President of the Senate, David Mark, has tongue-lashed northern governors and politicians accusing them of helping to foster the almajiri system, a dangerous system that could see children becoming a major menace to the society.
Mark, who spoke at the floor of the Senate on Wednesday during the senate debate on the bill for an act to re-enact the trafficking in persons (prohibition) Act, said the increasing rate of almajiris roaming the streets in the north was as a result of the seeming silence of the governors and other political leaders of the region.
The bill has scaled through the second reading and has been referred to the senate committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and the women Affairs for further study.
He accused them of being silent probably out of fear for their political career while stressing that the system had posed a major problem to the development of the region.
Mark described the system as counter-productive adding that it had become a breeding ground for irresponsible miscreants and that this can no longer be tolerated.
Mark said: “I had to call the man who introduced Sharia on the issue, because wrongly or rightly, I think he is knowledgeable in Islamic affairs. He told me categorically that the almajiri system is not an Islamic injunction.
“We must admit that politicians in the north have failed over the years to stem the almajiri system. It will appear that they have encouraged it, or for political reasons, they are been scared of making a comment on it.”
While commending the Kano State Government for making a recent proclamation banning the almajiri practice in the state, the Senate President advised the governors to use the opportunity of the re-enactment of the anti-human trafficking law to stop the practice in their domains.
“Today I’ve heard that it is not an Islamic injunction. I think that system ought to have been banned long ago.
“And I hope that they will summon the courage to ban the system at the earliest possible time,” he said as he condemned all those who engage in criminal activities using unemployment as an excuse saying Nigeria was not the only country with high unemployment rate.
He said: “As long as we continue to make excuses for these criminal activities, we are going to find it difficult to improve because there is a mindset already.”
While leading the debate on the bill, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, noted that Nigeria had earned a bad image among the comity of nations as a result of human trafficking which he called modern day slavery.
According to him, the criminal activity “has gained notoriety in Nigeria and we have been rated as a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking and forced labour. This growing and worrisome trend has a negative impact on the corporate image of our country.”
He explained that the re-enactment of the law would empower the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to frustrate the practice lamenting that most of the victims of human trafficking are recruited from the villages to the cities and then to other countries.
Adding a voice to the debate, Senator Alkali Jajere from Yobe state narrated his experience saying: “I was a victim of almajiri system. There are many children suffering serious degradation due to parental neglect. They turn into rebels and terrorists.
“As part of this re-enactment, we have to put a stop to the almajiri system in the country where our children are forced into the streets to beg for alms.”
