Abstract
The culture of children begging for alms in Northern Nigeria is long-established and is propelled by poverty, ‘parentlessness’, the absence of parental care and, most importantly, the Islamic doctrines of ‘giving’ to children who are made to seek for qur’anic education outside their parents’ homes. The prevalence of these ‘almajirai’ in Northern Nigeria has begun to create new security dimensions as a result of their mobility given the context of their recruitment into terrorist sects such as Boko Haram and ISWAP. Almajirai have also indulged in drug addiction, street pickpocketing, and other urban crimes. Their mobility has constituted threats for transmission of dangerous communicable diseases such as Corona Virus-19 or what is known as COVID-19. This paper examines the non-military security dimensions associated with the mobility of wandering children beggars or what are often regarded as the Almajiris in Nigeria’s northern states. It examines the level of security threat that the Almajirai pose to the Nigerian state and what implications their mobility has for Nigeria’s internal security, especially in the age of international migration and globalisation. Further, the article analyses the dynamic ways in which the mobility of the Almajiris has threatened the security of the neighbouring states of Chad and Niger as well as West Africa’s regional security in general given its proximity and socio-cultural linkages. The paper employed secondary sources of data collection. It concludes that the mobility of Almajirai poses serious internal security challenges for Nigeria as it serves as a fertile ground for terrorist breeding and radicalization. Disease contraction and transmission, urban crimes such as car-hijacking tactics, pickpocketing, and criminal surveillance of potential innocent targets have become associated with their mobility; hence, regional security is endangered as a result of their increasing crossing of the loosely guarded Nigerian border to the Lake Chad area and West Africa.
Highlights
The sovereign composition of the Nigerian states is made up of thirty-six (36) constitutionally recognized states
Hoechner (2018), in her counter-misrepresentation of whom an almajiri is, submits something contrary to the stereotypical representation of scruffy-looking boys littering the street with dirty clothes and begging bowls who were sent out to grasp an Islamic education or qur’anic depth away from the comfort of their homes. She notes that almajirai are children who have taken on the burden of becoming ‘resourceful members of society in the light of the morals and religious principles of northern Nigeria (Hoechner, 2018)
The paper examined the nature of almajirai mobility in Nigeria
Summary
The sovereign composition of the Nigerian states is made up of thirty-six (36) constitutionally recognized states. This includes an introduction and a sub-section detailing the conceptual clarifications of almajiris, mobility and security This is closely followed by an overview of the system, almajiranci, in northern Nigeria. The study found out that almajirai’s mobility has evolved a dynamic non-military security threats to Nigeria and regional states. It has opened up a blister of ethnic-tensions and politics of ethnic stereotyping. Almajirai have evolved into urban criminalssuch as pick pocketers, car-hijackers, criminal surveillance Their vulnerability has endeared them into kidnapped targets and terrorist recruits especially for ISWAP and Boko Haram with implications for regional security architecture. Their mobility has become attached with deadly contraction and transmission of communicable diseases such as COVID-19.The results section of the study is closely followed by a final section devoted to the conclusion of the study
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