President Goodluck Jonathan

By AbdulMajid Haruna

Several policies on education span across four decades, and yet Nigeria is still grappling with the menace of out-of-school children. Recent statistics from UNESCO projected a figure hovering around twenty million, with a significant portion of the children being the Almajiri Quranic students. 

Issues such as inconsistent government policies, poor implementation, inadequate funding, and limitations in terms of the scalability and scope of interventions provided by non-state partners and international donors have hindered efforts to address the problem. However, cultural and religious resistance remains a significant barrier.  

The classical system of Quranic Almajiri education imbibes Islamic teaching that every Muslim must acquire religious knowledge. However, culturally, the system aims to instill self-reliance and a sense of responsibility in the social and moral training of the child through hardship, toil, and hunger.

Sufism, the doctrine on which the system was founded, frowns at self-indulgence and believes asceticism and humility to be the hallmarks of a seeker of knowledge. This sentiment was echoed in the Weekend Triumph Newspaper of August 26, 1989, by Abdulkareem A. Bello, who describes the system as “the old wine in an old bottle”. 

In this article, Samaila Ado, an Almajiri in the Kano municipality, was reported to have said, “Our deplorable and wretched condition is a symbol of selflessness and humility.” According to Samaila, a true Almajiri is not concerned with worldly gains but rather is busy preparing for eternal life, which is more paramount.

Historically, the system had flourished owing to the support from the state’s public finances, the local community, and the philanthropic efforts from elites that catered to the modest needs of the children. During this time, the Almajiri scholars were artisans who, during their lecture-free hours, engaged in farming, fishing, well construction, production, masonry, trade, and tailoring. Most were farmers of the iconic Northern Nigerian cotton and groundnut pyramids. Some engaged in leather tanning and shoe and bag making in the old Sokoto empire. 

Sadly, however, the system has failed to adapt to the realities of the twenty-first century, with the modern Quranic Islamiyyas overshadowing the traditional Tsangayas and the Western secular education providing the safest route to climb up the socio-economic ladder. But more worrisome is the report that said six out of ten Almajiri pupils never find their way back home, and many lose their lives through street violence, ritual killing, kidnapping, disease and hunger.

Over the years, Integration has proven difficult due to the inadequacy of our policies. A careful analysis of the failure of Jonathan’s Almajiri integrated Model Schools by the Former Director of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Professor Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, at Arewa House In Kaduna revealed that the lack of sensitisation and mobilisation of the nation affected the level of buy-in leading to a decrease in support and acceptance of the new system.  

Qualitative assessment research corroborated this analysis, carried out among Almajiri communities in Adamawa State. It demonstrated that including secular subjects was one of the major reasons parents did not welcome the program. 

Time and again, our policymakers have underplayed the subtle but widespread sentiment among the Islamic traditionalists who fear the new order poses the danger of erasing the cultural identity of the people. In a 2021 report published by The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Sheikh Bakura Assusaawi was remarked to have said: “Every Islamic scholar had gone through the system which shows us that there is indeed a great benefit in that system which we cannot afford to lose. There is no other help apart from helping the religion, and when we all neglect to do that, there is never a way forward.”

This allegiance to the old system and aversion towards Western education is rooted in the early events of the 20th century. On October 9, 1902, Fredrick John Lugard replaced Arabic & Hausa-Ajami (Hausa written with Arabic alphabets) with English & Romanized Hausa as the official language of Northern Nigeria. 

This single act in history changed the region’s educational scholarship trajectory. Not only did it render the rich knowledge produced in Ajami in the fields of humanity, science, and social science by the preeminent Sokoto caliphate obsolete and dying, but it relegated those proficient in this script to the background because to be “literate” and “employable” means to speak English and to write in the Roman script.

Tragically, the British also failed to recognise the Almajiri schools and abolished their state funding, tagging them as mere religious schools. This linguistic displacement brewed an identity threat in the people’s social psyche, igniting disdain and antagonism for the new system introduced by the colonial state and the Christian missionaries. 

Unfortunately, a century gap is still not enough to change the thought patterns of the Almajiri community. A recent story shared by a Twitter user about his late colleague’s son aptly drives home my point: 

The colleague had died, and the possibility of sponsoring the child’s education was hanging in the balance because the grandmother was standing in the way. She wanted the son to be enrolled in an Almajiri Quranic school instead of a secular Western school. 

