For long, the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, has been like a lone voice in the wilderness. If he is not preaching against the poor treatment of the girl-child in the North, he is speaking about obnoxious practices tied to religion in the area. He has spoken on illiteracy, street begging, the almajiri system and the continued domination of the country by the North based on inequality and lopsidedness. Sanusi is disenchanted with the situation of the North generally. He believes that the North should compete with Southern parts on equal footing, based on competence, ability and not on quota system. Sanusi has shouted himself hoarse on the plight of the North to the extent that he is now viewed as an anti-establishment.
Two weeks ago, Sanusi was at it again. He said that fathers who send out their children to beg for alms should be arrested.
Speaking at a forum organised by the Future Assured Initiative, a project of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, in collaboration with the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Sanusi said that no law provided that a man should marry, have children and abandon them without living up to his responsibility to them.
“…If you are too poor to feed your children, then you go out and beg, and not to send your children to go out and beg. You go out,” he said.
The emir went on to argue that men should not just marry for the sake of marriage, have sex, procreate and shirk their responsibilities to their children and wives. He decried the high level of beggars in the North, pointing out that it is a failure of the men, who run away from their responsibilities.
Sanusi had earlier during the 60th birthday celebration of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai said: “…You cannot be happy about 87 per cent of poverty in Nigeria being in the North. You can’t be happy with millions of Northern children out of school. You can’t be happy with nine states in the North contributing almost 50 per cent of the entire malnutrition burden in the country.”
He warned that the North cannot rely on the lopsidedness in the Nigerian system for long because things could change. He said that the quota system being used to the advantage of the North now could change in their near future, thus leaving the region shorthanded.
As if on cue, few days after his double outbursts, the governments of Kano and Nasarawa states came up with policies that they were banning street begging in their states. Although the policies have not been received well by the teeming population in those areas, there is no doubt that it is the way to go.
According to the Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the move is to actualise the free and compulsory primary and secondary schools education in Kano State. He also said it was aimed at integrating the Almajiri system into the free and compulsory education.
He warned that any Almajiri teacher must accept the new approach put in place by the state government, saying that, “if you think you cannot accept that, then you leave the state. When beggars are caught, it is not only that beggars that will be caught but their parents and or guardians would be taken to court for disrespecting our laws.”
In Nassarawa, Governor Abdullahi Sule while assenting to the law on Child Rights Protection Order and Anti-kidnapping Law of the state, said that the government would begin enforcement of the ban as soon as it moves the existing number of the Almajiris to Tsangaya schools.
He noted that his administration was not against Almajiris pursing Islamic knowledge but was against street begging.
We commend the moves by the Kano and Nasarawa state governments. We also align with the campaign by Sanusi on the North taking care of its own.
We strongly believe that the Almajiri system of education is a worthy cause. That is as far as it is not abused with the sending of children into the streets for begging. There is no gainsaying the fact that street begging has become a ridicule to governments in the North over the years. We believe very strongly that a situation where any beggar seen on the streets of any state in Nigeria is looked at as a northerner does not accord the leaders the needed respect. There is no doubt that the moves would be met with resistance but for the future of the North and Nigeria at large to be secured, there is a compelling need to stop the street begging menace. That is what Sanusi has been shouting about. There is no part of Nigeria without poor parents. But the management of the poverty, the vision to come out of it and the desire to surmount it is what will help conquer the disease.
We call on other northern governors to take a cue from Kano and Nasarawa in that direction. We strongly think that parents should be parents to their children. It is not by given birth that parents are parents but by taking responsibility over their children to nurture them to maturity. That is why we should not encourage street begging any further.
