WITH their eyes shut from beholding the sunshine of hope, they run against vehicular tide as drivers ride wild. Undeterred by the fury of scorching sun and the blaring of horns, these street children, with brushes in one hand and cans of soapy water in the other hand, they pursue moving vehicles to clean windscreens for ‘peanuts.’
It is a pathetic sight to behold as children of school age who ought to be in primary and secondary schools are left and abandoned by their parents or guardians to face the cruel realities of life in their miserable existence.
At a time like this when terrorism is threatening the entire humanity, they are a security risk as their conditions could be manipulated for criminality and havoc. “SMILING, frowning, laughing
They are seen running with swift motion
Like vultures in procession
They prey on cars
Brushes in hand, soap cans of water in hand…
Running against the vehicular tide
As the drivers ride wild.”
The above describes the situation in Benin City and other urban centres in Nigeria as children of about 6-15 years loiter about the busy streets pursuing moving vehicles. These children who are known as Almajiris are seen with brushes in one hand and containers of soapy water in the other hand.
At great risk, they pursue moving vehicles, to clean windscreens of cars and receive ‘peanuts’. It is a sight to behold as children of school age, who ought to be in primary and secondary schools are left by their parents or guardians to face the harsh realities of life.
The word Almajiri emanated from an Arabic word Almuhajir meaning “immigrant”. The name was given to qur’anic pupils, in most of the present day northern Nigeria, for they left their home towns usually to other places or to a popular teacher to obtain sound qur’anic education.
However today, many who are called ‘almajiri children do not attend Islamic schools but instead they roam the streets and highways across the country as beggars and destitute. They are said to be the children of beggars – women who sit in strategic points in the city – Akpapava, Airport Road and Ring Road (King Square) axis of the ancient city.
Social Menace
These children brought into the world without consultation have to endure the hardship of a beggarly life. These ‘street’ children, with their unkept and lice infested hair, dirty clothes, bare feet, tainted teeth and sorrowful demeanor are constantly awaiting the next ‘fine’ car to attempt to clean.
Apart from the fact that they degrade the city and the beautification effort of the government, they also pose a threat to society because they can be used by politicians and terrorists like the Boko Haram sect to carry out nefarious activities.
At their tender age, their minds can easily be manipulated and brainwashed. They ought to receive qualitative education to orientate and train them to become well meaning citizens of the country.
Street Refugees
Though Nigeria is not at war, these almajiri children’ loiter and sleep in the streets of the city. Children ought to be valued and well nurtured by their parents but these children are born, displaced and neglected or sent by their parents to beg.
The Holy Scriptures states that ‘children are an inheritance of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them”.
However these ‘gifts from God’ are neglected by their parents, the society and the government. They are helpless, hopeless and hapless, living each day with uncertainty.
Many questions arise when one looks at them; who are their parents? Where do they sleep? What does the future hold for them? Etc. These myriads of questions haunt one’s thought like haunted houses.
Risking Their Lives To Feed Their Stomach
These beggars pursuing vehicles to offer their ‘services’ without the solicitation of drivers risk their lives in order to fend for themselves and their family. They risk their young lives to feed their hungry stomachs. However, it is ‘better’ for a child to be hungry than to be a corpse – one can lead to another anyway.
Like trained athletes, they run with the pace of Olympic sprinters at moving vehicles. They ‘carefully’ plan their task by waiting for the traffic light to go red, indicating stop before trailing their ‘preys’. Many drivers seem not to like their services and drive them away. Unperturbed, they continue this miserable existence.
It cannot be accurately ascertained where they learnt this vocation from. But whosoever advised or sent them into this trade should be jailed. Parents ought to cater for their children, Why bring a child into the world when you know you can’t cater for him or her?
This trend is very much prevalent in the northern part of Nigeria, where it is estimated that there are over 600,000 almajiris. But they don’t stop in the north but have migrated to the south for further production.
The Crux Of The Matter
The issue here is not that the poor should not be helped but that children have the right as stated in the Child’s Right Act to have the opportunity of formal education. These children, however are deprived this important right by their parents.
When a child ought to be educated, he is in the street begging, hustling and loitering in search of food and nourishment. They are devoid of love, kindness and the warm embrace that their parents ought to provide. They lack shelter, protection and instruction – they are left to wonder about in search of luck and chance. Victims of circumstance!
