Afenifere Research Director Links Former Almajiri Children to Rising Banditry

Director of Research for the Afenifere sociopolitical group, Dr. Akin Fapounda, has linked the current wave of armed banditry in northern Nigeria to the almajiri system of past decades. He made the claim during an interview with Arise TV.

Recalling his experience as a youth corps member, Fapounda said, “I served in Kano State in 1975. Then, you’d see swarms of small boys trying to even eat the food you eat on the table, and they are the Almajiris… Today they are between the age of 30, now 40 and 50. The Almajiris at that time are the ones carrying the AK-47s all about today.”

He argued that insecurity is rooted in longstanding social issues rather than purely military ones. “We are not going to the root of the problem,” he said, questioning whether appointing Defence Minister General Christopher Musa addresses the underlying causes. “General Musa is competent, no doubt about that, but rather than call sociologists and people who know human behavior, we want to shoot our way through this problem.”

Fapounda described banditry as a social crisis born out of a system in which children were raised without parental care or education. He also criticized northern leaders for sustaining the almajiri structure while ensuring their own children do not participate in it.