By Josef Omorotionmwan
THIS big elephant, Nigeria, still short-changes herself at every bend. Nigeria is simply satisfied with being the most populous country in Africa; hence it means nothing to her that her population is grossly understated.

In the 10-yearly ritual called population census, we are not quite sure that those “countrymen” at the market square and the myriads of Almajirai are fully captured. Yet, these are the people that, in an ideal society, would require utmost care and adequate budgetary outlays.

Our curiosity on the Almajiri question may have been aroused by the Senate debate on “A Bill for an Act to Repeal and Re-enact the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Act 2003”, sponsored by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP/Cross River Central).

Under the Teach Yourself Islamic Studies, we came out with a full definition of ALMAJIRI as a word that emanated from the Arabic word “AL-MUHAJIRIN”, meaning migrant, which came as a result of Prophet Mohammed’s migration from Mecca to Medina. In Hausa land, Almajiri has become applicable to any person who begs for assistance on the streets or from house to house as a result of some deformity or disability.

The Nigerian factor has since taken over the Almajiri system from its original intention. The system has since become a big source of child abuse because children between the ages of seven and 15 years who attend informal religious schools now roam about collecting assistance and alms; and sometimes they engage in various forms of labour in order to survive. Sometimes, they fall into the hands of irresponsible adults who exploit them sexually.

Invariably, the Almajirai children grow up aggressive and violent, as they have been exposed to the vagaries of weather, different forms of pressure, problems, hunger and exploitations.

Unfortunately, these are children who are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow. The Almajirai have thus become sources of worry to the Northern elite. The system has become a source of embarrassment to the entire region. When the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Bill came up for debates, Senator Alkali Abdulkadir Jajere (ANPP/Yobe South) chronicled his ugly experience, growing up in the system.

The Senate President, David Mark, went to town and delivered a treatise on the sins of poverty. Mark missed the mark when he called for the abolition of the Almajiri system, when we should, in fact, be seeking ways to make it function better.

This column finds one common fault with some of our legislators. Quite often, presiding officers who should talk less and listen more to their members soon hijack the debates and take over proceedings when they should only intervene in crucial moments to whip erring members on line.

Listen to Mark: “It is amazing when we tend to make excuses for our failings. If you cannot gain employment, you go and join a terrorist group so that you can be employed. You join Boko Haram because you have no employment. If you are poor, you begin to traffic in human beings so that you can be rich… Everything is reduced to the level of unemployment in the country. Nigeria is not the only country where everybody is not employed.”

The Almajirai did not ask to be born poor. It is not as if they had a choice between being poor and being rich and they deliberately chose the former.

Mark’s suggestion simply mixes science with ethics; unknown to him that the essential difference between science and ethics is that science is descriptive while ethics is prescriptive. Science deals with what is in the indicative mood. Ethics, on the other hand, deals with what ought to be in the imperative mood. The stark reality of the situation is that the Almajirai are already here with us. What do we do with them?

That is the question that we must answer at this ethical level. Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State is visibly pained that “some irresponsible parents would give birth to some 30 children, decide to take care of only two and unleash the rest of the pack on society… They grow up to hate their parents, their leaders, their government and society. They feel they are deprived, they feel injustice and they become enemies of the state and constituted authorities.”

Shall we round up all the irresponsible men and castrate them as a way of limiting their reckless production escapade? No! That would be a return to atavism and cannot be permitted in 21st century Nigeria.

As for the Almajirai, we are also reluctant to tap on the experience of the Nazi-German regime which established a number of concentration camps where Jewish prisoners were gathered and executed in gas chambers.

If all life offers you are broken eggs, you must quickly learn to make omelettes.  No one ever solves a problem by running away from it. Mark and his co-travellers cannot wish away the fact that there is a correlation between unemployment and criminality. No responsible government can abdicate its responsibility of providing gainful employment to its citizens.

The Almajiri question can only be addressed within an integrated context: The Federal Government must prosecute its Almajiri Education Programme with added diligence. The affected states should devote more of their allocations to education and housing, by upping the Almajirai in their scale of preference. The provision of rehabilitation centres and homes is an idea that is capable of removing them from the streets and under the bridges.

The Almajirai must know that manna no longer comes from heaven. They must quickly inculcate the virtues of hard work. This underscores the need to establish long-term enlightenment and public education programmes to teach parents the dangers inherent in having more children than they can cater for.

The concept of reward and punishment also requires us to give adequate biting teeth to some of our existing laws such as the UBE requirement that parents who refuse to send their children to school should be prosecuted and punished commensurately.