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Jonathan Reveals Why He Built Almajiri Schools In The North

Published

4 years ago

February 7, 2022

Editor

… Diri Advocates Scholarship For Children From Oil Producing Communities

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has stated that he embarked on the Almajiri Schools programme in the north while he was in office to infused western education curriculum into Islamic education to make the pupils employable and to check incessant crisis and insecurity.

Jonathan stated this while delivering a keynote address at the maiden Bayelsa State Education Summit, with the theme “Optimizing the Delivery, Performance and Sustainability of Outcomes in the Education Sector.”

The event was held at the Conference Hall of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, in Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital.

He explained that his vision and philosophy of development is that the development of a people must be based on education, adding that there cannot be a functional society without a functional education system.

He noted that education remains the key to change the country.

The former president who commended Governor Douye Diri administration for organising the summit which is aimed at fashioning a road map for the educational sector, said such roadmap, once developed, should be passed into law so that no succeeding governor could unilaterally alter it and stressed that everything must be done in the interest of the people.

He said as a predominantly riverine state, the state government should be leading the country in anything maritime, whether in communication, technology, science and other areas.

Jonathan further noted that greater attention should be focused on transition to Information Communication Technology, ICT, as ICT education is gradually phasing out other disciplines.

He also emphasised the need for teaching of international languages and development of one common language for the state.

His words: “When I was the Vice President I was discussing with one of my Technical Assistant from Anambra State about the crisis in the North and say we must frame how we will tackle it. Some group of young boys appear not to have future and we cannot allow the system to remain like that so that we don’t have crisis tomorrow.

“We went around the North, discussed with the clerics who teach the boys under trees and makeshift buildings, we also discussed with the emirs and so on. We identified a group of boys and they are Muslims, and most Muslims when you understand the Koran is like you are more than a professor of law and through the Almajiri programme, they understand the Koran and you cannot underrate them.

“Some of them can even memorize the Koran as voluminous as the Koran is, and for someone to memorize the Koran and you say that person is not educated, you are not telling the truth.

“They (Almajiris) felt that they were educated but the society still reject them that even their local government council cannot employ them even as messengers because they don’t have any element of Western education attached to the Koranic education.

“That is why the federal government said we must assist the states, that these young people must be encouraged to study Islamic education but in addition to the Islamic education we are not going to remove anything from it, they should also take some parts of Western education so that when they finished at that level they can go on to study other things like Engineering, Medicine, etc, because you cannot convince an educated person to do certain things and without education, you cannot manage the security of this country. That was what motivated us to go into Almajiri education.”

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, also stressed the need for a central language and urged the summit to look at all the missing links and explore avenues for the private sector to partner with government in implementing its vision for education.

Diri also called on international oil companies to provide special scholarships for children from oil-producing communities as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility in addition to the provision of basic social amenities.

He said Bayelsans must be global citizens and open up the state while urging the summit to consider far-flung communities in Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw and Brass local government areas while discussing digitalisation of education.

In his welcome address, the state Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah said there was need to move education to the next level adding that the state government has been increasing access to education and building of infrastructure in the past two years.

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Published

41 minutes ago

August 28, 2025

Editor

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, on Wednesday, upheld the conviction and 18-year jail term of Nigerian national, Chinedu Justice Obasi, who was found guilty of human trafficking and entering into a fraudulent marriage to secure residency.

According to Independent News Eswatini, Obasi was convicted in December 2017 on three counts and handed his sentence in September 2018.

The charges included two counts of harbouring women for exploitation and one count of fraudulent marriage.

Court records seen by the news platform showed that between April and September 2016, Obasi harboured two women, identified as Busisiwe and Puleng, at a flat in Pretoria, where he allegedly forced them into prostitution.

He was said to have taken their earnings, supplied them with drugs, and restricted their movements, monitoring them constantly to prevent escape.

The fraudulent marriage charge dated back to 2005, when Obasi married a South African woman but failed to live with her, with the court ruling that the union was contracted solely to obtain legal residency.

According to the case file, Busisiwe met Obasi in December 2015, while Puleng was introduced to him through Busisiwe in May 2016. Both women eventually ended up under the control of Obasi and his co-accused, who continued their exploitation.

On appeal, Obasi argued that the trial court overlooked his personal circumstances and failed to properly consider evidence.

However, the presiding Judge Graham Moshoana dismissed the claims, stressing that Obasi never testified in his defence.

Judge Moshoana described the case as a clear instance of modern-day slavery.

He said, “Human trafficking exists because people are vulnerable to exploitation due to poverty, lack of education and desperation.

“Victims are often abused, confused and disoriented. People are trafficked for sex, labour and other related reasons.”

With the ruling, Obasi will continue to serve his 18-year prison term.

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VIDEO: Two Nigerians Arrested In Libya For Alleged Robbery

Published

3 hours ago

August 28, 2025

Editor

Police in Tripoli, Libya, have arrested two Nigerians for allegedly carrying out a series of robberies in the city.

The suspects, both undocumented migrants, were arrested on August 25 after they were captured on CCTV robbing a convenience store.

Migrant Rescue Watch, an organisation that monitors migrant activities, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the group, the suspects had allegedly been responsible for multiple break-ins and robberies targeting commercial stores with the intent of seizing cash.

The statement said, “Police in Tripoli arrested 2 undocumented #migrants of Nigerian nationality responsible for series of break and entries and robberies. The accused were targeting commercial stores with the intent of seizing cash. The case was referred to public prosecutor.”

Watch video below:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1961001698136072343https://twitter.com/i/status/1961001698136072343

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NGO Says Starving Gaza Children Too Weak To Cry

Published

16 hours ago

August 27, 2025

Editor

The head of Save the Children described in horrific detail on Wednesday the slow agony of starving children in Gaza, saying they are so weak they do not even cry.

Addressing a Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the president of the international charity, Inger Ashing, said famine — declared by the UN last week to be happening in Gaza — is not just a dry technical term.

“When there is not enough food, children become acutely malnourished, and then they die slowly and painfully. This, in simple terms, is what famine is,” said Ashing.

She went on to describe what happens when children die of hunger over the course of several weeks, as the body first consumes its own fat to survive, and when that is gone, literally consumes itself as it eats muscles and vital organs.

“Yet our clinics are almost silent. Now, children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony. They lie there, emaciated, quite literally wasting away,” said Ashing.

She insisted that aid groups have been warning loudly that famine was coming as Israel prevented food and other essentials from entering Gaza over the course of two years of war triggered by the Hamas attack of October 2023.

“Everyone in this room has a legal and moral responsibility to act to stop this atrocity,” said Ashing.

The United Nations officially declared famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming what it called the systematic obstruction of aid by Israel during more than 22 months of war.

A UN-backed hunger monitor called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza City.

The IPC projected that the famine would expand by the end of September to cover around two-thirds of Gaza.
AFP