BEFORE WE DISALLOW BEGGING: A MEMO FOR NORTHERN GOVERNORS

Recently, the Governor of Kaduna state Mallam Nasir El Rufai banned street begging in Kaduna State. The ban followed security challenges experienced in parts of the State. As usual, the ban was accompanied by a promise to establish a rehabilitation centre to accomodate beggers and train them to acquire various skills. Unlike some states in the south however, the Governor promised not to repartriate beggers back to their home states. This is not the first time a governor of a Northern state will ban begging in his state. Similar bans were made by governors in different states in the North from the second republic to date. In all cases, however, the ban failed and the problem of begging continues. Why the failures despite the budgets for rehabilitation centres that normally accompany such bans? Is the problem of begging insoluble? What about all the conferences organized by Islamic organizations, Universities and Governments to address this problem? Are we  insincere or have we missed the point?

Any attempt to stop begging without taking into due cognisance the values and traditions of the people concerned will fail.

Beggers in the northern part of Nigeria can be categorized into three groups and each of these groups would require a different approach to stop it from begging. The first group of beggars is made up of pupils of Qur’anic schools. These pupils, popularly called almajiri (originally almuhajir, the Arabic word for immigrant), are sent to Quranic schools by their parents to learn the Quran. Contrary to the belief in some quarters that the boys were sent to Quranic school out of poverty, many parents, especially in the rural areas still believe in the Quranic school system as the only way to acquire islamic knowledge. Generally, students of Quranic schools do not continue begging after leaving the school. The second category of beggers are the physically challenged. Whereas in other cultures physical disability is seen as a disadvantage, in some parts of Northern Nigeria physical challenge is seen as a license to join the begging community. Beggers in this group are not students of the Quran or any aspect of Islamic knowledge. In many cases, however, they learn the portion of the Quran that will help them appeal to people to give them alms. Most of the beggers in this group do not simply beg to survive. It is a business. Many beggers own property an average civil servant cannot own from his salary. But no matter what they make out of begging, this group of people are still disadvantaged because begging is the only thing most of them can do.

The last group of beggers are those who join the business out of want. Some of these include orphans, widows, aged people and others who are simply poor and unskilled. When they test the sweetness of begging, it becomes a way of life.

One thing that is common to all begging groups in the Muslim North is that they associate their begging with Islam. Many of the beggers and their givers believe that begging is Islamic or at least there is nothing wrong with it in Islam. This notion is however incorrect considering Quranic verses and traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) on begging. Detail of these Quranic verses and traditions of the Prophet is for another discussion. The summary is that Islam allows begging only in three circumstances. Imam Muslim reported on the authority of Qabisah that the messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “Begging is not lawful except for three people. One who has incurred debt (for assuming guarantee), for him begging is permissible till the guarantee is discharged and he should then refrain; a person whose property has been destroyed by a calamity is allowed to beg till he attains self-sufficiency; a person who meets with dire necessity (due to hunger) provided that three men of understanding from his people affirm the genuineness (of his poverty), for him begging is lawful till he attains means of subsistence. Other than these, O Qabisah, anything received through begging is unlawful, its recipient devours it unlawfully.”

There has been several attempts by different state governments to address the problem of almajiri group of beggars. However, in many cases these attempts are marred by insincerity and lack of concern for the values of the people in their states. Looking at most of these initiatives, one cannot but conclude that the only concern of those governors is to remove almajirai from the streets and turn them into western educated ‘yan boko. To some of these governors it does not matter whether or not their people learn the Quran and Islamic knowledge; afterall Nigeria is a secular state and religion is a personal affair. Such politicians tend to ignore the fact that Islamic scholarship is part of our heritage and the purpose of governance is to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people. Huge sums of money is annually budgeted by our state Governments for a form of Education that their people refer to as boko (or fake). Our backwardness in western Education is largely because the bulk of the people are yet to accept it as Education as much as they accept Islamic Education. This explains why a leading politician became a subject of public mockery in the North because of his inability to recite the opening chapter of the Quran correctly during the electioneering compain that preceeded the last general elections. Although this politician was a qualified Architect with a track record of professional service, the people considered him ignorant regardless of his professional achievements. While the criticisms were going on, I used to tell the people around me that the problem of that politician was not peculiar to him. If our heavyweight Muslim politicians from the two major political parties were to be lined up and asked to make the same recitation, a lot of more surprises will be revealed.

