Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has called for the integration of Almajiri children in Northern Nigerian into Western education system.
Jonathan, who made the call in Abuja on Tuesday at the International Conference Centre (ICC), said many of the Almajiri children have mental capacity to become professionals in various fields if given the opportunity.
He got an ally in Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, who admitted the Almajiri as a big problem to the North.
According to him, the social problems associated with Almajiri cannot be enumerated, saying they held foundation and recruitment base for Boko Haram.
“There is no doubt Boko Haram succeeded in Nigeria because they have foundation, a recruitment base in the Almajiri, who are hugely indoctrinated,”Ganduje said.
Stating that education drives his leadership philosophy, Jonathan said this passion informed the establishment of Almajiri schools across the states in the north by his administration.
He said: “We need to elevate the Almajiri from their present level. If we leave them the way they are, it’s going to cause a lot of problems for us.
“Some of them need to be exposed to Western education because as a nation, you will medical doctors, neurosurgeons, molecular biologists, open heart surgeons and what have you.
“Some of them have the brains to do all this but without exposing them to western education, we can’t harvest the gains.”
The former president charged leaders to define their leadership philosophy, saying that it was not in his character to rate any leader by the infrastructure they build while in office.