The Twitter user was baffled because the grandma wouldn’t budge even when it was suggested that the child attend a formal school on weekdays and the Almajiri school on the weekends.

Many juxtaposing factors remain underpinning enrolment in traditional Almajiri education, barring socio-religious commitments and an aversion to Western education. These include rural-urban migration in search of greener pastures, disbanded families due to divorce or the death of the breadwinner, poverty, irresponsible parenting, and bad governance. 

Integration begins by fixing the stated problems, but reorienting society to the limitations of this age-long conservative approach to Islamic scholarship takes precedence.  Ever since the pilot scheme of 1964 to modernise Islamic schooling in the Northern Nigerian government headed by Sir Ahmadu Bello that ran successfully for few years before coming to a halt after his assassination, subsequent education policies namely Universal Primary Education (1976), National Primary Education Commission (mid-1980s), Universal Basic Education Act(2004) and Ministerial Committee on Madrasa Education (2009) which led to the establishment of President Jonathan’s Almajiri Model Schools have suffered detrimental setbacks.

Policies are cathedrals in the grand scheme of things; reality is the quicksand sinking them to the bottom. The government and relevant stakeholders must develop the political will to implement policies to their very ends. Most importantly, they must engage in intensive enlightenment, mobilisation, and re-orientation of the populace through the mass media, town hall meetings, and active involvement of the traditional Ulamas and leaders. 

AbdulMajid Haruna is an education thought leader and an inclusive education advocate primarily focused on vulnerable Almajiri children. He can be reached via abdoulmajeed570@gmail.com.

Your Excellency Sir,

Northern Nigeria has been enmeshed in two major crises for about a decade and a half. The first was Boko Haram, born and bred in the North East. From their confrontation with the police to the execution of their leader, Boko Haram grew to become a terror group unprecedented in Nigeria’s history. The most unfortunate thing is that Boko Haram associated themselves with Islam even though most of their heinous attacks were targeted at Muslims.

The failure of Goodluck Jonathan’s government to end the Boko Haram insurgency led to a consensus among Nigerians to disallow him from getting a second shot at the presidency. He lost the 2015 election to your friend and party member, General Muhammadu Buhari. 

Throughout his campaign for the presidency, Buhari promised to end the scourge of Boko Haram and return normalcy to the North East. What he ignored, but he was not supposed to ignore, given his security background, was another crisis rearing its ugly head in the North West. 

Non-Fulani Nigerians were setting up cattle farms in city suburbs and gradually establishing themselves in the cattle farming business, which the Fulani were known for. This did not go down well with some Fulani, who began to form groups to attack such farms and rustle the cows. Anyone who resisted was killed. Since such non-Fulani cattle farmers were relatively small in number, it was soon over with them, and cattle rustling was extended to fellow Fulani, most of whom were law-abiding.

In no time, cattle rustling turned into banditry and kidnapping. Armed chair analysts with little knowledge of what was on the ground began to create conspiracy theories. Some blamed it on Niger Delta militants. Others said it was foreigners from sister West African countries. 

As of 2015, when President Buhari assumed office, the crisis could easily be nipped in the bud. A handful of cattle rustlers/bandits could easily be identified, arrested and punished. Unfortunately, Buhari did not do it either because he was not being correctly briefed or because he was out of sympathy for his kinsmen, who were the culprits.

In October 2016, some governors, notably of Zamfara and Katsina, invited the bandits’ leaders for a peace agreement. That was after they had killed countless numbers of innocent citizens. The villagers in the two states were told to accept the criminals as their brothers or face the wrath of the state. They had no choice.

The peace accord did not last long before the bandits resumed their crimes, which worsened by the day. Banditry continued to thrive under the Buhari administration, and in 2019, he directed the Governors of the affected states to dialogue with the bandits. The governor of my state of Katsina, looking vividly frustrated, told the bandits before press cameras that he was meeting them at the directive of Mr. President. 

A few months after the 2019 accord, Masari told the world that the bandits had reneged on the peace pact. According to him, they were not people to be trusted.

A point of note in the peace accords of 2016 and 2019 was that none of the bandit leaders were citizens of any foreign country. They were all Nigerians, and all of them were Fulani. This invalidates the false belief that the bandits are foreigners or were from another tribe in the south. Most of those hardened criminal lords are still moving about unscathed in villages and forests of Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto and Niger states. They have been granting press interviews and meeting people like Sheikh Ahmad Gummi, which proves that the government is very aware of their locations and identities. 