Despite all these, our dear Northern Governors are yet to adopt an approach that will integrate formal and Islamic scholarship but will always descend on our Islamic schools in the name of banning street begging. The Islamic component in our conventional schools is Islamic Studies (IS or IRK). The IRK syllabus does not equip the student to learn his/her religion from the source. It is not uncommon for a child to score an A1 in IRK without being able to recite Qur’an properly.

The point here is that something need to be done to the existing curriculum in our public schools. Here, I suggest two additions.  First, is the Introduction of Arabic as a compulsory subject for Muslim children in our schools. The Arabic language will offer the child an opportunity to be able to read primary Islamic sources and to develop him/herself along that line. There is no problem with this since both WAEC and NECO have a syllabus for Arabic. Secondly, Quran should be introduced as a subject. Starting from primary schools or JSS I, a scheme can be developed in which each child should be able to learn a specific portion of the Qur’an each term until he/she completes the Quran (sauka not tahfeez) before completing senior secondary school. The students may not register the Quran for their SSCE but it can be made a condition for promotion to the next class as the child progresses in his/her studies. These measures, which can be further finetuned,  will remove ignorance of religion and give some level of assurance to the people that Government is not against Islamic scholarship.

The Quranic (almajiri) schools can be integrated in two ways. First, Qur’anic schools can be established with specialized curriculum that will include not only memorization but other aspects of Qur’anic Education like Tajweed, Ulumul Qur’an and Tafsir. Products of such schools should be certified and integrated into the mainstream educational system. Second, an arrangement should be worked out for those who want to send their children to the traditional Qur’anic school to provide for their needs. A means of certifying them should be devised. We should graduate from the incorrect practice that only those who go through the formal european-type of school system can carry a certificate. But by no means should uncontrolled begging the way we have it now be allowed to continue.  

Whereas many of us pity the condition in which handicapped beggers live and believe that the best way to accommodate them is to build rehabilitation centres for them where they will be given three square meals, acquire skills and live a more decent life, they do not see it as such. Majority of them will repel any attempt to confine them in what they see as prisons. Such a crisp lifestyle is not for our local people. When Rehabilitation centres are mentioned I always remember one Mallam Lawal. Mallam Lawal was a blind man who came to us in Jibia from one of the surrounding villages in the late 1970s. He was not married and his main source of living was begging. Since my father ran a Quranic school whose students begged for food it was easy to accomodate the likes of Mallam Lawal who was not a Quranic student anyway. Mallam Lawal will occassionally go to major cities and spend a few weeks of begging before coming back to us on his way to his village. He was always welcome and our house became his second home. One day, in one of those trips to Kano Mallam Lawal was ‘arrested’ and taken to a rehabilitation centre where he was given three square meals per day. Somehow he escaped and run back to Jibia. I remember how he was abusing Mallam Aminu Kano for incarcerating them and giving them koko in a cup. Because of his level of awareness, Mallam Lawal refused to be educated that Abubakar Rimi and not Aminu Kano was the Governor of Kano state.

The best way to address the problem of handicapped beggars is to send them back to their local communities. Those who are not Nigerians should be returned to their countries. At local level, a census of such people should be taken and family members should be made to take care of them. If there is any assistance from Government it should be made through the local government. Skill acquisition training can be organized at local government and ward level. This is very easy if traditional rulers are used. The emirate system in the north is such an organized and disciplined hierarchy that all that is needed is the cooperation of the Emir at the top. And for long our politicians have taken advantage of this well tested system mainly when they are seeking for votes.

If Mr president would listen, his priority in distributing the promised monthly N5000 should be the orphans, widows and the destitute and not just any unemployed. In Nigeria anybody who is not on monthly salary would claim to be unemployed and if care is not taken the scheme will fail from the start. National Directorate of Employment has a very good scheme for training and empowering youth and all that is needed is to expand and make it work.

Finally, let me emphasize that whether the suggestions I made here are adopted or not, the problem of begging is a Northern Nigerian problem and no single state Governor can solve it in isolation. The earlier the Northern Governors’ forum addresses it as a group the better for the region. In doing so, the traditional institution and Islamic scholars have an active role to play.