When President Muhammadu Buhari and the 36 state governors including the FCT unanimously agreed to shut borders and ban inter-state people and vehicular movements, the aim was clear – to curb further spread of the novel coronavirus [COVID-19] disease and allow states the luxury of tackling headlong security issues that may arise during this pandemic.
Only essential service providers with approved permits from appropriate authorities were allowed the right of movement across the country.
However, despite the subsisting ban, one of the regular, almost cliche kind of news stories during the lockdown is the arrest of trailer loads of young able bodied northerners (98 percent males) hiding under the ‘almajirai’ camouflage to sneak into the southern region of the country.
For clearer understanding of the terms, Wikipedia defines ‘Almajiranci’ as a system of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria. The male gender seeking Islam knowledge is called ‘Almajiri’ while the female gender is called ‘Almajira’, and the plural is ‘Almajirai’. The system encourages parents to leave parental responsibilities to the attached Islamic school. Colloquially, the word ‘Almajiri’ has expanded to refer to any young person who begs on the streets and does not attend secular school.
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Unlike the typical almajirai who are usually underage, malnourished and dependent on alms for survival, the pictures and videos from the scenes of interception across the southern states showed that those arrested so far are adults and people of sound mind.
Sometimes numbering over 500 in a 40-feet truck, these so-called almajirai who are old enough to have fathered several offspring according to the tradition in that part of the country move like they are on a mission. Those who are not bold enough to travel alone hide in between their cows to escape the prying eyes of the law enforcement agencies stationed at the various inter-state borders. Their movement is not restricted to a particular time of the day as arrests have been made in broad daylight and at night.
This worrisome development has further tensed the security situation in the country and also cast aspersions on the sincerity of the COVID-19 fight.
While it is safe to say that COVID-19 has permeated the entire length and breadth of the country (except for Kogi and Cross River States) with Lagos being epicentre followed distantly by Kano, one then wonders the aims of such illegal and deceitful movement at this sensitive time of our national lives.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) notes with concern that what started briefly as mere intra-deportation of underage almajirai by the northern governors as one of their responses to the COVID-19 fight in their region has now developed to a full blown mass intrusion to the South, a region in Nigeria alien to the Almajiranci system.
So far, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential ban on inter-state movements, full truck loads of these northerners have been intercepted and arrested in all the South South, South East and South West States.
Expulsion of almajirai to home states totally a northern affair
A major pointer to the strangeness of the sudden invasion of these all-men northerners to the South is that the ‘deportation’ and reception of almajirai to their home states has been a northern intergovernmental affair.
TNG reports that governors under the aegis of the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) had in April issued a statement where they “discussed the risk that Almajiri children are exposed to due to the virus. They unanimously decided to ban the Almajiri system and evacuate the children to their parents or states of origin.
“They vowed never to allow the system to persist any longer because of the social challenges associated with it including the perpetuation of poverty, illiteracy, insecurity and social disorder.”
Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu later confirmed the development saying: “Some states have already started implementing this decision by taking back such Almajiri children to their own states of origin. I do believe that all the states in the region will soon commence the repatriation and this is for the common good of the states and Nigeria in general.”
The Kano State Commissioner of Education Muhammad Sanusi-Kiru recently explained that the deportation was to safeguard public health and stem the spread of the pandemic.
Stressing that the exercise would be continuous, he said in a statement: “The Almajiri students will be evacuated to Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Gombe, Nasarawa States and the Niger Republic.”
However, the deported almajirai are decently transported in a convoy of government and security officials and handed over to the receiving governments in a civil manner. So far, none of the coordinated deportation processes which began in April involved use of trucks or other dangerously exposed, insecure means of transportation to deliver the almajirai to their home states as witnessed with the arrests so far.
It is however important to note that the monstrous virus has further claimed more territories during the deportation spree. Several of the children transported back and forth have tested positive for the virus, therefore questioning the timing of the eradication of the Almajiranci policy.
Timeline of arrests
While the movement trend of northerners into the South is not new, however, the planned, consistent and massive intrusion into the region particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (through any means possible) amid a subsisting ban on inter-state movement of people and vehicles cannot be waved off as normal.
