAE and other serious countries that left Nigeria far behind.

A professor in Nigeria today earns an average salary of N400,000 to N500, 000 per month. His yearly earnings are approximately N5-6 million. This is equivalent to what is being paid to an Engineer engaged as project manager (PM) every month in the UAE. 

This is not to talk of a primary school teacher in Nigeria who lives a typical hand-to-mouth life by surviving on a N23,000-N37,000 monthly salary with many family demands at their disposal. And considering the chaotic nature of a Nigerian state with no end in sight! 

Truth is: the Nigerian State can more than afford to pay its teachers and university lecturers global standard salary(s) the way COUNTRIES and regions in the UAE, such as Dubai, Bahrain, Oman, etc., are paying their teachers competent and befitting salaries because Nigeria is ten (10) times richer than Dubai, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain etc. 

How can one expect any good to come out of Nigeria’s education system that is not ready to discharge this global standard? 

The irony is that: the Nigerian education system is one that shamelessly cannot afford to recruit, engage and pay teachers global standard salary(s). It prefers to absorb graduates under Npower and pay them a stipend of N23,000 per month. At the same time, the political leaders steal the public funds and waste away the Nigerian nation by burying it in global shame. Therefore, the corrupt tendencies of Nigerian political leaders and their timid behaviour(s) of stealing public funds in the name of democracy will continue to put the country’s education system in untold hardship by killing it ultimately. And as the country continues along this path, it should be ready for more Boko Haram and kidnappers ad infinitum. 

Nura Jibo, MRICS, PQS, MNIQS, RQS, was a volunteer visiting teacher at a Polytechnic in Nigeria for three years. He can be reached via nurajibo@yahoo.com.

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

The academic world will never cease to amaze me. Let us look at just one example. Take an invitation to present a paper at an international event, as I was in June 2022. This particular event was the 90th commemoration of the establishment of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. About 30 of us were invited, mainly from Europe and Asia, to share experiences on our various studies on orientalism from 29th to 30th June 2022. 

The trip was daunting for me, to begin with. It started with an hour flight on Qatar Airways to Abuja from Kano (my base). I spent another hour or so on the ground at Abuja before taking off for the six-hour flight to Doha, Qatar. I spent over four hours meandering around the terminal at Doha, waiting for the connecting flight to Warsaw. Eventually boarded the five-hour flight from Doha to Warsaw. All told, about 17 hours journey time. Arrived at the hotel jetlagged, weary and disoriented.

Off the following day to the University of Warsaw for the two-day conference scheduled at 9.00 p.m. each day. And it was right on the dot, with welcoming remarks by Prof. Piotr Taracha, the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies UW, followed by an address to the conference by Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, the Rector of UW. These were followed by two keynote addresses, then appreciation of retiring members of the university community who had been there for over 50 years, including my host, Prof. dr. hab. Nina Pawlak (that’s how distinguished academic titles are labelled in most Eastern European universities). Let’s see what the letters mean; prof stands for professor, while dr is the doctor. To be a hab, however, requires extra efforts.  

To be awarded the academic degree of doktor habilitowany (habilitation), the candidate must have remarkable scientific or artistic achievements; submit a habilitation book which contributes to the development of a given scientific discipline; receive a favourable assessment of their output, pass a habilitation examination and deliver a favourably assessed habilitation lecture. It is after all this that they become professors.  

Nina Pawlak received her PhD in 1983 (Constructions expressing spatial relations in the Hausa language), habilitation in 1995 (Syntactic Markers in Chadic) and professorship in 2007. Thus entitled to prof. dr. hab. status. The habilitation is a post-doctoral experience that is highly formalized, represented by a separate thesis or a compendium of outstanding work in the area that can be evaluated as making an original contribution to knowledge. It takes between four to ten years to complete. Its public presentation is something like an inaugural lecture before a professorship. In most cases, the habilitation is the qualification needed for someone to supervise doctoral students. So far, in Africa, only Al-Azhar University in Cairo seems to offer this route to university scholarship.  

It is the habilitation qualification that will determine one’s path to professorship, but the publications required for skipping it to become a professor directly have to be more outstanding than the habilitation publication. This process shows rigorous respect for original contribution to knowledge in European scholarship. One can still be referred to as prof. dr. in recognition of their scholarship, without the hab. For instance, I was recognized as so by the European Union award of a grant to teach at the University of Warsaw in 2012. The prof. dr. title, used in mainland Europe and some Asian universities, acknowledges scholarship, even without the region-specific hab.  

