By Isma’il Auwal
“At about 9:00 pm, I found 7-year-old Abdulrahman who is an indigene of Kaduna State, at my gate, in Tudun Yola Kano, trying to escape a heavy downpour,” said a Kano indigene, Ali Tamasi.
The boy, who was brought to Kano as an Almajiri by his parents, burst into tears when he was asked of the container he uses to beg for food. “He brought a polythene bag and presented it to me as what he uses to beg for food instead of the traditional bowl used by his fellow Almajirai,” Ali said.
“I spent a large portion of that night thinking about the young boy; the whereabouts of his teachers, his parents and the responsibility to cater for the needs of this small boy. I kept asking myself these questions,” Ali lamented.
“There is a big difference between Islamic education and begging, and there is no nexus between the two,” he noted.
He said that the future of North and Nigeria at large looks very gloomy with the high concentration of these street children being paraded as Almajiris.
“At this age, parents that want to send their children to distant places in search of Knowledge should know that it is mandatory upon them to provide the children with all their basic needs.”
He further wrote that, “Any father that fails to provide for the need of his child is only sending him away to be a beggar.”
“I am sure the Mallam of the child will not allow his biological son to come out at this time of the night, when its raining.”
Ali, in a phone interview with our reporter on Monday, said that he has found the name of both the teacher and father of the young boy, and they have since started to discuss with the anchors of a popular Radio Program “Mu koma tsangaya” on how to reunite the Almajiri with his parents.