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Aren’t we all “Enslaved”? by Lateef Adewole

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FILE: Some captives in a Kaduna Islamic school kids as young as five years old were freed

The Insight by Lateef Adewole

On the 12th of January this year, I wrote an article titled: “Almajiris and the hypocrisy of our Muslim elites”. Such topic was bound to generate some controversies, given how sentimental people are in this country, whether politically, ethnically or religiously.

Many fellow Muslims, especially from the northern Nigeria, who read the article might have one reservation or another, but could have been constrained from expressing such, since the writer is also a Muslim and what I wrote was also the truth. So, the inter-religious bickering could not sell. Otherwise, all kinds of meaning could have been read into it.

In that article, I highlighted the menace that the “unregulated” Almajiris system, as currently being operated in the northern Nigeria, is creating and the likely consequences of such today and in the future. I also made many recommendations. However, it is like the chicken has come home to roost. Those concerns I raised seem to be rearing their ugly heads already, following the various incidents in Nigeria, in the past few days.

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Last week, the country was awashed with the sordid tell-tale of a “slave camp” in Kaduna. A location was raided by the security agents and over 300 boys and men were discovered to be in captivity, under the guise of having Islamic and Arabic education.

However, the things found in the location and the heartrending stories from the victims, made such claims as being far from the truth. The people were held against their wills, put in chains, starved, tortured and many sexually assaulted. The video of that raid has since gone viral.

A sign written in Hausa outside the building in Kaduna state calls it the "Ahmad bin Hambal Centre for Islamic Teachings"

A sign written in Hausa outside the building in Kaduna state calls it the “Ahmad bin Hambal Centre for Islamic Teachings”

The camp is operated as an “Almajiri school”, where children, as well as some adults, were expected to be taught Arabic and Islamic knowledge. Many parents “innocently” put their children there by themselves, unknown to many that the owner(s) have different agenda.

While there were many adults there, children as young as 5 years, were also rescued. Many of their parents brought them for lack of capacity to take care of them. The families of the rescued victims have been picking their wards ever since.

In a similar manner, just this Sunday, another camp was busted in no other place, but the president’s own village, Daura. The place was operated by a 78-year old Mallam Bello Umar Mai Almajiri. He was reported to have been running it for over 40 years. More than 400 children and men were also released from there.

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This Wednesday, another location in Katsina was raided by the police. The details of the operation is still being awaited. How many more are still being operated undiscovered?

Some days ago, a syndicate specialising in trafficking children was busted. They specialise in kidnapping and selling of children. Nine children were found to have been kidnapped from different areas of Kano; Hotoro quarters, Yankaba, Dakata, Kwanar Jaba and so on, and sold in Anambra.

The children range between age 2 and 11 years. They were converted to chritainity, their names changed to Igbo names and they could longer speak their mother tongue- hausa language.

READ: FG pledges support for Onitsha fire victims

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This syndicate, led by one Paul Onwe from Ebonyi state and Mercy Paul, his wife. He is an artisan who has lived in Kano since 1998. Other suspects include Emmanuel Igwe, Ebere Ogbodo, Louisa Đuru and Monica Oracha.

Paul confessed he has kidnapped and sold about 7 children in the past five years. These children were reunited with their families yesterday. How about many others yet to be discovered?

Last month, a “baby factory” was discovered in Lagos. About 19 girls and women were rescued from there, many of whom are heavily pregnant. Most of them were kidnapped and kept there against their wills.

Woman steals two-month old baby from mother in Ekiti

Others were lured with promise of lucrative jobs in Lagos, only to end up there. They were forcefully sexed and impregnated, and their babies sold after delivery. This was just one out of hundreds or thousands of others across the south. This seems to be the equivalent of those slave camps operating in the north.

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The conditions under which all these people were held are inhuman. They are in slavery or illegal imprisonment in their own country. They are often in shackles, hands and or legs. What could be worse? Their situation is symbolic of our situation in the country today. Or who is actually free? Who is not in one enslavement or another, as far as the situation in Nigeria today is concerned? Aren’t we all enslaved?

Many will be shocked at these rhetorical questions. Let’s look at them. Being “free” oftentimes, is beyond not having chains on one’s hands and legs or being locked up in an isolated place. There are all kinds of “imprisonments” which need none of those.

To begin with, freedom of speech is being endangered in Nigeria today. People are becoming scared and more conscious of expressing their concerns about governments, openly or publicly now, for fear of being hounded, intimidated, arrested or even jailed.

And we are supposed to be running a democracy, right? Many people are still languishing in the captivity of different security agents. Such impunity is being replicated at state levels now, with some governors locking up opposition voices, threatening them with arrest and so on. Isn’t that enslavement of the citizens?

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What about “political enslavement”? Some progress were made in making our political space and electoral processes better by the last administration. This saw elections being held and opposition party won. But where are we today? Rather than building on that gains, they have all been eroded by the self-centeredness of our political leaders.