Now back to the Conference. No ‘Chairman of the Occasion’, or Lead Paper presenter, nor ‘Royal Father of the Day’, etc. Just presentations. Now that brings me to my wonderment about the academic process. After over 17 hours of flight time (and same hours returning back), like everyone else, I was given 20 minutes (which included being harassed five minutes to the end by the moderator) to present my paper titled The Trans-Oriental Express: Receptivity and Cinematic Contraflows in African Popular Culture, and 10 minutes allowed for discussions – and that’s it! 

Thus, you spend weeks on fieldwork and data synthesis, spend hours being ferried from one location to another, and stay for days cooped up in a dingy hotel room (wistfully thinking about your own spacious personal living space!) eat some unusual and often very expensive food. All for 20 minutes of fame! This has been a recurring pattern in all the conferences I had attended.  

So, what is it about, at least international scholarship, that people would rather read what you wrote than listen to you? In Nigeria, paper presenters tend to ramble way beyond their allocated time. Often, the moderator of your session is worried about stopping you because you are a ‘big’ man, even if you are talking out of point. I remember one case in which the ‘Guest Speaker’ was reminded that his time was up as per the ‘program of event’ (sic). He adamantly refused to heed the time and insisted that since he was the main ‘event’, he would only stop when he finished reading the booklet of his lecture, which was 32 pages! Thank God for Smartphones – people just ignored him and shifted their attention to their WhatsApp messenger and came back to earth only after someone started clapping to signal their relief at the conclusion of the presentation! 

Perhaps it is time for us as Nigerian academics to move from this dense didactic approach to presenting papers – where you are often expected to give ‘theoretical framework’, ‘research questions’, ‘methodology’ (to appear ‘Scientific’ even if there is no Science in your conclusions) before you get to the actual data itself. And most annoying, you are also expected to give totally useless ‘recommendations.’ I had arguments with moderators and participants in Nigeria on the last point where I am asked about my ‘recommendations’ after my presentations. I often reply that I don’t have any recommendations – I present my data and my interpretation. How it goes is up to you. For instance, what can I recommend to a person who based their own narrative creativity on intertextual appropriation, thus creating a meta-narrative? That it has happened is fascinating enough. That I brought it to your attention is sufficient enough in knowledge discourses. In wider international scholarship, participants are more interested in exploring other aspects of your data.  

I think our approach to conference presentations in Nigeria has vestiges of the didactic educational experiences we were grilled through. Under such an academic ecosystem, all research is geared toward policy and governance. It is time for a paradigm shift – cut down the number of minutes on presentation, and focus on the epistemological virtues of the presentation! Oh, and cut-off the prof’s microphone when he seems about to torture his audience beyond his allocated 15 to 20 minutes!

Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu is the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.

By Tijani Hassan

A corps member serving at Al-Furqan Learners’ Academy, Potiskum, Yobe State, has trained and empowered twenty widows on fashion design and tailoring skills in an effort to eliminate poverty and unemployment amongst women in the society.

The corps member, Chidimma Atuchukwu Obiageliaku, who hails from Anambra State, said the gesture was born out of her passion and desire to assist the vulnerable and less privileged in society.

The Commissioning and Presentation Ceremony held on Thursday, 30 June 2022, at the school premises,  witnessed the presentation of certificates, wrappers, sewing materials and seven new sewing machines to the trainee widows. This came after 6 six weeks of intensive dress-making training and other entrepreneurial skills.

Other projects initiated by the Corps member included renovating and stocking a 40-seater school library to boost students’ learning capacity. She said, “whenever you read a book, it equips you with the knowledge and power to become whoever you aspire to be”, hence, donating the library to the school to equip the students to become great in the future.

In his welcome address, the School Director, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed, represented by Alhaji Suleiman Dauda, commended all the Corps members serving under his watch and specifically the project initiator Chidimma. He added that she was the first of her kind to execute a project of this considerable repute.

The state Coordinator of NYSC Yobe State, Hajiya Hafsat Yerima, represented by the Head of Community Development Service, CDS, Mr Abimbola Akin, expressed her satisfaction with the project carried out by the Corps member and hinted that the state would never forget her in a hurry while urging other Corp members to emulate her good gesture.

