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.

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT, ALHAJI MUHAMMADU BUHARI

Your Excellency Sir

Let me start by congratulating you on your well-deserved victory. It is Allah that gives and takes everything including power. He has given it to you. We pray to Him to guide you in the onerous task of restoring the lost values of our country.

You are taking over when the dust is beginning to settle. Boko Haram are on the run. For six years, this group of people has unleashed mayhem on Nigeria, or at least Northern Nigeria. Thousands of people have been killed in cold blood; thousands of others have been displaced. Yet, several thousands of women, girls and boys have been taken as captives. Ordinary Nigerians have found it difficult to figure out the sponsors of Boko Haram due to the nature of their victims who cut across all segments and strata of the Nigerian society. Several conspiracy theories have been expressed, many of which are laughable. Some believe it is the Northern elders who created Boko Haram in order to make the country ‘ungovernable’ for Jonathan. According to another school of thought it is the Igbo who have been exploring ways to launch revenge against the North for what Northerners did to them during the Nigerian civil war. Some say it is you, others say it is Jonathan. There are a few other theories.

Whether or not any, some or all of these theories are correct or incorrect, it is well known that the original members of the group known as Boko Haram or Jama’atu Ahlissunnah Lidda’wati wal Jihad as they call themselves were students of one Muhammadu Yusuf who lived and preached in Maidugri until his death in the hand of the Nigerian Police in 2009. It is also well known that the final episode that led to confrontation between his disciples and security forces was the refusal of his followers to obey simple driving rules like the wearing of helmets by motorcyclists.

However, my reason for writing you this letter is not Boko Haram. It is something worse than Boko Haram. Yes worse. It is a sect more dreadful than Boko Haram that has established itself in all strata of Muslim Ummah in Nigeria. They are in the civil service. They are in business. Their members have deliberately come close to several unsuspecting politicians of note. It is Shia.

As a Muslim, you don’t need someone to tell you about Shia. But for the benefit of those who do not know, I would say the little they need to know. Shia is about the oldest sect in Islam. After the death of Muhammad (peace be upon him) who was both a messenger of Allah and a political leader, the Islamic faith continued to grow under the rightly guided Caliphs. It was during this period that the present day Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Palestine came under the control of Islam. However, the Jews who were expelled from the city of Madina by the Holy prophet because of their treachery and were watching these developments with agony decided to react by sponsoring some of them to pronounce Islam in order to have the license to cause confusion among Muslims. It was these ‘converts’ under the leadership of one Abdullah bn Saba that succeeded in sponsoring the rebellion against the third Caliph, Othman. They first articulated his shortcomings, amplified and disseminated them around the Caliphate. Thereafter they called for his resignation; when he refused to resign they killed him. The Muslim Ummah chose Ali, a cousin of the Holy Prophet to lead them after Othman, but these very people, who now called themselves Shiat Ali (the sect of Ali) frustrated his efforts to track and punish the killers of Othman. They now made Shia a symbol of love for Ali and other relations of the prophet and hatred for the other caliphs and the rest of the prophet’s companions whom they claimed betrayed the trust of the prophet.

Shia was embraced by Persians because they saw it as an opportunity to distort a religion that destroyed their kingdom and culture. After the Iranian revolution which was led by Shiite scholars, the government of Iran set an agenda to spread Shia to other countries. In Nigeria, this task was to be carried out by one Ibrahim Yakub Elzakzaky. The man Elzakzaky devised several strategies to achieve his mission. First, he banked on the gullibility of some Muslim youth who could easily be misled by slogans like ‘Islamic revolution’, ‘establishment of Islamic state’, ‘total change’, etc. His group, who initially tagged themselves as Muslim brothers (meaning, of course, that other Muslims are not their brothers) organized lectures and several demonstrations in their first phase. In those days in the 1980s he told everyone that he was not a Shiite, his group was not out to promote Shia and that what they wanted was Islam and nothing else. The other methods used by Elzakzaky to introduce Shia to his followers were the same methods that Shiites have used over their long history. One of them is women. Shiites legalize temporary marriage. In Shia it is possible to marry a woman for two hours. Many people find it difficult to understand why young men and women who are supposed to be in school would trek from cities like Kano, Gusau and Katsina to Zaria, spending nights along the way in order to listen to Elzakzaky. This is the secret. It is an open one because the Shiites do not deny they do it. What they may deny is wife swapping, which many people accuse them of doing.