I cannot speak for other Nigerians. But for me as a person, I voted for you in the 2023 elections for two reasons. One. You are a Muslim. A Muslim is just as a leader and nice as a companion. If all Muslim leaders were to rule according to the teachings of Islam, even their enemies would beg Muslims to stand for elections, so they vote them to power. Two. Neither you nor your running mate are Fulani. With this, some of us believe Buhari’s sympathy for his kinsmen would not be there.

You are entering your second year, and banditry is only worsening. What struck me most about your approach to banditry are the latest revelations by a young Islamic scholar, Sheikh Munir Adam Koza. According to Sheikh Koza, he was among the many young influential Islamic scholars invited for a meeting by some defence officials of your government. With financial reward, they were requested to propagate the following in their preachings.

1. That banditry by Fulani groups is justified because Fulani people have been subjected to neglect and injustice over a long period.

2. Call on the government to dialogue with bandits and give them political appointments.

3. That the current Governors of Zamfara and Katsina are wrong to have set up security outfits to confront bandits.

Sheikh Koza, who expressed his disagreement at the first meeting, was not invited to subsequent meetings.

The fact that Islamic scholars are actively preaching the above items testifies to the veracity of Sheikh Koza’s statements.

The first question I raised when I saw the video clip was whether you are aware of this action taken by your appointees. It would be a monumental mistake to say since the insecurity is taking place in the North, you have now appointed Northerners to solve “their” own problem.  Nigerians voted for you, not Ribadu, Badaru, Matawalle or any of those. You are thus accountable to Nigerians, and before God for any action your government takes.

With all the due respect of a loyal citizen, I would like to call on your Excellency to come clean about this action allegedly taken by officials of your government. Taking appropriate action against the said Government officials would go a long way toward consolidating the confidence ordinary citizens like me have in your government. 

Most importantly, we want an end to banditry. It can be ended, Mr. President.

Prof. Abdussamad Umar Jibia wrote via aujibia@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, has fired the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, for blaming President Buhari over the lingering security issues in the country.

Mohammed added that it was under the watch of PDP that Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009, adding that the party more or less nurtured the insurgents to the monster it later became.

Abubakar was reported to have expressed surprise over the continued presence of Boko Haram during his campaign outing at the weekend.

He said: “Let me quickly react to the statement credited to His Excellency, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has reportedly expressed surprise at the existence of Boko Haram.

“The former Vice President was quoted as saying he could not honestly understand the Boko Haram phenomenon, and wondered why Boko Haram continues to operate.

“Well, I think His Excellency didn’t need to look far to get the answers to his questions. He should simply ask his party, the PDP, under whose watch the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009. For six years until 2015, when our administration assumed office and inherited Boko Haram, the PDP more or less nurtured the insurgents to the monster they later became.

“Alhaji Atiku should ask his party why it allowed Boko Haram to operate freely, bombing cities, motor parks, schools and other soft targets unrestrained. Alhaji Atiku, who was then residing in Abuja before porting to his new abode in Dubai, should ask his party, the PDP, while it allowed Boko Haram to bomb the police headquarters, the UN Complex, a shopping mall and motor parks in Abuja with so much ease.”

He added: “His Excellency may want to know that today, thanks to our patriotic troops, military objectives have almost been achieved in theNorth East, the home region of Boko Haram, thereby creating conditions for Stabilization Operations to take place.

“Despite the very large Joint Operational Area, Boko Haram Terrorists have been cleared from most of their strongholds while remnants are being restricted to the Tumbus/island around the Lake Chad that are difficult to access.

“The former Vice President may want to know that both kinetic and non-kinetic activities employed by the military have seen the terrorists surrendering in droves, thereby freeing large spaces for normal socio economic life to resume.

“The good news this year is that a bumper agricultural harvest is assured, as farmers were able to carry out extensive farming, which has not been possible since the beginning of insurgency/terrorism in the North East.

“While on the campaign trail and throwing political jabs, we advise His Excellency Alhaji Atiku to note the popular idiom that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones,” he added.

By Sulaiman Maijama’a

If not because of the dogged determination and great perseverance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in defence of education in Nigeria over the years, public universities in the country would have since been in a dilapidated condition with poor infrastructure, poor remuneration of staff.

