“Almajiranci Is Our Pride. No Sane Society Will Destroy It” – Former Presidential Candidate Adamu Garba II
Nigerian lawmaker and former All Progressive Council (APC) presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba II has reacted to the recent charge given by Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II to arrest Northern fathers who send their children as Almajiri to beg for alms.
The Emir of Kano had on February 20 advocated for laws to be enacted by state governments to tackle injustices in marriages, adding that “any man that is too poor to take care of his family should go out and beg himself rather than sending send his child to do so.”
Adamu Garba, in a series of tweets accompanied with videos of himself speaking in Hausa language, has however disagreed with the Emir saying;
Almajiranci is our pride and our honor. Yes! we agreed that the program should be reformed but it should not be condemned. No sane society will destroy its culture but seek to reform. All advanced countries value their heritage, why not us? I disagree with Emir of Kano on this.
Almajiranci is our pride and our honor. Yes! we agreed that the program should be reformed but it should not be condemned. No sane society will destroy its culture but seek to reform. All advanced countries value their heritage, why not us?
— Adamu Garba II (@adamugarba) February 21, 2020
I disagree with Emir of Kano on this. pic.twitter.com/rWwEf6R0F0
He stated further that;
In case you don’t know, nearly all businessmen in Kano holding all Kano major markets, traders and hubs are Almajirai. Yes almajiranci should be reformed to conform to new trend but almajiranci should remain as a valued cultural heritage.
Garba went ahead to state the difference between street begging and almajiranci is, saying;
Most of you just don’t get it. You kept confusing almajiranci with street begging. Street begging is not requirements for genuine Almajiranci. If Govt can provide feeding program for students of other schools & allow boarding, why not to almajiri too? Are they not Nigerians?
Expressing his view about having multiple wives and children, the lawmaker noted that;
It’s God’s destiny that children are birthed to their specific parents & it’s their responsibility to shape the vision of who their child might grow to be They chose Almajiranci. The want their children to profess Quran, how is that a crime? They’re also Nigerians with choice.
If not for hypocrisy, some of you send their children to nursery school as young as a year old, yet you condemn the practice of almajiri. You send your kids to boarding school, yet you asked parents of almajiri to keep their kids under them. How do you want them to learn?
In his tweets, he went further to address foreign organisations like International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank that circulate fake news about the North especially in the education sector.
Sometimes when I see the fake news peddlers like Work Bank or IMF calling some 10 million out of school children from the north, Very fake news.
— Adamu Garba II (@adamugarba) February 21, 2020
Most of these kids are almajirai & they go to almajiri schools, if they really care about them, they should invest in reforming them.
But the agenda wasn’t the children but pushing them to conform to certain interest.
— Adamu Garba II (@adamugarba) February 21, 2020
Some gullible agents of theirs carry such news with awe and disseminate.
in Tsangaya, you can teach anything including English, but only if you reform them. You must invest but not condemn them
Adamu Garba is known to be vocal on Twitter about his opinions about issues that concerns the country.
