The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saád Abubakar, has said that he would establish an Almajiri foundation to tackle the menace of street begging in Nigeria. Sultan, who said this at the closing ceremony of the 25th national Quránic recitation competition on Friday, said members of the foundation would be announced in the next two weeks. He added that the foundation would comprise traditional leaders, governors and other stakeholders.
“We are concerned about the over 9.5 million children that are currently roaming our streets in the name of begging. One of the foundation’s cardinal objectives is to map out modalities on how to tackle the menace of street begging across the nation,” he said.
He said other objectives of the foundation include promotion of memorization of the Qurán and improving the wellbeing of Quránic school’s pupils among others.
He added that it was time for the leaders to put their heads together to address the problem for the future of the younger generation.
“We must come together to improve the activities of Quránic schools and to utilise the talents of its subjects for better results. Under-utilisation of Quránic schools pupils is not helping our economy. We have talented people in our
Quránic schools, which if properly utilised can make significant impact in our economy,” he said.
He also charged northern leaders to give adequate attention to students of Quránic schools in their domains, saying, “We must come together to treat these children the way we treat those in the conventional schools.”
The Sultan commended the Federal Government for initiating the integrated Tsangaya schools programme, appealing to states and local governments to complement the government’s efforts by contributing their quota towards the sustenance of the programme.
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