Moreover, the universities would have been stocked with unqualified teachers, just like what is happening to our public primary and secondary schools or perhaps worse than that. Those who misconceive ASUU, for its struggles, as being selfish know nothing about what education takes to be efficient.

It is common knowledge that people who had the luxury of attending private primary and secondary schools in Nigeria earn more prestige than those who attended public ones. This is so because the quality of education in public schools at the basic level has since been diminished. But the reverse is the case at the university level; products of public universities in Nigeria can show a trick or two to their counterparts who are produced by private institutions. This is to the credit of the ASUU.

The Union, despite the meagre resources it receives and the poor funding the universities suffer, is able to produce professionals who are rising and shining in respective disciplines globally. Notwithstanding this feat, the union has been pushed over the years to go into industrial action at the detriment of students and the action by the ASUU is always greeted with criticisms from the public domain.

As a university student, the fact that our academic pursuit is being elongated owing to strikes is paining, and so, I agree wholeheartedly that strikes embarked upon by the ASUU almost annually are not the best solution and not the best way to put pressure on the government to meet its demands but, to crucify the union for its doggedness is not fair at all. If we ever dug deep to understand how much education costs in the countries across the globe and compared it to the demands of the striking ASUU members that are yet to be met for over a decade, for which they have always protested, we would discover that education in Nigeria is as worthless as a waste dump.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation, for any nation that wants to adequately meet the demands of education, 15 to 20 per cent of its annual budget should be earmarked for the sector. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s budget for education has always fallen below the recommended benchmark.

Despite the daunting tasks and the challenges that are posing threat to the sector and the need for additional funding, President Buhari’s 2021 budget share for education is the lowest in ten (10) years. Out of N13.08 trillion budgeted for the year, only N742.5 billion, which is equivalent to 5.6 per cent, was allocated to education, which is the lowest allocation since 2011. This is about half of what President Jonathan earmarked for education in the 2015 budget.

In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan allocated 9.3 per cent of the total budget to education. It was further increased to 9.86 per cent in the 2012 budget; elevated to 10.1 per cent of the total 2013 budget. It was 10.5 per cent in the 2014 budget, and the same President Jonathan earmarked 10.7 per cent of the 2015 budget, which happened to be the highest in the last decade.

However, when President Muhammadu Buhari came on board, in his first budget in 2016, the education share was cut short drastically to 7.9 per cent of the total budget, and in 2017, it was reduced to 7.4 per cent of the total budget; in 2018 it was 7.04 per cent, while 7.05 per cent of the 2019 budget was allocated to the sector and in 2020 it was 6.7 per cent, and 5.6 and 7.9 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

While former President Jonathan had every year increased the budget share for education throughout his stay as president from 9.3 per cent in 2011 to the highest 10.7 in 2015, President Buhari has been drastically reducing the budget from 7.9 in 2016 to the lowest 5.6 in the 2021 budget.

In any case, the Buhari/APC-led administration’s lackadaisical approach toward education is indisputably disastrous to the lofty dreams of young Nigerians to attain global recognition academically. How could a serious government that values education give only 5 per cent of its annual budget to the most sensitive sector like education? This is beside the series of outstanding memoranda of understanding the government signed with the ASUU in 2009, 2013 and 2017, as well as the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of 2019 and 2020, but yet to be implemented. How on earth could you expect the ASUU not to be aggrieved?

And now, the Minister of Education is further fuelling the disagreement by telling the ASUU members that their six months denied salaries during which they were on strike would not be paid, making reference to the “no work, no pay policy”. I don’t know the provision of law on this, but my concern is, how can you come to meet with a union of intellectuals like ASUU and dare to tell them that this is the final government’s offer and that there is no need for negotiation; it is either they accept or reject it? This is highly ridiculous.

In my view, education is a treasure. Whatever huge amount of money is invested in it, it will definitely pay off eventually. A member of the Senate Chamber, whether or not they raise a motion, whether or not they contribute to a debate, earn a whopping thirty 30 million or thereabout monthly. This is minus all other illegal earnings which are obtained through leakages and corruption. In comparison to academics, a professor who spends his life sacrificing his time and pleasure doing research to contribute to knowledge does not earn a mere five hundred thousand a month, with all the inflation.

