A civil society organisation, the Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro), has warned that Nigeria’s worsening insecurity will remain unresolved unless the Almajiri system is decisively dismantled within the next five years.
The group cautioned that failure to address the crisis could destabilise not only Nigeria but the wider West African subregion.
The warning was issued by PeacePro’s Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, following an extensive fact-finding and stakeholder engagement tour across seven states in Northern Nigeria. According to the organisation, the tour focused on understanding the links between insecurity, child neglect, and the Almajiri system.
Hamzat said findings from the tour revealed a deeply troubling pattern of child abandonment that has become normalised and is often justified on cultural and religious grounds. He stated that this practice has produced millions of socially excluded children who are vulnerable to criminal recruitment and exploitation.
According to him, Nigeria’s security challenges go far beyond banditry, terrorism, and organised crime. He argued that the country is dealing with the long-term consequences of systemic child neglect that has been accepted as part of social and cultural norms.
Hamzat described the Almajiri system, in its current form, as more than a policy failure. He said it represents a broader societal breakdown that cuts across family structures, cultural identity, religious responsibility, governance, and collective social values
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He explained that when a society consistently abandons its children without education, welfare, or protection, insecurity becomes inevitable. He added that the effects of such abandonment accumulate over time and eventually manifest as violence, extremism, and organised criminal activity.
PeacePro warned that if the Almajiri crisis is not urgently addressed, the scale of uneducated and desperate youths produced annually could overwhelm Nigeria’s security architecture. Hamzat cautioned that the consequences would not be contained within Nigeria’s borders.
According to him, continued neglect could ignite instability across the West African subregion. He warned that Nigeria’s population size and regional influence mean that any large-scale internal collapse would have ripple effects on neighbouring countries.
While acknowledging that the Almajiri system is often defended as a cultural or religious tradition, PeacePro argued that culture loses moral legitimacy when it systematically produces deprivation and homelessness. Hamzat said any tradition that turns children into roaming beggars without education or protection should no longer be shielded from criticism.
He maintained that culture and religion should serve as tools for compassion, responsibility, and social cohesion, not excuses for neglect. According to him, traditions that destroy lives amount to social pathology rather than heritage.
Based on its observations across seven North-West states, PeacePro identified what it described as five layers of failure driving the Almajiri crisis. These include family failure, where parents relinquish responsibility for their children without safeguards or support.
The organisation also identified ethnic nationality failure, where collective identity is used to normalise suffering as culture. It pointed to religious failure, where children are enrolled in learning systems that lack welfare, skills training, and protection.
PeacePro further cited societal failure, where child begging is accepted and even spiritualised, and state failure, where child rights laws and basic education policies are poorly enforced or ignored entirely.
Hamzat said that when families, religious institutions, communities, and the state all fail simultaneously, insecurity becomes unavoidable rather than accidental. He stressed that children raised without education, family care, or social protection grow into adults disconnected from the state.
According to PeacePro, such individuals are more likely to be recruited by criminal gangs, extremist groups, and violent political networks. Hamzat warned that no society can abandon children in the name of culture and expect peace in the name of patriotism.
He emphasised that PeacePro’s position is not an attack on Islam, Northern culture, or religious education. Instead, he said the group is calling for urgent reforms anchored on dignity, accountability, and responsibility.
Hamzat explained that religion without compassion and welfare has been distorted and weaponised against the very children it is meant to protect. He added that restoring ethical foundations to cultural and religious practices is essential for long-term stability.
The organisation called on both federal and state governments to treat the Almajiri crisis as a national emergency and a top security priority. It urged authorities to adopt a coordinated strategy aimed at eradicating the system within five years.
PeacePro recommended large-scale rehabilitation, education, and vocational training programmes for existing Almajiri youths. It also called for sustained engagement with religious and traditional leaders to ensure reforms are culturally grounded and widely accepted.
Hamzat concluded that Nigeria’s insecurity will persist unless the country confronts its root causes honestly. He said insecurity in Nigeria is not a mystery but the predictable outcome of decades of societal abandonment.
According to him, until child neglect is decisively addressed, insecurity will continue to evolve rather than disappear. PeacePro reaffirmed its commitment to peace-building advocacy, policy engagement, and community-based reforms aimed at breaking the link between child neglect and national insecurity.
