General Tukur Brutai was then the Nigerian Army Chief of Staff while l was about stepping down as the Managing Director of a police newspaper, The Dawn, when he extended an invitation to me, requesting me to join him on a trip to Sambisa forest in Borno state, the famed stronghold of the Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast. We had flown with an Air Force helicopter from Abuja to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, and were received by General Lucky Irabor who was at that time the Commander of Operation Lafia Dole. We later embarked on a military guided trip to the Sambisa forest and other insurgency ravaged areas, including Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs camps.The focus on IDPs in this column is conditioned by the helpless children I saw in the camps whom I would describe here as Internally Displaced Children (IDC).
Encyclopedia describes internally displaced persons as persons forced to leave their homes or ancestral communities but who still reside within the borders of their country. Such persons are also often referred to as refugees. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), the global population of IDPs reached an all-time high of 83.4 million at the end of 2024. This was a significant increase from the 75.9 million. A good number of these IDPs are children. In Nigeria, particularly in the Northern part of the country, such displaced children eventually become almajiris, roaming the streets and cities begging for alms. Many often fall prey to the insurgents; they are enticed with money and food and then recruited as informants by Boko Haram and other terrorists operating in that part of Nigeria. To forestall this, some security conscious governors have placed a ban on activities of aImajiri in their states. FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike recently did the same in the FCT.
The word, almajiri is derived from the Arabic word, “Almuhajirun,” meaning an emigrant. It usually refers to a person who migrates from the luxury of his home to other places or to a popular Quoranic teacher in the quest for Islamic knowledge.
It is hinged on the Islamic concept of migration which is widely practised, especially when acquisition of knowledge at home is either inconvenient or insufficient.
According to a UNICEF study in 2014, Nigeria has 9.5 million almajiri children, accounting for 72 per cent of the country’s out-of-school children.
Also, estimates in 2019 revealed that Nigeria has between 13.2 million and 15 million out-of-school children, the majority of whom are in Northern Nigeria. Another UNICEF survey on out-of-school children in 2013 showed that 10.5 million children, who started either primary or Junior Secondary school, were no longer in school, adding that the situation had created an additional challenge to the non-formal education sub-sector.
As a way of curbing the menace of almajiri in Northern Nigeria, successive administrations in the country had at different times conceptualised various initiatives capable of taking the almajiri children off the streets to acquire both Qur’anic and Western education.
Many still applaud and appreciate the educational policy of former President Goodluck Jonathan who, during his administration, made concerted efforts to get the almajiri off the streets by establishing schools for them.
In 2024, according to records, it was estimated that 55% of Nigeria’s internally displaced population are children, totaling approximately 1.8 million. Records also showed that the IDP population in Nigeria was substantial, with over 3 million people displaced .The children in the IDP camps grow to become young boys and befor you know it, some of them get recruited into terrorist groups to be unleashed later on the society as a tools of mass destruction. The traumatised and neglected internally displaced children of today could indeed become tomorrow’s terrorists unleashing sorrow and destruction on the society. A close scrutiny will reveal that these are the ones that attack and plunder communities in Benue Plateu , Taraba, Borno,Zamfara among other volatile Northern states leaving behind trails of carnage and blood- chilling massacres.
According to a popular African proverb: “An untrained mind is like a wild horse- powerful but directionless”. These are the traits that are noticeable among the almajiris and that is why they are ready tools in the hands of bandits , kidnappers and rerrorists. I recall a certain Sunday afternoon in 2018 when I had an ugly encounter with a young Fulani bandit who had apparently infiltrated and mixed up with the Internally displaced persons at a camp at Area 1, Abuja. My car had a shortage of fuel and could not move. I promptly dispatched my driver to go get the product at a nearby filling station. I was alone in the car and I immediately sat on the drive’s seat. Then, suddenly a young boy aged between 18-20 with a Fulani accents and wearing a menancing countenance appeared, boldly ordering me to hand over the key of my infinity Jeep to him! I looked at him from head to toe assessing his capability. I remembered my training at the Police College , Jos and I immediately smashed the car door on him which forced him to fall down with his jack knife and I formed a V- shape with my finger and pierced it into his eyes. I alighted from the car and pinned him down; he started screaming “wayoo wayoo”. This attracted another member of his gang, a tall guy who approached from behind the car. Unknown to me, he was armed with a Jack knife with which he stabbed me on my right arm. The jack knife entered through my skin and pierced out into the other part of my skin leaving me in the pool of my own blood. The sudden stab on me forced my hand off my initial attacker who was still pinned to the ground thus enabling him to extricate himself and the second attacker quickly whisked him away. It was obvious I needed immediate help as blood was already soaking my clothe and I was loosing energy. Every effort I made to wave down vehicles failed until a Good Samaritan whos name I later found is Dr Uchenna, a medical doctor, pulled over and rushed me to the National Hospital. However, unfortunately doctors were on strike at the hospital. It was at gate of the hospital that I eventually received first aid to stop the bleeding. As I wrote write this column, I looked at the healed hand and thank God for His mercy and saving grace.
According to an unknown author, “Every accident is a harsh teacher” . The lesson? Life is precious, handle it with care. This is why the recent meeting with President Bola Timubu with Service Chiefs needs to be commended as there is now a resolve, more than ever before, to completely send terrorists and bandits out of the Nigerian soil.