Nigeria: Lawmakers criticise forced repatriation of muslim schoolchildren

Members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives have criticised a decision by the country’s federal government to forcibly remove children in the Almajiranci educational system from the northern states to their states of origin. 

The Almajiranci is a form of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria, wherein children are removed from their parents and placed into religious schools.

Governors in the northern states recently moved to abolish the system, which sees children regularly begging on the streets to survive. 

The motion to prevent these children being returned home was put forward on Tuesday by former Education Minister Aishatu Dukku. 

She argued that forced repatriation was against the fundamental human rights of Nigerians to reside in whichever part of the country they chose. 

It follows a decision by northern state governors, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, to disperse almajiri children and repatriate those whose parents are from other states. 

Ms Dukku expressed concerns over how the children were transported in a packed vehicle under the scorching sun, calling it dehumanising. 

Representatives in favour of Ms Dukku’s motion also called for northern governors to refrain from banning the Almajiranci system until those already in the schools could be properly provided for by the state education system. 

Photo: Shiraz Chakera/Flickr