From a predictive angle, one can say that these children could turn out to be armed robbers, kidnappers, car snatchers and terrorists, if the situation is not addressed. This is because at their tender age, they are being exposed to wild living and search for money to keep body and soul together.
They are vulnerable to various vicissitudes of life. They are in preril of sickness, death, marginalisation, exploitation, moral corruption and other vicious arrows that society shoots at the unshielded.
In the wake of issues like child rape, child labour, early child marriage and other practices, these children that roam our streets are indeed endangered species.
They are hunted by cult gangs, evil politicians and vicious sycophants who exploit and take advantage of them.
The Way Forward…
Having considered the multi-facted consequences and evils that this evil trend poses for the state, it is important to proffer one or two solutions.’
Firstly, the government should look into this issue and trace where these children (and their parents) are coming in a bid of ridding the nation and state in particular from future threat to life.
The government and other stakeholders should endeavour to provide and integrate them (where possible) into primary, secondary and vocational schools. We should not fold hands and allow innocent children suffer from the negligence and sins of their parents.
Every child has the right to quality education no matter the tribe and religious background.
Paradox
NIGERIA is a country largely blessed with both human and natural resources. In order words, everything a country needs to ensure a smooth running of its operations is present in the country. However, these natural endowments did not come without their shortcomings. Being a population of more than 140, million people, it is filled with different strata and class of people from the rich to the poor and to the very poor
They are mostly from the northern part of Nigeria. For some reasons, they have become the most widely spread set of people across the country. And sadly enough, they spread their impoverishments along with them wherever they are settled.
They almajiris see themselves, and are seen as below standard of the average citizen. even without any visible disabilities, they resort to begging and other demeaning ways to get money from passersby. These people are often characteristics of a large family which means that they have children in large numbers. These numerous young ones are often those that cannot be catered for and given adequate social training befitting young children.
On that note, we have untended and widely free children roaming the streets. Looking at these young ones, one could not help but think ‘the future of Nigeria, roaming the streets.’ Can we even pause to take a minute and appreciate the dangers these children are exposed to daily? To the angry driver, an unfortunate young almajiri might be an easy outlet to vent his anger. Curses and other several swear words have become the order of the day for the average young almajiri on the street. This is however not good on the general outlook.
Clearly, the psychology of these teenagers are affected and they perceive the world as unfair and brutal.
What about early education? Every individual, at some point needs certain level of formal education to survive in a country like Nigeria. The average young Almajiri on the street barely even have enough to feed himself and/or his family talk less of getting a formal education. Poverty is what they have come to accept in their daily living. One would wonder, where does all the money they make on the street go to? The truth is, the money they get is only to meet the needs of their stomach. An uneducated fellow cannot thrive well here. Rather they are used as instruments in the hand s of the learned. A politician whose intents are not righteous could manipulate the ignorant minds of the teenage almajiris and set them against his enemies and society
Militancy
They are young, uncared for, left alone and disregarded. When an evil personality comes’ along with benevolence and philanthropic, gesture he would be gladly received by these teenage almajirs as well as his ideologies whether good or evil. Having nothing in particular to loose and seemingly everything to gain, the teenage almajiri can be rounded up as suicide bombers, terrorists, kidnappers of different dimensions and for several other social vices. They can easily be convinced by their benefactors whom they now perceive as the ‘good people’ in an uncaring country, to support and fight for certain cause even when they cannot explain/understand the motive behind these ideologies. Nigeria has suffered greatly from militancy to terrorist attacks to insurgencies of different dimensions.
Dependency Syndrome
Another glaring implication is the dependency syndrome. Once these children get used to going out and acquiring money, with activities as mundane as cleaning windscreens. overtime the question of thinking along the line of being useful to themselves and the society does not arise. It is such children that when they grow up and cannot do any lawful trade, the obvious thing for them is to fall prey to arm robbery, religious misguided fanatics and these do not augur well for national development. Whether the aim of moving these children from one city to another is education or an entirely different motive, the phenomenon represents a scar on the face of Nigeria as a country.
The Almajiris education system should be stopped and remodeled into a system which can bring about better social and physical welfare of these children and their immediate environment.
“Street victims in tattered garments
Neglected, abandoned, rejected
Smiling. Laughing at their sorrow.
Objects of vile lust
Products of cruel love.
They decorate our streets
Reminding us that the poor we will always
Have…
Their eyes are shut from beholding
The sunshine of hope
They are denied the luxury of love
And wallow in the mud of rejection.
Almajiri!
