{"id":127907,"date":"2026-06-24T17:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=127907"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T16:37:20","slug":"northern-governors-seek-end-almajiri-system-child-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/northern-governors-seek-end-almajiri-system-child-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Governors Seek End Almajiri System, Child Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Godswill Michael<\/strong><\/p>\n

Northern governors have intensified efforts to tackle the region’s deepening education and social challenges, calling for legislation to abolish the Almajiri system and end child marriage across the country.<\/p>\n

The move was announced on Wednesday at the Northern Nigeria Human Capital Development Summit in Abuja, where political leaders, traditional rulers and development stakeholders gathered to discuss strategies for reversing poor human development indicators in the region.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the summit, themed\u00a0\u201cReversing the Decline, Unleashing Potential for Northern Nigeria,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Chairman of the Northern Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NNGF), represented by Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule, said northern leaders must confront practices that continue to fuel poverty, insecurity and educational deprivation.<\/p>\n

The summit was organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in collaboration with the Northern Nigeria Governors’ Forum.<\/p>\n

Sule disclosed that the forum would engage governors, traditional rulers and federal authorities to sponsor legislation before the National Assembly seeking the abolition of the Almajiri system nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Northern Governors Forum, Nigerian Governors Forum, traditional rulers and some of them from the federal come together and propose a bill to the National Assembly to terminate it in the entire Nigeria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The governor recalled efforts by northern states to address the issue during the COVID-19 pandemic, when authorities sought to return Almajiri children to their states of origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen COVID came, we said now we have an opportunity. Let us get all those concerned. Let every state come with buses and pick them up and identify the Almajiris in their state and take them back to their various states,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, Nasarawa State alone had more than 200,000 Almajiri children at the time.<\/p>\n

Sule linked the practice to the worsening education crisis in the region, revealing that Nasarawa currently has about 413,000 out-of-school children.<\/p>\n

He noted that northern Nigeria accounts for about 15 million of Nigeria’s estimated 18 million out-of-school children, describing the figure as \u201ca major problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor argued that children who seek Quranic education outside their home states could receive the same instruction closer to their families while remaining within formal educational structures.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Almajiri system, Sule called for decisive action against child marriage, dismissing attempts to justify the practice on religious grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said that during the life of Prophet Muhammad, he married Fatima at the age of 14, but I said, are you Prophet Muhammad? So since you are not a prophet, please wait. Don’t marry Fatima,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He urged northern leaders to confront difficult realities and speak frankly about issues affecting the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust each other and tell each other the truth,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In his presentation, the Director-General of the Northern Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Ezekiel Gomos, unveiled a set of commitments aimed at accelerating human capital development across the region.<\/p>\n

According to him, governors have pledged to prioritise school enrolment and retention, empower women and girls, strengthen healthcare systems, equip young people with employable skills and improve governance and accountability mechanisms.<\/p>\n

He disclosed that states would be assessed annually and ranked based on their performance in implementing the agreed commitments.<\/p>\n

Also speaking, the Director-General of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Abubakar Umar Gambo, said the summit was convened in response to the region’s persistently poor human development indicators.<\/p>\n

He cited the high number of out-of-school children, low literacy levels\u2014particularly among girls\u2014widespread poverty and poor health outcomes as major concerns requiring urgent intervention.<\/p>\n

Gambo warned that failure to address the challenges would further deepen insecurity, unemployment and socio-economic disparities across the region.<\/p>\n

Representing Vice President Kashim Shettima, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, said northern Nigeria had borne the consequences of decades of inadequate investment in human capital.<\/p>\n

Quoting the Vice President, he said: \u201cThere is no part of this country that has paid the price for the inadequacy of human capital as much as northern Nigeria,\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged governors to take greater responsibility for improving education, healthcare and skills development within their respective states.<\/p>\n

At the end of the summit, participants adopted a framework aligned with the Federal Government’s Human Capital Development 2.0 Strategy, with a focus on health, education, livelihoods and skills acquisition.<\/p>\n

The framework also emphasises stronger collaboration among governments, traditional institutions, civil society organisations and development partners to drive sustainable development outcomes across the region.<\/p>\n

The Almajiri system, which has existed for centuries in northern Nigeria, traditionally involves children leaving their homes to study under Islamic scholars. However, concerns have grown over the years that the system has evolved in many areas into one that exposes children to street begging, exploitation and exclusion from formal education.<\/p>\n

Northern Nigeria continues to record the country’s highest number of out-of-school children and some of the highest rates of child marriage, challenges widely linked to poverty, poor health outcomes, low educational attainment and insecurity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Godswill Michael Northern governors have intensified efforts to tackle the region’s deepening education and social challenges, calling for legislation to abolish the Almajiri system and end child marriage across…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNorthern Governors Seek End Almajiri System, Child Marriage - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/northern-governors-seek-end-almajiri-system-child-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northern Governors Seek End Almajiri System, Child Marriage - 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