By Elempe Dele
I read with condescending awe a statement credited to Mohammed Rabi’u Kwakwanso, a two term governor of Kano State, a Minister for Defence and later became a Senator under the All Progressive Congress, APC.
“These children, who are clearly malnourished and in need of medical attention, have been subjected to a cruel experience when they should be in school…He added, “As leaders, it is our duty to protect the most vulnerable among us, particularly children, women, the elderly, and the needy. The
government should not be at the forefront of this violation.” Citing the Child Rights Act of 2003, he noted, “Section 11 protects the dignity of every child and shields them from any physical, mental, or emotional injury, abuse, neglect, or maltreatment.”
I am not a lawyer, I will not go into the legal details of the processes that Kwankwanso and other seem to be talking loudly about concerning the arraignment of the unfortunate minors, however, my focus would be about the kind of society that fabricated, mass-produced and assembled these minors.
Without being glib, did and has Kwankwaso, the very popular former Kano State governor, who has a very large following in Kwankwansiya, used his vast influence to crush the Almajiri(Colloquially, the term has expanded to refer to any young person who begs on the streets and does not attend secular school) concept that produced these kinds of minor? As the then Minister of Defence, was he not aware of the inherent defence danger these kinds of minors eventually pose to any state? Did he ever sponsor a bill while in the Senate addressing the social issues associated with the concept that ought to be outlawed?
Just like most exhibitionists and populists that look at this very burning national issue from very tiny prisms, Kwankwaso should not be seen or heard concerning the vices associated with the millions of minors the northern poor churn out daily because just like every of their political elites, they keep calm over the festering miasma for political reasons. They register these minors to vote enmass, they are used for protests for peanuts and they are ready made tools for chaos.
Just like Kwankwaso, how many of those who are trending with the arraignment of these minors condemned their illegal actions during what ought to be peaceful protests? We saw videos where these minors burnt down police stations, looted items in public institutions, and we heard news of police officers that were killed in the line of duty – there is no need talking about hoisting foreign flags. In spite of all these, the arrays of modern day ultra moralist touch-bearers did not find their sonorious voices to condemn these violent acts because it fits into the mould of their aspirations – burn down the state, make it ungovernable, chant sieg hiel and raise Russian flags for possible annexation.
Without mincing words, these minors are products of dysfunctional societies and communities starting from the family. They are never educated, they are never well managed at home, they are sent away at very early age to care for themselves any way they can…they are soaked from early ages in vices and grow in it, yet we all stand akimbo and allow the process of their destruction to continue without retrospecting that they will come back later to haunt the society, us. They grow to become willing recruits of Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers, mass murderers, arsonists, looters…just name all the violent crimes in your mind that has kept the nation in its delinquent state today.
A close friend interrupted my thought with a sarcastic comment while I was writing this article. He said the kids should be prosecuted since they bruised the ego of the president the children protested against…Well, one cannot pretend to note that the issue is a very serious one that demands empathy from every parent, however, gleaning the surface of the matter seems to me very disingenous. We need to look into the root cause of the problem where several minors will take to the streets to administer mayhem that even led to deaths of police officers. Did anyone noticed there was no child of the rich and influential amongs them? Why? How can they be when they are all esconced in safe and cosy apartments in America and Europe to studying so that they can come back in less than a decade from now to rule over these ever constant minors who will then still be protesting violently like they did in the aftermath of the 1966 coup.
We cannot be blindfolded to sentimental submissions that no crime was allegedly committed. I do not share in such herd-acceptance sentiment. If we had fellowshiped in the outrage when the said protest went violent, we would have been heard and seen being morally conductive in disagreeing with the government concerning the prosecution of the suspects. But for political reasons, we traded off our moral rectitude while serious and heinous crimes were being effected in our very eyes.
We must note that the minors were not protesting against economic underdevelopment in the real sense. They were not protesting against bad governance in any way. They were not protesting or fighting for human capital development. If they were, their Local Government Areas, LGAs and States would have been the first ports of calls. Rather, they were arbitary casualties of faulty systems starting from the home, so crimes like these easily pull them to its core. At least we can all dichotomize between protest and violent crimes. In my state, Edo, for example, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, allegedly reported that out of N24.6 billion that was recently deposited into the government’s account, N14 billion was sniffed off like cocaine within just one week. The Edo State minors, the suffering minors, who daily grapple with the challenges of their public education that have been destroyed did not march to the homes of those involved, signatories, in this allege pilfering to murder them in their cribs. The minors, who face both economic and security challenges in the state did not amend themselves as willing tools towards the civil servant building to loot and cart away items there. They are not even questioning the unprecedented display of disregard for fiscal responsibility where the government has sought and received approval for three supplementary budgets since January 2024. Nor have they sort audience with the World Bank to ask the government to explain how the $75 million loan for education was spent. Just like the compromising elites who have been silent over these revelations for political reasons, the minors have been law-abidding. They have been petitioning the EFCC as civilized citizens on what they suspect is going on with their commonwealth.
Often times, I send my twelve year old son videos of criminals that are being disgraced or being burnt so that he can have a pitiable nulge. I try to talk to him about the consequences of crimes, the route that fast lanes leads to and the total destruction of criminals in our savage society. Most of these minors, these suspects have no such homes where such moralities are traded. They live within the world they can formulate for themselves. They do not as much know their rights from their lefts. They mostly have no moral directions. They are waifs and strays – vagabonds, outlaws and eventually become bandits. Even when they go to commit crimes, they add no candour or humanity to it. They kill kidnapped victims after collecting ransoms. They rape victims after robbing them of their possessions…they cannot rationalize nor even justify anything…they are products of a dysfunctional society unfortunately.
It is on this basis that I recommend the Federal Government to address the issue in a more empathic and encompassing way. There is no need for the minors to be prosecuted as their accomplices who are of age. Rather, they must be rehabililated away from crimes. The issue of religious inspired underdevelopment must be addressed holistically. Bills must be deliberately sponsored to address the issue of Almajiri or any of such concepts anywhere in the country. Until these are done, there are thousands, if not millions, of ready-made recruits who are willing to join the army of the anarchists, arsonists, murderers and looters. They will come another day, and those elites who will not be affected, they will again be silent – burn down the State!