In his contribution, the Provost, Federal College of Education (Technical), Potiskum, represented by the Head of Digital and Visual Library of the College, Mallam Abubakar Hassan, explained that education is the bedrock of every meaningful society which deserves the contribution of all stakeholders.

Hassan, on behalf of FCE (T), Potiskum donated a reasonable number of textbooks to the school as part of their contribution to the project.

The benefiting widows, who were highly pleased, thanked the Corps member for the humanitarian support. The leader of the widows, Mrs Ladi, said the training is a lifetime investment that has transformed their lives beyond imagination. She prayed to Almighty God to grant their benefactor success in her future endeavours.

Other attendees included the Commissioner, Basic and Secondary Education, Yobe State, Dr Muhammad Sani Idris, representative of the Emir of Fika, His Royal Highness (Dr.) Muhammadu Idrissa Ibn Abbali, Humanitarian organisations, parents and students.

In his closing remarks, the School Director thanked the initiator of the projects and the sponsors and offered her automatic and pensionable employment with accommodation and other benefits after her National Service.

The Community Development Service is one of the key components of the NYSC, designed to have a beneficial influence on the lives of the host community.

By Kabir Fagge Ali

Almajiri is a system of Islamic education practised primarily in Northern Nigeria. The term is also used to denote a person who is taught or undergoing learning within this system called “Almajiranci.”

Almajiri is derived from the Arabic “Al-Muhajjirun”, an “Emigrant” who migrates from his home to a particular Islamic school in the quest for knowledge.

Over the years, it has been a normal feature, a cultural norm to have seen children roaming the streets in certain parts of (mainly northern) Nigeria, all in the name of seeking Islamic Education through the system of Almajiri.

Before the arrival of British colonial masters, a system of education called ‘Tsangaya’ has since prevailed in the Kanem-Borno Empire. It was established as an organised and comprehensive education system for learning Islamic principles, values, jurisprudence and theology.

Established after madrasahs in other parts of the Muslim world, Tsangaya was primarily funded by the state. Islam traditionally encourages charity, so the community readily supported these Almajiri. In return, he (Almajiri) gives back to society through manual labour.

The system also produced the judges, clerks, and teachers who provided the colonial administration with the needed staff. The Almajiri schools provided the first set of colonial staff in Northern Nigeria.

The Colonial masters abolished state funding of Tsangaya, arguing that they were religious schools. “Karatun Boko”, western education was introduced and funded instead. With this loss of support, the system collapsed.

A 2014 UNICEF report put the number of Almajiri in Nigeria at 9.5 million, or 72 per cent of the country’s 13.2 million out-of-school children. Unfortunately, this is a disaster unfolding before our eyes, as some estimates claim that the number of out-of-school children in the country has risen past the 15 million mark, most of whom originated from the North.

Regrettably, the Almajiri culture has since outlived its purpose and has become a breeding ground for child begging and, in extreme cases, potential materials for recruitment into terrorist groups. Moreover, the pupils who were meant to be trained to become Islamic scholars have now had to struggle to cater for themselves, begging rather than learning under the watch and supervision of some semi-literate Quranic teachers or Mallams who themselves lacked the requisite financial and moral support. Hence, the system runs more as a means of survival rather than a way of life.

This is because the Qur’anic schools became hapless, unable to render any help. After all, the head of the school is not also financially stable. This ultimately leads him to enforce a rule that ensures the students get him food or money. The most annoying part is making it mandatory, as punishment is enforced on anyone who fails to turn in what is expected from him.

Deprived of a normal and decent upbringing, Almajiri children, usually little boys between the ages of 4 and 15, may have been direct products of polygamous marriage or broken homes or simply due to economic challenges that hit the family. They lack adequate family cover as children are sent out to the streets under the guise of Almajiri as soon as the family’s resources are overstretched.

The Almajiri grows up in the streets without their parents’ love, care, and guidance; his struggle for survival exposes him to abuse (homosexuality and paedophilia), used as a slave, brainwashed, and recruited for anti-social activities, and used for destructive and violent activities. This is the picture of the pitiful plight of an Almajiri child in Nigeria.

Additionally, Almajiri culture epitomises child abuse, social exclusion, and chronic poverty in all ramifications. Because the system is believed to be rooted in Islamic religion and Fulani cultural practices, many attempts to reverse the trend or end such abuse of humanity have always hit a brick wall.