I don’t want to dwell much on making comparisons with the fortune allocated to the National Assembly. But, if such an amount of Naira notes which is beyond imagination, would be given to the National Assembly, why can’t the Federal Government meet all the demands of the ASUU to proffer a lasting solution to this lingering strike that is jeopardizing the future of the Nigerian youth, wreaking havoc on the economy and threatening the fabric of our social structure?

It is evident during the EndSARS protest in 2020, when students were on strike, that the strike was a contributing factor that fueled the agitation, which later turned tragic. Had it been the youth who were mostly the ones at the forefront of the demonstration who were on campuses, busy coping with their academic activities, the move would not have been accepted to such an extent, and therefore, the government would have easily controlled it.

As the saying goes, “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop”. Now, the 2023 forthcoming elections are fast approaching, and the youth are bored doing nothing and, therefore, can indulge in anything that comes their way. Who knows what could possibly be the next trend if the youth remain idle?

The Federal Government must understand and appreciate the value and power of education, respect all agreements reached with the ASUU and invest more resources in the sector in order to save the future of young Nigerians. This is because, without education, man is like an animal.

The ASUU, on the other hand, needs to understand that strike is nothing but a calamity to education. They should adopt amicable and diplomatic ways of engaging the government. “When two elephants fight, grasses suffer the most”.

Maijama’a is a student at the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, kano. He can be reached via sulaimanmaija@gmail.com.

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 Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua

After an initial denial of rumours that he would join the ruling party, the former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, has finally ditched his party. However, after long speculations, his defection to APC has continued to elicit mixed reactions in the country.

Before his defection, many signals emerged that the former president had stopped attending activities organised by his former party. The Bayelsa state’s gubernatorial election conducted in 2020, whose former party lost to APC before a court ruled in its favour, suggested Jonathan’s indifference to PDP affairs. Does Jonathan’s defection have to do with how the party treats him during and after the 2015 general elections?

While the former president might have lost the 2015 election due to the zoning arrangements of PDP, which he disregarded and refused to abide by, the betrayal and backstabbing that ensued among trusted party loyalists led to his resounding defeat remains fresh in his mind.

The emergence of a new PDP split group led by Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and other heavy party juggernauts who abandoned him at the tail end of the party’s convention had wreaked great havoc on his re-election bid. With these politicians who deserted him returning to PDP, Jonathan would not feel comfortable staying with them.

As a former president, Jonathan should be the party’s leader. However, Nelson Wike, Rivers State governor, has hijacked the party and has since been calling the shot. Wike and his surrogates have firmly controlled the party and failed to consult or engage the former president on the party’s decisions.

The inability of PDP to respect or recognise Jonathan as their leader must have dampened his morale and forced him to change his mind. One imagined how the former president, who was a governor, a vice president and president under PDP, could suddenly ditch his benefactor.

The former APC national chairman, extraordinary convention committee, Mai-Mala Buni, must take credit for Jonathan’s defection. The Yobe state governor, during his stint as chairman, visited and subsequently wooed him to APC. Do Malam Buni and his co-travellers sign a pact that they would throw their weight behind his presidential ambition if he joins the party? Jonathan did not only join the ruling party but also bought nomination form through the northern youth group.

Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential ambition has raised some critical questions. First, is the ruling party toeing the dangerous path of PDP by jettisoning its zoning arrangement? With Buhari completing his tenure, one will advise for equity and justice. There is a need for power to be shifted to the South.

Also, during its recent convention, APC opted for Abdullahi Adamu, a northerner, as the National chairman. This development has further buttressed that the South will produce the next president. Moreover, with Jonathan joining the presidential race, what will be the future of southwest politicians, especially Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who sees his contest as a lifetime ambition. It is no understatement to say that President Muhammadu Buhari’s victories in 2015 and 2019 are to the credit of Tinubu and other southwest politicians.

If APC fields Jonathan, the southwest politicians will unite and reject the party. To them, having played second fiddle in the previous elections, the 2023 ticket should be exclusively reserved for them. But, on the other hand, if the ticket is not given to them, there is every tendency of anti-party, as these politicians will ally with either PDP or Kwankwaso’s NNPP to ensure APC loses the election in the region.

Second, who and who are dragging or promoting Jonathan’s presidency and their motives? It was reported that Jonathan’s presidency had two northern governors’ tacit support. One from the northwest and the other one from the northeast. If their plan works as scheduled, Jonathan promised to pick one of them as running mate.