In what has become a daily news item, TNG recalls the following intrusion and subsequent arrests of the ‘almajirai’ at various border points of southern states:
*May 13: Ugwuanyi intercepts 17 suspected herdsmen hidden in vehicle conveying cattle* http://thenewsguru.com/news/article/ugwuanyi-intercepts-17-suspected-herdsmen-hidden-in-vehicle-conveying-cattle/
*May 9: COVID-19: Task force intercepts, sends back trucks carrying “Almajiri” at C’River border* http://thenewsguru.com/news/nigeria-news/article/covid-19-task-force-intercepts-sends-back-trucks-carrying-almajiri-at-criver-border/
*May 9: Police intercept lorry of 200 Almajiris in Kwara* http://thenewsguru.com/news/nigeria-news/article/police-intercept-lorry-of-200-almajiris-in-kwara/
*May 6: [Video] Security intercepts men hiding in trucks, loaded with cows* http://thenewsguru.com/tngtv/article/video-security-intercepts-men-hiding-in-trucks-loaded-with-cows/
*May 5: Task force intercepts trailer load of humans tucked between goats in Delta [VIDEO/PHOTOS]* http://thenewsguru.com/features/niger-delta/article/task-force-intercepts-trailer-load-of-humans-tucked-between-goats-in-delta-video-photos/
*May 5: Lockdown: Wike arrests 14 persons hidden inside two trailers conveying cattle into Port Harcourt* http://thenewsguru.com/news/nigeria-news/article/lockdown-wike-arrests-14-persons-hidden-inside-two-trailers-conveying-cattle-into-port-harcourt/
*May 3: Police detain trailer load of passengers heading to Oyo from Zamfara* http://thenewsguru.com/news/nigeria-news/article/just-in-police-detain-trailer-load-of-passengers-heading-to-oyo-state-photo/
*April 30: COVID-19: Osun raises alarm over influx of northern youths hidden in trailers into State* http://thenewsguru.com/news/nigeria-news/article/covid-19-osun-raises-alarm-over-influx-of-northern-youths-hidden-in-trailers-into-state/
How intruders cross inter-state borders unhindered
It still remains a mystery yet to be solved, why Nigeria operates porous borders. At national and international levels, our borders are all porous and the officials stationed there are most times willing to compromise with few wards of naira notes.
The unhindered inter-state movements during a subsisting lockdown order couldn’t have been possible if the borders aren’t so porous and officials negligent and corrupt.
All the arrested intruders allude to how they easily ‘greased’ the palms of the officials at the borders. Most of the arrests made were either by the State Task Force on COVID-19 or the executive governor of the particular state.
A concerned citizen said to unravel the easy movement of these intruders, these security questions must be asked with verifiable answers. “Where were they (the intruders) coming from?
How did they pass the other cordons in the many States, in between, to get to the cape of the sea as Rivers State or Akwa Ibom or Cross River or Delta or Edo or Enugu, etc?
Who failed to do what he was supposed to do all the way from wherever they started the journey?
How had they been feeding as they journeyed?
Who was planned to receive them as they arrived their destinations?
However, in what seemed like a response to the questions above, one those arrested by Governor Wike in Rivers last week, Ahmed Aliyu said they were contracted from Adamawa State to bring cattle to one Alhaji at the new slaughter in Oyigbo. He said that he thought that the lockdown will start by 10pm. He informed that the moved into the state after they bribed security personnel with N1500.
Those arrested so far are not almajiris, they are terrorists on a deadly mission – Concerned Nigerians
Nigerians, particularly of the southern extract have expressed their unreserved concerns (online and offline) over what they term a likely security crisis that may bedevil the region if the aim behind the calculated and massive intrusion of the northern youths is not uncovered and thwarted.
Ex-Niger Delta militant, Asari Dokubo in a video warned of the imminent danger inherent in the forceful encroachment of the northerners down South. According to him, the movement is questionable and smells of ulterior motives, He advised governors, ministers, lawmakers and other leaders in the region to plan a counter-strategy before it is too late.
A prominent South South figure who does not want his name in print also expressed his mind thus: “Those trailer/container loads may not even be almajiris. They may be well trained fighters of the extremist Boko Haram.
What a window of opportunity for them to come down en masse! The annihilation has been long planned out.
No doubt, the governors strutting about, shouting and gesticulating under the sun, in public shows of efforts at stopping the spread of Coronavirus may never have given it a thought. They sincerely believe they are working hard, and very hard, to stop the spread of Covid-19.
But what has presented ought to be seen to be different. Few weeks ago, Boko Haram was quoted as saying that it would strike in the South-south and South East. Many may have considered it preposterous. But what do they know. Now, Boko Haram has been largely walloped in the Chad region due to the efficiency of the Chadian army. They must find bases, and they may have rolled down south.
And the governors have been caught pants down.
