The competition among some Northern states in the last few weeks has been intense. The offloading of street urchins popularly known as the Almajirai into states within the region or other states in the south has continued to dominate the media space. No day ever passes without a case of trailer-load of these children being dumped in one state or the other. Ogun, Lagos, Ondo, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Edo and Rivers States have cried out over the invasion of their domain by the uninvited guests.
Recently, Taraba State in the North East rejected 100 Almajiri children dispatched by a North Central Nasarawa State. This happened at a time a frosty relationship was breeding between Kano and Kaduna over the repatriation of over 160 of the urchins to Kaduna. The bone of contention was that Kaduna alleged that Kano deliberately dumped coronavirus-infested children in her domain, a situation the government described as health risk. It said that when subjected to test, a number of the children tested positive for the novel pandemic.
The outcry that has greeted the presence of the children in some states is also based on the understanding that they are purveyors of the dreaded virus as a result of their roving nature that has no regard for social distancing or observance of other protocols expected of every citizen at this time. There are also concerns that members of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram and other bandits may have taken advantage of the chaos in society to infiltrate other states in the south.
Observers say that some of the boys that were moved in trailers under the cover of the night cannot be said to be Almajirai as they appear very energetic and well-kitted. Many analysts have expressed the view that some bandits operating in parts of the North may have relocated to south to spy out vulnerable areas to ply their wicked trade.
Some observers have expressed concern over the unexplained exodus to the south of the Almajirai who are being offloaded in other states in the cover of the night.
Kenneth Mbah, a legal practitioner, who spoke with BusinessDay wondered why the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has not been able to address what he described as “worrisome development” since it is the governors themselves that champion the repatriation.
“I should expect the Governor Kayode Fayemi-led NGF to discuss the ugly development. Is there a sinister motive? What is also baffling to me is that the Federal Government has maintained sealed lips over the unauthorised movements at a time when interstate movements were said to be illegal. A responsive government should have spoken out considering the apprehension the movements are causing in the polity,” Mbah said.
Kayode Ojo, a school principal, wondered why and how the Almajirai are having easy ride into strange states and environment, whereas most Nigerians have been banned from moving from their states.
“Today, there are many Nigerians stranded in their villages where they had gone for burial or marriage ceremonies from Lagos, and they were there when the lockdown was announced, then the extension and now worsened by the ban on interstate movement. These people were cut off from their loved ones in Lagos, not to talk of business. They are afraid to risk their lives trying to return to their base by all means. But it does not take the trucks bringing these Almajiri children any stress to invade other states. This is where the allegation of security personnel being complicit makes sense to me.
“On a regular basis, these days, trucks of Almajirai are being intercepted all over the place. All the states in the South East and South-South are crying over the invasion of the aimless children into their territory. I really do not understand what is going on in Nigeria,” Ojo said.
Last Wednesday, Northern governors insisted that they would continue to repatriate Almajirai to their respective states, irrespective of the advice by members of the National Assembly that such action could worsen the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
However, Yobe State government in the North East, which is currently battling with too many unexplained deaths in the state, and which has been an epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency, said it was not going to move the Almajirai in the manner other states are doing. It said what was uppermost in its plans was to provide better education and living condition for the children.
Speaking on a television programme recently, the Yobe State Commissioner for Health, Lawan Gana said the state government was mindful of the fact that the Almajiri children deserved love, care and deserved to be treated with dignity.
Gana said that the decision of the Governor Mai Mala Buni administration in Yobe against repatriating the Almajirai from the state contrary to the Northern governors’ agreement to do so was to “avoid unnecessary distortion in the system.”
“One of the things we are doing is working towards improving education- not only the Western education but also the Quranic education. We are looking at a situation where when you have an epidemic, moving out people from places that are infected to places that are not infected, may not necessarily be a good idea,” Gana said.
According to him, “A typical example – the Almajiris that were repatriated from Kano to Kaduna, so many of them tested positive for Covid-19, same also those that were taken to Jigawa State. If pro-active measures were not taken, they would have been left to go into the society and then, of course, they would continue to spread the disease.”
The commissioner explained that the “real thing is that when you have an epidemic, you should avoid a situation where you move people en masse from one state to the other. So, the approach is to do these things in a systematic manner in order not to create a panic in the system.”
The Commissioner further said: “We also need to understand that these are children and we should really need to be careful in whatever action that we want to take so that they don’t feel as if they were being neglected. We must avoid the negative consequences of these actions. This does not mean that we have allowed things to go on in a haphazard manner. No; but we are actually working, doing things in such a way that will make sense and will not create unnecessary distortion in the system.”
In the last two months, there have been the back and forth movements of these children from one northern state to the other. It appears that rather than accepting them, the states are re-routing them to the south where they currently constitute a huge nuisance. The concern is that apart from exacerbating the Covid-19 situation in the country, the forced relocation of the children could worsen ethnic conflict in the country.