The legal technicalities that may await the former president will unarguably discourage APC from giving him its ticket. Jonathan took an oath of office twice.  If he is allowed to contest and luckily wins the poll, Jonathan will take his third oath of office, which is unconstitutional. This will open up serious court litigations.

What will happen if the opposition PDP finally settles for Atiku Abubakar as their candidate? Will APC stick to Jonathan’s presidency? The former president had received accolades globally for conducting a free and fair election in 2015. Jonathan was the first African president who conceded defeat and called and congratulated the winner even before the result was announced.

Since he left office, his diplomacy performances have endeared him to many Nigerians. However, the former president should have kept a low profile, continued his diplomacy engagement, and advised the country where necessary. With the former president throwing his hat in the ring, what will be his fate during and after the 2023 general elections?

Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua wrote from Kaduna state via imustapha650@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has reportedly joined the race for the 2023 presidential election. 

A Coalition of Northern Groups picked the All Progressives Congress (APC) expression of interest and nomination form for the former president on Monday, May 9, 2022, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja. 

Recall that some youths stormed Jonathan’s house a few weeks ago urging him to vie for the office of the presidency, which he reportedly declined. 

However, as at the time of fielding this report, Jonathan is yet to publicly defect from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. 

Also, whether Jonathan will accept the nomination form to contest on the platform of APC, which defeated him in 2015, is still uncertain.

By Engr. Mustapha Habu Ringim

The innovative Almajiri School Initiative of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), directly or indirectly, challenged northern Nigerian elites on the intense need for a proper plan and execution of any sustainable way of curtailing the menace of the Almajiri system of education. He did his best during his tenure. We expect the incumbent government and the next one to build on where that administration stopped to ensure continuity.

I don’t know how Northern Nigeria is becoming so loose that our communities find it difficult to maintain essential infrastructures like those installed during the GEJ government. Instead of optimising the system, we allowed the structures and the equipment to rot away. We abandoned the schools. Today no one cares to adopt the strategy even in our localities, neither our philanthropists nor any NGO.

Most of our elites are only good at criticism. You will never see them when it comes to action. They instead spend their energy on empty talks and promises. While in a situation like the one Arewa is subjected to, action is mostly needed, with less noise. Though we all agree that “facta non verba”, actions speak louder than words, we always end up talking the wrong walk instead of walking the right talks.

Alhamdu Lillah, we started a model of such a system within our jurisdiction, called ENGAUSAR ALMAJIRAI, under Engausa Global Tech. Hub, which has recently attracted an intervention from NITDA Nigeria and a solo philanthropist from JOS Plateau State, Alh. Yusuf Yahaya Kwande. I don’t want to say much about the outcomes at the moment until we achieve enough to discuss. I always prepare walking the talk instead of the opposite.

We had witnessed a similar effort to revamp the TSANGAYA SYSTEM in Kano State during Malam Ibrahim Shekarau’s tenure. Shekarau transformed the Tasanga (Almajiri School) system and provided Almajirai and their teachers (Malaman Tsangaya) with sustainable means of livelihood. But unfortunately, the innovative Tsangaya System, sphere-headed by Dr Bashir Galadanci, a man with a sincerity of purpose, was abolished by the successor of Shekarau. And all the achievements recorded from the innovative system were brought back to square one.

Moreover, this is how the monotonous lack of continuity in governance, lack of patriotism, and focus are consuming every program or policy designed to transform our socioeconomic and sociocultural activities. In the same way, Kano ICT Park and Jigawa Galaxy Back Borne and Informatics suffered from the unpatriotic people at the helm of the affairs of Nothern Nigeria. Both Jigawa and Kano would have been ahead of Lagos regarding the digital ecosystem and digital economy. As of 2005, Jigawa was rated as the best ICT State in Nigeria due to the achievements recorded from those iconic “digital wings”.

Our society needs a new set of purposeful leaders, the likes of Borno State Governor Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum. We require leaders who are ready to sacrifice their lives for any struggle necessary to save our society from obscurity to prominence. With such Zulum’s prominent achievements, the progress recorded under Shekarau in Kano, and that of Goodluck at the federal level, we now have a concrete reason to disagree with anyone who thinks Nigerians will never be taken to the proverbial promised land.

Engr. Mustapha Habu Ringim wrote from Kano via ringims@gmail.com.

By Aminu Mohammed

I have observed the raging debate over the Almajiri debacle in the last few days, especially the antagonism against a Kannywood actress Nafisa Abdullahi. The actress voiced out against parents who send their children to urban centres to memorise the Quran under the guise of an Almajiri system.

