First Lady seeks Saudi support to bring Almajiri, out-of-school children into formal education

Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has appealed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for support in educating Almajiri and other out-of-school children, saying the children “deserve to be educated” and that formal schooling could secure Nigeria’s future.

Mrs Tinubu made the appeal on Thursday while receiving the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Nigeria, Yousef Al-Balawi, at the State House, Abuja, according to a statement issued by her media aide, Busola Kukoyi.

She urged a strategic partnership between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to reform the Almajiri system by combining Arabic and Islamic teachings with formal Western education.

“I work with the women and vulnerable children in the society; my heart goes out to the Almajiri children up North. I believe they need better care,” the First Lady said. “This is because most of the insecurity challenges in the nation, if those particular group of children are not taken care of, I don’t know what might happen.”

She added that integrating religious instruction with formal education would help protect the future of the children and, by extension, the nation.

“I believe we can still give them formal education. If we are able to do that, the future of Nigeria will be well secured,” she said.

Mrs Tinubu also acknowledged the longstanding bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and thanked the ambassador for the visit.

Al-Balawi, who said he has served in Nigeria for five months, described his reception by government officials as positive and expressed optimism about deepening cooperation between the two countries.

“As you are aware, our countries have strong relationship, we both share historical relationship, our nations share a lot of things, religion, culture and potentials to improve our relationship to get back in shape,” he said. “Our nations have strong common ambitions to improve our economy.”

The ambassador said he had met with members of the Federal Executive Council and expected those engagements to yield benefits for the growth of both nations. He was accompanied to the State House by Mohammed Bukar, Chief of Staff at the Saudi Embassy.