There is plenty more on Shiites and their doctrine. What, however, would be of major concern to your Government is their notoriety in dealing with Government and fellow Nigerians. Way back in the 1990s, the Shiites constituted a major threat to the public in Kaduna state. For a period, any Islamic preacher who dared to criticize Ibrahim Elzakzaky or Ayatullahi Khomaini in his preaching was attacked and beaten in his house in the presence of his wife and children. Infuriated by their actions, the Government of Col. Hameed Ali staged a clampdown on them and most of their leaders were arrested and prosecuted. This made them to change their strategy for a while.

The main activities of Shiites are demonstrations which they organize on specific occasions like the Quds and Ashura days. During these demonstrations, they block main roads in cities across the North and intimidate the public including the Police whose permission they do not seek. Last year, this type of event led to a clash between the Army and the sect members leading to the death of several people including three children of Mallam Ibrahim Elzakzaky. In addition, these heretics organize an annual pilgrimage to Zaria for which they trek in large groups from certain points to go and meet their leader. In the process of this long trek, they block major highways and create a lot of havoc for travelers. This is watched by the security agents and nothing is done to stop it.

Like the Boko Haram of Muhammadu Yusuf, the Shiites have no regard for any rule, no matter how harmless it is. For example, after a series of bombings in Kano metropolis, the Government of Kano state banned riding motorcycles after six o clock in the evening and carrying passengers on same. The public complied and defaulters were openly arrested and punished. The only group of people that did not comply were the Shiites. Even when the implementation of the ban was at its peak they rode motorcycles in the night on major roads in Kano sometimes carrying more than one passenger and none of them would be arrested. A friend of mine once stopped and asked the Police why they were not arresting Shiites. The answer was, ‘Ai su yan kungiya ne’, meaning ‘they are members of a group’. The Police was obviously afraid of triggering another crisis, but at the same time giving the impression that some people are above the law.

The Shiites are well connected. Since most of their leaders including Mallam Ibrahim Elzakzaky himself are graduates, it has been easy to fix themselves in all sectors of the economy. Although they publicly condemn the Nigerian political system and do not participate in partisan politics, the group may have been enjoying the support of certain politicians. For example, a former civilian governor of one of the Northern states patronized a Civil Engineering firm controlled by professionals belonging to this group. The group activities were allegedly sponsored by proceeds of the many contracts he awarded to them in addition to whatever little might come from Iran and other wealthy members. Ordinarily there is nothing wrong in that since they are also Nigerians, but the fact that some of those professionals involved were dismissed from public service for alleged breach of peace raised doubts about the action of that governor.

Mallam Ibrahim Elzakzaky lives in affluence even when most of his followers live in abject poverty. Added to these is the large number of guards that accompany him wherever he is going. These guards who are mainly unemployed youth also man illegal checkpoints on roads leading to his house in the Gyallesu quarters of Zaria. In addition to open display of weapons, these guards subject people living in the area, their families and visitors to constant harassments. Even after registering series of complaints to the police and Zaria emirate, nothing has been done to come to the rescue of these innocent Nigerians. Only last week, there was a widely reported clash between Shiite guards and residents of Gyallesu that claimed a number of lives. Yet, there was no response from the Government.

My advice for your Excellency is this. If your promise to tackle insecurity is to be a reality you must cut Shiites down to size. To do that effectively you have to look around you and make sure that no member of this group occupies an important position in your Government. It would be a monumental scandal if Nigerians come to realize that a member of such a lawless group is very close to you and/or holding a key position in your Government. This is regardless of the intellectual prowess of the person. One would then wonder what would be the reaction of your Government when there is a clash between security forces and members of this group. The millions of Nigerians that voted for you do not include Shiites. Nigerian Shiites do not vote unless they engage in taqiyya which is a kind of hypocrisy allowed in their religion whereby a person can pretend to be what he/she is not and act accordingly in order to achieve a goal. Secondly, no member of the public including politicians, traditional or religious leaders must be allowed to use his followers to harass the public. If Mallam Ibrahim Elzakzaky or any other leader wants additional security for himself he should be allowed to employ trained private guards who would not harass his neighbours. Finally, there should be no double standard in dealing with different groups.

I wish I had a direct access to you to give you this advice without making it public. Although I know a few people around you, I am not quite sure that a message sent through them would get to you at this time. And since office-seeking Nigerians have been sending in their CVs, any document dropped in your office, no matter its contents is very likely going to be treated as another CV in disguise.

I wish you Allah’s guidance.