The evidence is there. They just intercept lorries or trailers and ask them to return to where they came from. Matter closed! Really? In a country which has been held by the throat by a terrorist organisation since 2009? Strange!
Even our much talked about special intelligence units? They all bought the idea that these were almajiris? Nobody followed them to find out if they actually moved a few metres away from the last point the governor and his clean-shaven officials could see?
And for God’s sake, almajiris ought to be kids or teenagers. Those in view are spirtely young men, some quite smart to pass any entry physical test of any army. Some are kitted with clean cans and backpacks. There was no single forlorn look on the face of any of these i observed. They looked poised and happy like tourists.
The governors are simply being emotional. They ought to know. Those being moved down are not almajirtis. They are young men on a mission.”
Popular columnist and journalist, Lasisi Olagunju in an article titled ‘Almajirai’s expedition to the South’ and published on May 11 in the Tribune Newspapers said: ‘COVID-19 may be composing a requiem for Nigeria. Or do you sincerely think the country would be the same again if the North’s unhealthy conducts explode in unimaginable deaths as is gradually evolving before our very eyes? The South’s zest for life or what the French call joie de vivre, won’t let them allow the North infect them with suicidal foolishness. If the present resistance to infiltration of the South by the almajirai is sustained and the push from the North is unceasing, what do you think will be the result, ultimately? A new traditional ruler was enthroned somewhere in Borno State a few days ago, we saw how suicidal the crowd behaved. Why is it difficult for the far North to live in the 21st century like the rest of humanity? That part of Nigeria cannot continue to treat civilized protocols of safety in a pandemic with disgust and still want to share the Nigerian room with people who don’t want to die. The North needs be told clearly that suicide is not a native of southern Nigeria.
Recent spikes in coronavirus cases are traced to the almajirai moving across the country. The South is aghast; the North is unbothered. And we are in the same country.
The almajiri system is at the core of northern Nigeria’s politics of national domination. It is a key component of the North’s “infrastructure of violence.” Almajirai are the region’s well-nurtured, purpose-grown, ever ready troops, useful at all desperate times – elections, censuses, riots. Now, they are suddenly made a major vector of this bad season. That northern governors see the almajirai as a problem to be solved with COVID-19 is suspect. When you look into the angry eyes of those street boys, you see ghostly destinies frozen by accidents of their geography and birth. The almajirai we see regularly are predominantly male. Where are the girls? The ones not killed by random diseases have their destinies ruptured by the rape of child- marriage. Those who created them as problems are now pushing them South through unimaginable channels. They are daily hidden and daily discovered in unseemly, unlikely enclosures. Some under sacks of beans, some in millet and onion bags; some in suffocating containers and inside empty petrol tankers. They are dispersing them everywhere but nobody wants them anywhere near; no one, not even those who created and raised them to be street children forever. The most unwanted people in Nigeria of today are the almajirai — used, abused and now unleashed to spread viruses. And they are doing it very well; one of the COVID-19 patients who escaped quarantine in Oyo State last week was a 10-year old almajiri. He is still at large’.
Their consistent, distributive movement across South sign of hidden, dangerous agenda – Security experts
Meanwhile, some security experts who spoke exclusively with TNG said a study of the movements since the trend became noticeable showed that the immigrants were consistent and made deliberate journey to cover the all the southern states. They noted that beyond the popular fear of deliberate spread of the virus in the region by the intruders, a much more dangerous motive maybe unlocking sooner than expected if governors and other authoritative people do not act fast.
Bernad Dickson has been in the security business for decades. Speaking on the northern youths’ invasion into the South and the looming danger, he said: “You cannot take this for a coincidence. A careful examination of it all shows they have made a stop at virtually all the Southern states. That tells you that there is a deliberate attempt at causing coordinated chaos across the South at an agreed time. This is beyond the casual thought that they are coming to spread the virus. It is beyond that. People have recovered from the virus. But they may wreak a bigger havoc than the coronavirus or any other virus for that matter can. The governors or whoever is in charge of the arrests should stop the foolish trend of just turning the intruders back. They should be interrogated and made to give information that can help avert the looming crisis in their region.
One thing that we have come to establish as security experts is that terrorists are not afraid to die. They are ready to offer their lives in the course of carrying out whatever evil assignments they are commissioned to do. Yes, sniffing out information from them might be difficult because most times they have sworn allegiance to their benefactors but some will confess the sinister motives upon cajoling, torturing and ‘de-brainwashing’ albeit all done as professionally as possible.”