People are becoming distraught, once again, about our electoral processes. They do not believe it can actualize their political choices. The people are frustrated by the manipulation of the process by the politicians, especially those in power, as they continue to rig themselves into offices, even if it is against the interest of the larger majority. This happens at all levels of government. It seems we are back to the pre-2007 “do-or-die” political era.

Are the almost 100 million Nigerians who were said to be suffering from different kinds of extreme poverty not in economic enslavement? Even many who are currently employed could not distinguish themselves from those not working.

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria says Ruga will resolve farmer/herder crisis

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria

Their take-home pay could not take them home. The government has been dancing “yo-yo” with the implementation of 30,000 naira minimum wage, until this Thursday, when a consensus was finally reached.

Students going to schools are majorly doing so “to fulfill all righteousness”. There seems not to be any or much hope in the horizon for them after graduation. Many end up travelling abroad, in a bid to escape from all these, only to end up in another slave camps in foreign lands.

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A case of “going from frying pan to fire”! Horrifying stories from many returnees from Libya recently gave credence to that. How about xenophobic attacks on Nigeria across the globe? Isn’t that slavery?

But sadly, many of these Nigerians would rather be in prison abroad, especially in Western countries, than returning to their fatherland. Many would rather endure xenophobia, than return to their country of birth.

A Libya returnee once said that if he gets the chance again, he will venture back on that same journey to perdition, rather than stay back in Nigeria. What more can anyone say?

Those who are well-to-do in Nigeria might want to exclude themselves from all these. Lies! If they feel that they are not “enslaved”, why then do they build their beautiful mansions, only to surround them with sky-high fences, with barbed-wires and electric security fence wires, in addition to wild dogs and security personnels? Isn’t that similar to maximum prisons- Kirikiri? That is their own enslavement.

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There is no greater trouble in Nigeria today than insecurities. Nobody feels safe. The “big men” of Abuja, who before now, cruise in their luxurious vehicles when travelling to their villages, through Abuja-Kaduna expressway, can no longer do that. They all struggle with the common men and women, to get on the trains now. They have even high-jacked that now. Travelling by road is becoming a suicide mission.

Those in power, whose responsibilities are to make the country work for the generality, but often preferred to serve themselves, also have their own share of it. If they disagree, let them begin to move around without those retinue of security attachees, they can come back to tell us their tales. They are also not “free”. They are in self-imposed imprisonments.

Overall, the atrocities that were revealed from these slave camps, baby factory, etc, are mere reflections of our larger society. Physically dismantling them may not completely solve the problem but attacking the root cause of what led to such situation.

Firstly, the citizens need to speak up to assist governments and security agents, to assist them, by identifying and reporting any of such camps across the country. If you see something, say something. Whenever such reports are made, government and security agencies must swiftly respond to such calls. Identity of whistle blowers must also be well protected.

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There is need for serious reorientation for many parents, who deliberately send their wards to such camps. They often do so due to lack of capacity to cater for their numerous children. It has to begin with the marriages. While Islam permits marrying more than one wife, it does not ask men to do so irresponsibly. There are conditions precedent to marrying more than one.

Also, giving birth to numerous children, without plans to take of them than to dump them at Almajiri schools, in the name of going for Arabic and Islamic studies, without any provision for their well being, is not acceptable and also contrary to the preachings of Islam. Nobody should hide under the religion to do the wrong things.

The responsibility of this enlightenment is that of all. The traditional rulers, political leaders, community and religious leaders. All hands must be on deck to curb this menace. Emir of Kano, HRM, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been doing a lot in this respect. He has continuously spoken up against many of these misdeeds at different fora, whenever the opportunity presents itself. All others must do the same.

For the rest of all other “enslavements” that many of us are in, often, due to no faults of ours. The government should address them. Economic, political, insecurities, poverty, unemployment, decayed infrastructures, illiteracy, lack of public power, dilapidated roads, no housing, no portable water and so on. All these are facilities that make life enjoyable, but are grossly missing in our lives in Nigeria today. So, aren’t we in enslavement?

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A better economic situation and better lives will also prevent many of the parents of those children dumped in the Almajiri schools from doing so. They will be able to take responsibility for the wards and take care of them. Even if they want to send them to Arabic schools, it will not be to the ones in such conditions.

In all the investigations carried out so far and many others to come, whoever is found culpable, among the operators of the centres, the parents of the kids, those arrested human traffickers, the baby factory operators, and the rest, must be made to face the music. They must be appropriately punished.

The victims who have regained their freedom, should be rehabilitated and given needed supports for their reintegration and unite them back with their families.

May God continue to guide us aright.

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God Bless Nigeria.

Lateef Adewole is a political analyst and social commentator can be reached by email lateefadewole23@gmail.com or via WhatsApp +2348020989095

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