Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Sports in the Sixth Assembly, Hon. Godfrey Ali Gaiya has explained how former President Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts to reform the almajiri system was sabotaged in the north.
The Kaduna State Coordinator of Goodluck Jonathan 2015 Presidential Campaign Council disclosed this in an interview with Sunday Sun.
Gaiya said that the almajiri has become the “biggest headache” confronting the nation.
He stressed that instead of confronting the menace frontally, some influential persons had termed it as a religious issue.
The geologist maintained that since wealthy northerners do not send out their children as almajiri it was safe to describe the system as a “class system when the poor and downtrodden have their children as Almajiri while it has no room in the families of the wealthy and the rich”.
According to Gaiya, politicians use them when they want to win elections only to dump them as urchins hanging on the streets for survival after the polls.
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“In Kano, for instance, there is no way they can maintain social or physical distancing because of the crowd. Greater percentages of the population are children scattered everywhere without anywhere to put their heads.
“Sadly, nobody wants to be connected with Almajiri, yet they become relevant when it is time to use them to rig elections like hijacking of ballot boxes.
“We should be very fair to Goodluck Jonathan, who wanted the system to be resolved by constructing Almajiri schools all over the country particularly in the North, but unfortunately those that should be frontline beneficiaries sabotaged the project, making Almajiri a big problem to the country.
“When the deposed Emir of Kano became critical of the system, he turned an enemy to most Northern establishments. So, unless we, Northerners dialogue over Almajiri system holistically and find a bearing to handle their welfare and situation, it remains a time bomb that may consume everybody,” Gaiya said.