Almajiris will soon overrun Lagos if no action is taken

The Almajiri system that has contributed to the highest rate of out of school children in Northern Nigeria is gradually making its way down South and along with it has brought a myriad of problems.

While waiting for drinks at a restaurant in Ikeja City Mall with a friend, we noticed a young lady sitting adjacent to us eating a plate of jollof rice and chicken. She left her meal unfinished and as though in a hurry, left the restaurant. A few minutes after her exit, I saw a small child crawl smartly to her seat and sit down. The moment I saw the boy, I knew he was an Almajiri. He devoured the leftover food and ran out to meet the group he begged with outside. Initially, I wanted to alert the security to their presence but I decided to stay calm to study what was going on.

While I was leaving the mall, I saw loads of them outside the mall – a legion, and I wondered “who brought these people to Lagos?”

They were scattered all around. While some were begging others were roaming around.

This experience at the restaurant was not my first. It is common to encounter these kids while driving around Ikeja, Maryland, Victoria Island, Lekki, Magodo and other highbrow areas of Lagos.

Last year I listened to a phone-in programme on a Lagos based radio station where a man living in Ikoyi narrated his experience. According to him, at 8am on a certain day some individuals were knocking his door. He approached the door convinced it was some of his friends or neighbours, to his utter dismay, he found three kids below ten years at the door. They came begging for food. Out of pity, he gave them 500 naira but he complained bitterly about the experience, disheartened that even an upscale area of Lagos like Ikoyi wasn’t free from the Almajari invasion.

The Fashola administration literally sent all these kids away from the streets but they are back and more tenacious than ever. The rate at which the Almajiri have infiltrated almost the entire state speaks to the enormity of the problem at hand.

Who are their parents? How did they get to Lagos? How do we get them off the streets? These are the questions we should be asking.

These children are a high-security risk. Due to their wandering nature, they may be kidnapped, assaulted, and even forced to join petty crime syndicates to survive. As the majority of these children are too poor to afford the transportation money necessary to make the trip to Lagos, and they cannot communicate, we have to ask who is bringing them to Lagos, and what does the person stand to gain from bringing them here?

Almajrai should be protected and not exploited.

One comment

  1. It is good for you to help them because they are needy some of them were lost their parents

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