Almajiris, IDP children as the new drug couriers

Before now the menace posed by the almajiris to the security, socio-economic and political wellbeing of especially the northern states where the practice is endemic was realized since 1987 in Kano State when Group Captain Mohammed Ndatsu Umaru was the military governor of the state. He had the foresight to establish four Committees on Almajiri, Women, Zakkat and Social Mobilization. The Almajiri Committee, under Sheikh Isa Waziri, after touring the whole state and consultations with Islamic and traditional leaders, strongly recommended its banning as it was not Islamic to beg anyhow.

In fact, the Zakkat Committee strongly recommended how the monies collected from the rich (Zakkat) could be used to support the poor, the destitute, the weak, the disabled and women. Unfortunately Group Captain Umaru was transferred out of the state in 1988 before he could have enacted a law to ban the Almajiri menace in Kano State.

Even before then, late General Hassan Usman Katsina waged a dogged fight against the almajiri system in the North. He argued that children should be saved from begging and enrolled in to Islamiyya schools where they would be taught the combined Islamic and the Western education.

President Goodluck Jonathan during his tenure introduced the harmonization of Islamiyya and basic western education in Almajiri schools in Sokoto state on April 10, 2012. The government built about 124 primary schools for the Almajiri education in Northern Nigeria.

Despite all these efforts by successive governments to tackle the almajiris’ menace, the scourge is assuming a dangerous and worrisome dimension with their recent involvement in drug trafficking and consumption.

Investigations reveal that instead of them using proceeds from begging to live a normal life, they often use it to engage in illicit drug activities. A development that has ruined their lives, made them become more threat to the society than ever before.

According to the NDLEA in Kano, commonly abused drugs in the state by the almajiris included scorpion gas, angel breeze, monkey tail, chasing-the-dragon, flying-stone, man-die-go, fire-for-fire, cough syrups, psychotropic substances, solvent and solution, gigabytes, Suck-and-Die, lizard dung as well as using pipes to suck and sniff human remains from the grave.