Almajirci: How to stop the detonation of Nigeria’s next time bomb

By Faruk Ahmed

On March 16, 2026, a suicide bomber detonated in Maiduguri’s Post Office area. The blast killed dozens. Among the dead were four young boys – Almajirai – who had gone out to beg for their daily meal.

Their teacher, Ibrahim Goni, wept on Trust TV: “I have seven of them. They all went out that day. Three returned home. Four didn't. We found their bodies in the teaching hospital. I wasn't myself for days.”

He had mentored those children for years. They lived in his household. He fed them, taught them the Qur’an, and sent them to the streets with plastic bowls. That day, they walked into hell.

This is not just a story of poverty. It is a story of radicalisation waiting to happen.

 

The bloody roots

The connection between the Almajiri system and violent extremism is not accidental. It is historical.

Muhammad Marwa, known as Maitatsine, was a preacher who raged against radios, watches, bicycles, and the Nigerian state. He attracted a following of young, unemployed migrants – many of them Almajirai – who had been cast out by society. In December 1980, his followers rioted in Kano. Over 4,000 civilians, 100 policemen, and 35 soldiers died. Marwa himself was killed, but his movement did not die.

His close disciple, Musa Makaniki, continued the violence. In 1982, riots in Bulumkutu and Kaduna killed over 3,000 people. In 1984, Yola burned. Thousands were left homeless. Makaniki fled to Cameroon, returned in 2004, was arrested, but later acquitted.

Now, trace the line.

Muhammad Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram, was born in 1970 in Yobe State. He dropped out of school and received Islamic education from his father – and his father had been an almajiri disciple of Muhammad Marwa. The poison was passed down.

By 2003, Yusuf had become the leader of Boko Haram. By 2009, after his death in police custody, Abubakar Shekau took over and turned the group into a global jihadist franchise. And the foot soldiers? Thousands of young men who had grown up in the Almajiri system – neglected, uneducated, angry, and easily recruited.

A former Almajiri himself, Paul Luka, wrote with brutal honesty:

“That's their military hate/hardcore training school… places they train future bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, criminals. I don't give them a kobo. Any act of kindness to them is training your own killers.”

He knows because he was once an Almajiri in Maiduguri. If a non‑Muslim like Paul Luka could walk into an Almajiri school and observe its vulnerabilities, how many others – with worse intentions – have done the same?

Professor Dauda Ojobi, a former Secretary of Northern CAN, testified that Christian leaders sponsored agents to infiltrate Islamic institutions to corrupt them from within. Whether that specific plot succeeded or not, the vulnerability is undeniable. An unregulated Tsangaya is an open door for radicals of any stripe.

 

The anger beneath the bowl

Yusuf Yoshka shared a story that should terrify every Nigerian:

“My friend was telling me that some Almajirai came to beg them while he was travelling in Bauchi or Zaria. When they refused to give them sadaqah, one of them said: ‘Idan muka girma duk za mu zo mu kwace motocin nan naku…’ – ‘When we grow up, we will come and seize these your vehicles.’”

They are not just begging. They are watching. They see the cars, the houses, the comfort of others. They see a society that gives them crumbs and calls it charity. And they are angry – not just at the rich, but at every ordinary citizen who looks away.

This is the kind of rage that militants weaponise. Boko Haram did not need to brainwash these children. The system had already done the work.

 

The assassination that revealed the faction

On April 13, 2007, Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam, a prominent Salafi scholar who had once mentored Muhammad Yusuf, was assassinated in his mosque in Kano. For years, the killers were unknown. But research by Jacob Zenn (Georgetown University) and the confession of Yusuf’s own son, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, pointed to a faction of the Nigerian Taliban – former Almajirai who had studied under Adam but then turned against him.

Why? Because Adam had supported the government crackdown on their comrades in Kanama in 2003. They called him an apostate. They killed him.

The assassin, Ibrahim Uquba al-Muhajir, had fled to join Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, then returned to Nigeria to commit murder. He was later eulogised in a Boko Haram video.

This is the radicalisation pipeline:

• A neglected child becomes an Almajiri.
• He is abused, starved, and beaten.
• He is told that the world has rejected him.
• He finds a preacher who promises him power, revenge, and paradise.
• He picks up a gun – or a bomb.

 

The hidden hand and the dangerous silence

Late Sheikh Ja’afar once revealed that top Christian leaders used to visit Muhammad Yusuf in prison to facilitate his bail. Some researchers whisper of a hidden hand – politicians and external forces – that have fuelled Boko Haram for their own ends. Whether true or not, the fact remains: the Almajiri system is the recruiting ground.

When we refuse to reform it, we are not being kind to tradition. We are stockpiling time bombs.

Alani Adisa puts it bluntly:

“Anything that will exempt the parents from their primary responsibilities of catering for their children is an effort in futility. The bitter truth is almajiranci is an avenue for parents to escape their fundamental responsibility.”

He is right. Government schools in the North are failing because parents are not held accountable. The same parents send their children to Mallams with no food, no money, no care. They call it Islamic education. In truth, it is abdication.

 

What must be done

We cannot abolish the Almajiri system. It preserves Islamic learning and culture. But we must overhaul it – urgently, radically, and without sentimentality.

1. No more begging. A child who begs is a child who is being failed. The government must provide feeding programmes in all Tsangaya schools. The rich Northern elites – who send their own children abroad – must fund this.

2. Literacy and numeracy as mandatory supplements. The curriculum TNBI is piloting – Jolly Phonics, Hausa letter sounds, basic maths, life skills, identity education – must become the norm. A child who cannot read his own name will never escape the bowl.

3. Mallams must be registered, trained, and paid a salary. If we expect them to feed and teach dozens of children, we must treat them as professionals, not as volunteers living off alms.

4. Parents must be held legally responsible. If a parent sends a child to an Almajiri school without providing for his upkeep, they should face penalties. The days of “I have no money” are over. If you can afford to send a child, you can afford to feed him.

5. Security and monitoring. Every Tsangaya should be registered with the state. Surprise inspections should ensure children are not being abused or radicalised. This is not anti-Islamic – it is child protection.

 

The choice before us

In Maiduguri, four young boys went out to beg and came back in body bags. They did not choose to be suicide bombers. They were victims of a system that abandoned them.

But the next time, they may not be victims. They may be the bombers.

We have seen this before. Maitatsine. Boko Haram. The same pipeline, the same neglect, the same blood.

 

We cannot say we were not warned.

The Nation Builders Initiative (TNBI) is piloting a small, practical solution: one Malam, one community, one term. We will teach literacy, numeracy, and dignity – alongside the Qur’an. It is not a grand plan. But it is a start.

If you are a parent, take responsibility. If you are a Mallam, embrace reform. If you are a citizen, support organisations that are doing the work. If you are in government, regulate and fund.

Or else, when the next bomb goes off, do not ask why. You already know.

 

Faruk Ahmed is Coordinator of The Nation Builders Initiative (TNBI) and Head of School at Barkalheri Global Academy, Kano. He passed through the Almajiri system three times. He is now working to ensure the next generation does not have to choose between begging and banditry.

WhatsApp: 080 3535 4008
Email: thenationbuildersinitiative@gmail.com