The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Father Matthew Hassan Kukah has called on the federal government to review its policy concerning the Almajiri School System.
Speaking as one of the discussants at the 2nd Nigeria Governors’ Forum in Sokoto, Father Kukah said “We probably have not thought this out very clearly” wondering whether we are not running into a corner by having a school where the children by just being almajiris are stigmatised”.
He wondered “how many serious members of the Nigerian elite will send their children to these schools?” asking if graduands of the schools will “show up at NNPC and say I have a Phd from Almajiri secondary, primary and say I want to function in this country”.
Most dangerously, according to him, is the whole question that if Catholic and/or Christians can send their children or teach in such schools.
He said the idea by the federal government “does not create an integrating society” blaming the emergence of the dreaded Islamist Boko Haram sect on the fact that “everybody has returned home”.
He further adds that “now schools are being identified with religion, ethnic groups and so on and so forth”.
However, in a swift reaction, the governor of Sokoto state, Aliyu Wamakko said the federal government did not follow the real objective behind setting up the Almajiri School System, which according to him, is an initiative of the Sokoto state government.
“The issue of Almajiri school was first initiated by the Sokoto state government in 2008 and we have a peculiar reason for doing it” noting that “the federal government sent the then minister of education, Prof Ruqayyatu Rufa’i to come and take literature on the schools”, he said.
He accused the federal government of not “coming to know from us what we mean by this Almajiri schools, why we had these Almajiri schools” insisting that “that is where the mistake has been done” alleging that “they (federal government) only took it and started to claim that it is their policy”.
Governor Wamakko noted that the federal government did not credit the state government for starting the initiative promising that the policy wouldn’t have failed if the Sokoto state government was consulted before the policy was made national.
