...also published in Daily Trust
Though this piece is prompted
by the controversy over Rev. Mathew
Kukah’s initiative to train 10 million Almajirai in northern Nigeria, it isn’t
actually addressing the initiative. I may do so in due course, God willing.
Meanwhile,
as its title suggests, this piece addresses the perceived link between poverty
and the persistence of Almajirci phenomenon in northern Nigeria; an assumption
that’s not only prevalent among the general public, but also among academics
and analysts, which explains why most of the measures often proposed with a
view to tackling it focus on the need for the provision of facilities and other
services for Almajirai so that they won’t have to wander the streets begging in
order to survive.
This
assumption is so widespread that one can tell what the average anti-Almajirci
activist or writer would always propose as a solution to Almajirci in the
region. Besides, over the decades, all the policies formulated by successive
governments and the charity initiatives introduced by charitable organizations
and individual philanthropists to tackle Almajirci have always been guided
accordingly.
