Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has called on the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Northern Nigeria Governors Forum, traditional rulers and the National Assembly to come together and propose a bill that will permanently end the almajiri system across the country.
A statement signed by the media aide to the Governor, Ali Abare said Governor Sule made the call while speaking at the Summit on Enhancing Human Capital Development in Northern Nigeria, organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in collaboration with the Northern Nigeria Governors Forum.
The summit, themed “Reversing the Decline, Unleashing Potential for Northern Nigeria,” held on Wednesday at the NAF Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja.
Governor Sule said the almajiri system, in which children are sent away from their families in the name of Quranic education, has become one of the major drivers of out-of-school children and insecurity in the North.
He recalled that in 2020, he and the then Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, led an initiative to identify almajiri children in their states and return them to their states of origin, noting that Nasarawa State, which had over 200,000 almajiris at the time, returned them to Jigawa, Sokoto, Kano and other states.
He said the decision attracted strong criticism from the Arewa Consultative Forum, which accused the initiative of working against Islamic practice, but he rejected the criticism, stressing that leaders must always speak the truth to one another, no matter how uncomfortable, if the problems of the North are to be solved.
The governor disclosed that Nasarawa State currently has 430,000 out-of-school children, made up of 179,000 males and 251,000 females, but noted that the state is comparatively better placed, given that out of Nigeria’s 18 million out-of-school children, 15 million are in the northern states, while only 3 million are recorded across the 17 states of the South.
He linked the crisis of out-of-school children directly to insecurity in the North, noting that many children recruited into banditry and other crimes are products of the almajiri system.
He also cautioned against early marriage of underage girls, saying such practices cannot be justified by citing the marriage of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to Hajiya Fatima at a young age, since the realities of today differ from those of over a thousand years ago, and urged Nigerians to be guided instead by the warning in the Holy Quran, Surah An-Nisa, where Allah cautions all of humanity to fear Him and treat orphans and women with justice.
Governor Sule commended the Minister and other presenters at the summit, noting that increased revenue accruable to states, following the economic reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has begun to support more states in addressing human capital challenges.
He, however, warned that ending the almajiri system in the North alone will not solve the problem, since the affected children, if not properly absorbed through education and skills acquisition, may simply migrate elsewhere in the country.
The governor charged the Director-General of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Engr. Abubakar Gambo Umar, to ensure that the resolutions reached at the summit translate into a concrete proposal before the National Assembly and a definite meeting involving the Office of the Vice President, stressing that Northern leaders are tired of talking without action.
Speaking on his own background, Governor Sule said he attended a public school in his community of Gudi, Nasarawa State, before proceeding to a public technical college, where he trained and qualified as a certified welder, stressing that investment in technical and vocational skills can help Nigerian youths compete favourably for specialised jobs.
Earlier, the Director-General of the Foundation, Engr. Abubakar Gambo Umar, said the summit was convened because of the persistently poor human capital indices in Northern Nigeria, including a high concentration of out-of-school children, low literacy and enrolment rates for girls, and high poverty levels, warning that without urgent action, the region risks entrenched poverty and worsening insecurity.
The Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, in a speech read by former Kogi State governor, Captain Idris Wada, said a Nigerian child today is only 36 per cent as productive as he or she could be with full access to quality education and healthcare, a gap that is wider in the North, where about 78 per cent of girls marry before age 18.
He called for a funded and implementable human capital development compact for the region.
Also speaking, the Deputy Director of the Gates Foundation, Ekenem Isichei, said investment in health, nutrition and education should be seen as economic strategy rather than social spending, listing financing discipline, accountability and sustainability as priorities for Northern states.
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Aisha Garba, said the commission’s matching grant formula has been revised to ensure 15 per cent of the budget goes to early childhood education, and called on states to end the politicisation of teacher recruitment.
