Almajiri System Must End in Five Years or Risk Regional Collapse, Peace Group Warns

By Tgnews Reporter

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A leading peace advocacy organization has issued a stark ultimatum: Nigeria must dismantle the Almajiri system within the next five years, or face escalating insecurity that could engulf not only the country but the entire West African subregion.

The Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro), in a strongly worded statement following an extensive fact-finding tour across seven Northern states, described the Almajiri practice — in which young boys, often from poor families, are sent to Islamic boarding schools but end up begging on streets without formal education or family support — as a root cause of Nigeria’s persistent banditry, extremism, and organized violence.

Executive Director Abdulrazaq Hamzat, who led the stakeholder engagements, painted a grim picture of systemic societal breakdown. “What Nigeria is dealing with is not just banditry, terrorism or criminality,” he declared.

“It is the long-term consequence of a society that has normalised the abandonment of its children. The Almajiri system, in its current form, is not merely a policy failure; it is a cultural expression of total societal collapse.”

PeacePro’s tour revealed a pattern of child abandonment frequently justified on cultural and religious grounds, producing millions of socially excluded, uneducated youths vulnerable to recruitment by criminal gangs and extremist groups.

Hamzat emphasized that the crisis represents a multifaceted failure: of families who relinquish responsibility without safeguards, ethnic identities that normalize tragedy as tradition, religious institutions that prioritize enrollment over welfare, society that spiritualizes child begging, and governments that fail to enforce child rights and education laws.

“When families, ethnic nationality, religion, society and the state all fail at the same time, insecurity becomes inevitable, not accidental,” Hamzat stated.

The group warned that without decisive action, the annual output of desperate, disconnected youths could trigger uncontrollable spillover effects. “If this crisis is allowed to persist, Nigeria will not burn alone,” he cautioned.

“The sheer scale of excluded, uneducated and desperate youths being produced annually is enough to set the entire West African subregion on fire.”

PeacePro rejected defenses of the system as sacred tradition, arguing that culture forfeits legitimacy when it inflicts systematic deprivation. “Culture is not sacred when it destroys lives,” Hamzat asserted.

“Any culture that turns children into roaming beggars, denies them education, welfare, protection and a sense of belonging is no longer heritage; it is a social pathology.”

The organization clarified that its call is not an assault on Islam, Northern culture, or religious education, but a demand for reform rooted in responsibility, dignity, and accountability.

“This is not about destroying culture or faith,” Hamzat explained. “It is about restoring their ethical foundations. Religion without welfare and compassion has been weaponised against the very children it should protect.”

To address the emergency, PeacePro urged federal and state governments to prioritize the Almajiri crisis as a national security issue. Recommendations include a coordinated five-year eradication plan featuring large-scale rehabilitation, vocational training for current Almajirai, and sustained dialogue with religious and traditional leaders to implement culturally sensitive reforms.

Hamzat concluded with a sobering message: “Nigeria’s insecurity is not a mystery. It is the predictable outcome of decades of societal abandonment, normalised as culture. Until we end that abandonment, insecurity will only change form, not disappear.”

The statement aligns with broader discussions on child welfare and security in Nigeria, where the Almajiri population contributes significantly to out-of-school children figures. PeacePro reaffirmed its dedication to peace-building, policy advocacy, and community reforms to sever the link between child neglect and national instability.

The warning has sparked renewed calls for urgent government intervention, with observers noting that past efforts to regulate or reform the system have fallen short amid enforcement challenges and cultural sensitivities.