This issue resonates with me because I was once an “Almajiri”, though in a modernised form of learning. I was a product of Arabic and Islamic education. I am still grateful to my late father for seeing the wisdom in sending me to the College of Islamic Studies Afikpo, a boarding secondary school in Southeastern Nigeria funded by a Saudi Arabia-based International Islamic organisation Rabita Alamul Islam (the Muslim World League). Unlike some of my schoolmates who later studied Islamic studies at Islamic University Madina and Azhar University Cairo, Egypt, I decided to study International Studies at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, against my father’s wish, whose dream was for me to be an Islamic scholar.

I am still at a loss wondering why the actress is being pilloried for telling the truth. If you ask these intellectual lilliputians and Nafisa’s traducers whether they will be comfortable sending their children out to beg on the streets under the guise of Quranic education, they will never say yes.

Before you call me “Karen farautar yahudawa”, an agent of Jews, which our people are fond of calling those who seek societal change and are in tune with modern realities, let me clarify that I did not attend a conventional secondary school. I advocate an integrated education system involving the acquisition of both western and Islamic education. 

I will never advocate against memorising the Quran or acquiring Islamic knowledge because I was a beneficiary of that. At the boarding secondary school in Afikpo, Ebonyi state, we were taught Hadith, Fiqh, Balaga, Tafsir, Tajwid, Saqafa, Sirat, Ulumul Falsaf, Sarf and Nahw, among other subjects, by some Islamic scholars mainly from Pakistan, Egypt and India. I was able to speak Arabic with confidence on completing my secondary education. I even took some Arabic courses as an elective throughout my studies in Zaria. Even here in Germany, I still communicate with my neighbours from the Middle East in Arabic.

I am not worried that this article will generate antagonism in some quarters or be pilloried for triggering anger in some folks. But the truth of the matter is that we cannot continue on this trajectory. This system can no longer continue the way it is; otherwise, we may be heading towards the precipice. 

The word Almajiri is derived from the Arabic word “Almuhajirun”, meaning a person who migrates from his locality to other places in the quest for Islamic knowledge. During the colonial era and a few years after that, the schools were maintained by the state, communities, the parents, ‘Zakkah’, ‘Waqf’ and augmented by the teachers and students through farming.  “Bara”, begging as it is known today, was completely unheard of. 

Mallams and their pupils, in return, provide the community with Islamic education, reading and writing of the Qur’an, in addition, to the development of Ajami, i.e. writing and reading of the Hausa language using Arabic Alphabets.  Based on this system, which is founded upon the teachings of the Qur’an and Hadith, the then Northern Nigeria was broadly educated with a whole way of life, governance, customs, traditional craft, trade and even the mode of dressing.

However, the system was corrupted in the past few decades, with teachers sending the children to beg for food on the streets. Similarly, many irresponsible parents were unwilling to cater to their children. Thus, they send them away to cities to purportedly acquire quranic education.

The current Almajiri system is not only archaic but atavistic. We must tell ourselves the truth that society is drifting. What we are facing today regarding security challenges in the North will be child’s play if our people refuse to change their ways. There is no gainsaying that the future is bleak if what we can boast of is an armada of malnourished and unkempt children who are roaming the streets under the guise of Islamic education. Eventually, the children may not acquire any meaningful skills to become useful members of society. 

I am not a prophet of doom and derive no joy in pessimism. But, I do not see a bright future for a region struggling with a depleted human resource, coupled with millions of underage children clad in tattered clothes with bowls roaming the streets begging for food. I do not foresee any meaningful progress and development in such a society.

I still recall, in 2012, when former President Goodluck Jonathan visited Sokoto to inaugurate the Almajiri Integrated Model School in the Gagi area of the Sokoto metropolis. This boarding school was equipped with modern facilities. As a journalist working with THISDAY Newspaper then, I was there at the commissioning and even interviewed the school’s principal Malam Ubaidullah, a few months after the inauguration. I was excited that there would be a gradual process of taking Almajiris off the streets, as was promised by former Sokoto governor Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko. However, the euphoria was short-lived as governments in the region neglected the programme while the school buildings rotted away.

