On Thursday, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State said that the issue of Almajiri and out-of-school children is a national challenge that must be handled before it spirals out of control.
He made this statement during a courtesy call to his office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, by members of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children’s Education.
The governor likened Almajiri and out-of-school children in the country as a volcano waiting to erupt, stating that the large number of children is cause for alarm since they may easily be exploited to create havoc in the country.
He said: “The issue of Almajiri is a national challenge. It is not a challenge for a section of this country, but a national challenge. The National Security Adviser and I sat down to discuss this issue, and we deliberated on what actionable steps can be taken that are implementable, breaking them down into immediate, medium to long-term, and sustainable steps to ensure that we collectively deal with the issue, which I described as a volcanic eruption that we can’t see now, that appears dormant, but is very viable.
“The last time we had protests, we saw an unusually high number of protests, significantly from the north. When you look at those protesters, they were Almajiri children. It was obvious that they didn’t have a clue about what they were doing. Some of them were carrying Russian flags, which means that they didn’t understand what that meant. They were tools in the hands of manipulators, willing and ready tools in the hands of manipulators who probably gave them a meal or something meagre, and they were ready to go for it.”
“This is a very sad development in the history of this nation, and this is a result of years of neglect of the situation. My position is that we can successfully tackle it. This will be one of President Bola Tinubu’s best legacies. It will be an enduring legacy, and I know that the President, under his Renewed Hope vision, is very passionate about ensuring that he reduces the number of Almajiri and out-of-school children to an absolute minimum.
“I assure you that, as the governor of Ogun State and the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum (SGF), we will do our best to address this issue, even though we have a lower number of out-of-school children in the south”, he noted.
Abiodun, as a result, attributed the state’s high number of out-of-school children to a huge student population caused by the influx of people from other parts of the country coming to work or live in the state, adding that his administration is working to remedy the issue.
“When you look at statistics, it shows that Ogun State has an unusually high percentage of out-of-school children in the southwest. In the primary sector, it shows 10.3 percent, compared to the southwest region’s 6.2 percent. In junior secondary school, we have 12.1 percent, compared to 8.5 percent in the Southwest average. In senior secondary, we have 20.9 percent, compared to 19.2 percent average in the southwest.” he added.
Earlier, Hon. Almustapha Rabah, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Alternative Education, stated that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children after Pakistan and India, calling all hands on deck to tackle the issue.
Also speaking, the Commission’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Muhammad Idris, revealed that Nigeria has around 30 million Almajiri roaming the streets as a result of their parents’ irresponsible behaviour.