The fact that Islamic teaching strongly forbids begging, except in exceptional circumstances, which include a man’s loss of properties or wealth in a disaster or when a man has loaned much of his money for the common good, such as bringing peace between two warring parties already proves that Almajiri system as it is being practised today is unIslamic. A child neglected by his parents is vulnerable to diseases and social crimes. To survive, he often has to beg from ‘dusk to dawn’, after which he returns to the Tsangaya (Almajiri school).

For the past years, the Almajiri system has created a cover for criminally minded individuals to abuse Nigerian children through trafficking and expose them to anti-social behaviours such as forced labour and sex slaves.

Even former President Goodluck Jonathan designed a program under which a few Almajiri Model Boarding schools were established, which was aimed at integrating conventional western education into Islamic education, only turned out to be merely ‘removing a spoonful of water from a filled tank’, it wasn’t enough to adequately address the problem. As a result, less than five per cent of the children were captured by the Federal Government’s program meant to remove the Almajiri off the streets.

Therefore, as urgent, the government should take reasonable measures to address the Almajiri system in Nigeria to take them off the streets, even if it means banning the culture.

Unless it is banned or adequately reformed to meet the modern challenges and realities, the problems of underdevelopment, educational backwardness, and mass poverty in (northern) Nigeria will worsen. People will continue to bear children they do not have the resources to cater for, knowing that they could easily push such children out into the Almajiri system.

To conclude that the Almajiri system has deviated from its original purpose and is currently giving Nigeria a bad image in the international community is to admit the obvious.

This problem is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at any time. And when it does, it will consume us all. But, it is still not late. So, something can be done to stem the tides.

Fagge is a student of Mass Communication at Skyline University Nigeria. He sent this via faggekabir29@gmail.com.

By Hassan Auwalu Muhamad

Former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University Of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, has distributed textbooks to Ado Yola Memorial Special Primary School pupils in Tudun Madatai, in Kano Municipal LGA of Kano State.

Adamu, who has dual professorships in Education Sciences and Media and Cultural Communications, graduated from the same school in 1968.

Adamu said he distributed the books because Madatai Primary School was the foundation of his life — a driving force to advance his education that led him to attain two professorships from Bayero University, Kano, in 1997 and 2012.

In an attempt to encourage and support the young pupils to attain higher academic feats, and excellence, he thus distributed books.

The Head Teacher of the school, Mallam Abdulkadir Bature, expressed his appreciation and gratitude. He added that he had never been happier during his tenure as a Head Teacher of the primary school like today.

He also expressed his gratitude on behalf of the pupils and the entire staff members of Madatai Primary School.

More than 3,000 books were distributed at the school’s premises in the presence of the head of the Parents-Teachers Association, Ward Head of Sharfadi quarters, Mallam Ibrahim Auwal Uba and the Head of Parents of the Kano students of Kano Municipal LGA.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

A Nigerian lady, Halima Ali Shuwa, has been recognised by the reputable University of Manchester and awarded with Student of the Year Award.

Ruth Macarthy, a doctoral researcher at Salford University, announced this on LinkedIn on Wednesday. 

“Sitting in Whitworth Hall today, at the prestigious University of Manchester, was one of my proudest moments as a Nigerian. It was the moment Halima Ali Shuwa was called up [to] the podium to receive the “Student of the Year” award from the President of the university.” Ms Macarthy wrote.

While presenting the award, the President of the university stated that Halima was chosen because of her dedication and selfless commitment to research excellence.

The President added that Halima dedicated a huge amount of time to researching the immune response in the blood of hospitalised COVID-19 patients – and predicting which patients will further develop long-term covid complications.

She was the first to publish on the associated long-term changes with fatigue and breathlessness in patients who would subsequently develop long covid.

Halima, a recipient of the prestigious Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) scholarship, hails from Shuwa town of Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State. She was born, brought up and schooled in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Halima studied Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science at the University of Maiduguri, MSc Immunology at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and then got a PTDF scholarship to the University of Manchester, where she did her PhD in Immunology. 

Halima has published seven papers in high-impact journals during her studies and has four more papers under review. 

Towards the end of her PhD, Halima managed to secure multiple job offers from the University of Manchester and several pharmaceutical companies. Finally, she accepted the job offer from GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), where she’ll continue her cutting-edge research to discover an alternative cancer treatment targeting B cells in Immuno-Oncology settings.