I wonder why our people antagonise those who want the system to be reformed or outrightly banned in the North. Are we comfortable seeing underage children roaming the streets under such dehumanising conditions? Have we pondered over the looming famine in the Sahel as forecasted by global development organisations, of which Northern Nigeria is part due to climate change worsened by overpopulation? Are we not witnessing the level of insecurity pervading the region because of societal neglect and marginalisation caused by a rapacious elite?. Do we sit down and pray and wait for a miracle to happen while expecting that our problems will go away?

Already we are battling with banditry in the Northwest due to societal neglect of a segment of the society that we use to mock because of their ignorance. And things will even get worse in future unless drastic action is taken to reform the system to enable children to memorise Quran in a friendly atmosphere devoid of hunger and deprivation. The current Almajiri system is a pathway to perdition.

Parents should stop sending children to cities if they are not ready to cater for them. These children should stay in their localities and learn under a school system presided by their Islamic teacher or Malam. The state governments must engage those Quranic teachers and pay them a stipend. I know this is doable because the government has the means to do that.

Unfortunately, much resource has been wasted on frivolities instead of channelling it towards revitalising the Almajiri system. We must wake up from our slumber and direct our energies toward finding a way to tackle problems in our society. Taking action is the key, and I believe that is the only way we can expect to have stability and peace in the polity.

Aminu Mohammed is at the school of Sustainability, Christian- Albrechts- Universität zu Kiel, Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He can be reached via gravity23n@gmail.com or stu219013@mail.uni-kiel.de.

By Shafi’i Sheikh Jr.

I tried to resist the temptation to speak on matters that fringe around governance and government policies. This is because there are things that an observer can only see if he resists the temptation to jump into the fray and become an actor himself. But recent happenings have reawakened my enthusiasm to march to the stake like the man my mom had always desired me to be and take the bullet in the chest should the need arise. 

In 2015, we supported APC with our sweat and money chanting “change” wherever we found ourselves so much that it caught every household’s mood. Why? Because we thought a Buhari-led government would have no trouble handling the heaps of problems bedevilling our mettlesome Nigeria. 

Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of why we-the masses brought Buhari to power in the first place. 

First of all, Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil-producing country, was rapidly growing its economy, but the wealth had not been shared appropriately. Half of Nigeria’s population was living below the poverty line. The corruption that was partly to blame was eating into every fabric of Nigeria’s being. 

Secondly, the menace of Boko Haram was spreading wider than it started and had already claimed over 20,000 people and forced out some 3 million others from their homes. We accused the previous Goodluck E. Jonathan-led administration of not taking the menace seriously and posited that Buhari, who’s from the region, would do better if given the opportunity. 

We, therefore, came out en masse to vote Buhari into power. The 2015 election was and still is of massive significance in Nigeria’s turbulent history because, for the first time in Nigeria’s history, an opposition candidate won a presidential election free and fair. 

The president-elect (as he then was) told his supporters that “We have proven to the world that we are people who have embraced democracy. We have put the one-party state behind us.”

“You, Nigerians, have won. The people have shown their love for this nation and their belief in democracy,” He mentioned. 

It was the beginning of a new era. Nigeria and Nigerians refurbished a new hope. But these hopes were soon quashed by his incompetence to constitute a cabinet after 100 days in office. It was opined that a leader who couldn’t form a cabinet for that long is ill-prepared for the most important job in the country. 

Albeit hinging his voter appeal on waging war against corruption, fighting terrorism, and revamping the economy, the Buhari-led government had nothing to show except a plethora of controversies that embroiled his first 100 days in office. 

Today, the government only succeeded in pulling us from the shackles of Boko Haram into a dungeon full of kidnappers, IPOB and the so-called Unknown Gunmen. 

Ours is a country where lives are no longer sacred. Education has been exiled, social amenities are declared “extinct”, and food! Well, you’ll have to take a bank loan if you want to eat healthily. These terrorists attack and operate in broad daylight. 

Even after the president’s declaration in 2019 that Nigeria has “technically won the war” against Boko Haram, the country is still ravaged by insurgencies ranging from kidnappings to coordinated attacks on security forces and population centres. 

The recent attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train is a clear example that Nigerians will not forget for a very long time.

If holiday refers to that time of the year when one usually takes time away from home, work, or business to travel and relax, then this so-called government has betrayed Nigerians and gone on a holiday! 

Shafi’i Sheikh Jr. is a student of the Nigerian Law School, Kano Campus. He writes from Jos and can be reached via talk2sheikh.esq@gmail.com.