Northern Nigeria: Today's Solutions for Tomorrow's problems.

Boko Haram is chickens coming home to roost. Bandits, kidnappers, and herder-killers are no exceptions. A child growing up should have a home, a government that cares, and the opportunity to make a choice about what to make of every religious doctrine contrary to the arrested development phenomenon within the Muslim faith in the northern part of the country. 

There are Muslims within the Yoruba race; most of them are well-educated, while others are reasonably trained in modern and conventional crafts. The same is true of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Indonesia, and Iran, just to name a few countries. So, why is or must Northern Nigeria be an exemption? It's about the opportunity gap and the leadership philosophy, specifically, on the educational agenda of those trusted with government power and responsibilities in the northern region. 

The educational policy selfishly designed in the 70s to frustrate poor southern families who couldn't afford school fees at the time to bridge the educational gap between the North and the South is at the core of our nationwide insecurity today. Because it boomeranged wholeheartedly. It succeeded in creating generations of uneducated, easily manipulated religious extremists - a cesspool of Boko Haram adherents, and a recruitment reservoir for bandits, kidnappers, and killer-herders. 

The way forward for sustainable peace and security is a coherent national policy on education at the elementary and secondary school levels, with the full support of the federal government. It is similar to what Action Groups and the Unity Party of Nigeria did in the Old Western Region in the First and Second civilian administrations. It was the same populist policy adopted in Kano State by the late Abubakar Rimi in the Second Republic – a grassroots popular educational initiative that won his administration a UNESCO Award. 

No matter the level of our understanding of the political, educational, and religious situation in the north, compulsory and free education for all children of school-going age from Elementary School to Grammar School level is the best way to go - it will go a long way in shaping the future of these abandoned children and how they embrace religious doctrine and distorted teaching. Otherwise, in ten and fifteen years, we will still be talking about the almajiri culture and whether is an abnormality or deserving of continuity.  

 THE INTEGRATIVE MODEL

Education is a right, and it is the best investment in the life of a child. Religion is a choice and should be treated that way. In the northern region, the majority of the children have grown up to believe that religion, and not education, is a fundamental right; the way, the truth, and the only avenue to emancipation or salvation. And that is wrong.

A child capable of imbibing and reciting entire Quranic verses verbatim is capable of solving Quadratic Equations in a Mathematics class if he or she has the opportunity to take the class.  No matter how we construe the illiteracy problems, it’s all about efforts and the leadership that you have and what their views are on education, equal rights, and egalitarianism. And we know that feudalism harbours no traces of egalitarianism or equal rights and justice. 

Also, the Quran does not forbid the integration or teaching of the English Language, Arithmetic, Social Studies, and Sciences simultaneously with Islamic studies. Christian Missionaries in the Eastern Region and the Western Region - before and after our independence - perfected the integration approach successfully. It encompasses the Bible on the right hand, then English, Mathematics, History, Civic, Agriculture, and Social Sciences on the left hand. That's what integration is about. Even though they are missionary schools, the curriculum and tutoring are encompassing and not Biblical per se.  

The same can be replicated in the Northern region concerning religious studies side by side with western or popular education. The truth is you cannot force these children and their parents to send their wards to popular schools, but you can inculcate popular subjects or courses into their curriculum at the Islamic Learning Centers. This model is option B, applicable if the compulsory approach suffers resistance. 

In that case, the government will have to negotiate the modalities with the Imams and Sheiks who are managing those institutions. This paper is not by any means, arguing for the elimination of Islamic Schools. Rather, the government should work hand in hand with the proprietors of the Islamic Schools; upgrade the physical facilities and inculcate regular subjects or courses into their curriculum by bringing in additional teachers.

It is not too late to give it a try in the North and rescue these children from the stranglehold of feudal teaching that turned innocent souls into a carrier of IEDs and enemies of civilization. It's about the opportunity gap and accessibility factors. The children are helpless, but the parents and the government officials are not. 

We must not give up on educating these children because the informed citizenry is the most potent and decisive weapon against false beliefs and extorted indoctrination. No one would buy into the unproven belief in the North that Western education is forbidden if regular education was part of his or her adolescence.

ECONOMIC ARGUMENTS

There must be a distinction to be made between religious purity and survival instinct through purposeful engagement in the national economy. God and Allah help those who help themselves. That is a fact and not just a saying. Our Islamic scholars, teachers, and leaders should be willing to embrace changes and accept the fact that religious freedom is most ennobling when combined with economic and social emancipation.

Therefore,  the first step in bridging the educational gap between the Northern region and Southern region of Nigeria, with a view to eliminating poverty of ideas and indolent is to rein in most of the State Governors and influential political leaders from the Northern region to jettison their age-old feudal philosophy that perpetuates caste system and the underlying philosophy of Boko Haram. 

The current helplessness of the less privileged in the North is disgraceful and cannot be sustained for too long. Therefore, government intervention academically at the very early stage in the lives of the affected children should be encouraged. It will go a long way in shaping their perception and understanding of religion, its social and moral impacts, and the extent of its limitations in the context of economics – the creation, distribution, and consumption of wealth.

Alex Aidaghese is a Lawyer and Managing Partner at 

Alex & Partners and Consultancy, based in Abuja.