I am an Almajiri, feel sad the way governors treat them with disdain – Senator Ndume

The former Senate leader in the eight Senate and Senator representing Borno South Senatorial district, Ali Ndume has faulted Nigerian governors in the Northern extraction for treating Almajiri children with disdain.

Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, he revealed himself a product of Almajiri, while insisting that there was nothing wrong with the system.

He explained that Almajiri is a system and is part of Northern culture that cannot be stopped under any guise, adding that it was also a study of Islamic knowledge that has come to stay.

According to him, Almajiri is predominantly in the Northeast and Northwest, saying that they posed no threat to the society as well as they were no miscreants or constituted nuisance, wondering why governors were shying away from catering for them.

“The Almajiri system is one of the areas am emotionally worried about because I can described myself as a product of Almajiri if this is what you call Almajiri.

Almajiri is part of our system, it doesn’t mean these are social miscreants or social nuisance.

“They are part of the tradition of the North whereby children are sent to learn Islamic doctrines.

“For example, I grew up with Almajiri too where Malam comes from Kano, Sokoto, Maiduguri and settle in villages like my own and Almajiris are given to them by their parents in order to get Islamic knowledge.

“Anyhow you look at it, the Almajiri system is about knowledge and we joined them too. It is just a form of Education.

“What the governors did, to me, is not the appropriate response. It is better to face the challenge rather than running away from it.

“That is my take on it and if you look at it, the Almajiri system is only known in the north, and even in the north, it’s not so much in the Central, except in North West and Northeast. The north west, Northeast, we were under one region and we are all Nigerians which the Constitution is very clear on that.

“I feel very bad the way Almajiri system is being handled. I was thinking like now the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs are talking about palliatives and they are going to do school feeding programme and here are people looking for something to eat.

“Why don’t you give or take care of them? This is the area I feel concerned about and the President is looking for people like that.

“For government to say, take your own and drop it somewhere and another person take his own and drop it somewhere, I think it’s not the way to go.

The lawmaker said Nigeria leaders should be responsible enough to take care of their citizens, noting that it’s the elite that brought COVID-19, to Nigeria, hence, they should stop transferring their aggression against Almajiris in the country.