The group, who also called for medium-term enlightenment plan for building consensus with actors and benefactors, further implored the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commission to work with the affected country to initiate and amend policies that would address the regional implication of ungoverned borders as evidence suggests that migration accounts for a large number of the street begging population in places like Borno State where an estimated one million Almajiri reside.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja to mark Almajiri Child Rights Day, one of the team leaders, Comrade Mohammed Sabo Keana, said the plight of millions of Almajiri children might currently be a Nigerian problem but has potentially grave consequences for all Nigerians.
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In marking the first Almajiri Child Rights Day in Nigeria, Comrade Keana said the group would engage critical stakeholders, especially actors and benefactors, civil society, government at all levels, as well as the local and international community towards developing and implementing policy that offers a long-term solution for returning dignity to the life of the Almajiri child.
He said that was why the group came together as concerned Nigerians, driven by a conviction that just like every other Nigerian, the Almajiri child has the potential to be great and should have a fighting chance in life.
He further appealed that: “the United Nations and our friends across the international community to add their voices to the plight of the Almajiri child, especially as addressing the rights to education, nutrition, healthcare, sanitation and decent work of the over 10 million Almajiri children is critical to achieving the SDGs in Nigeria.”
Comrade Keana lamented that the current state of the Almajiri child portends a real and existential threat that if left unchecked, could have a profound consequence on Nigeria.
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