At Last Sokoto moves to stop Alamajirism. Will other northern states follow up?

[bobokite]

By IKENNA EMEWU
Saturday, August 16, 2008

The rumor is that most of the beggars from the north are from Sokoto or so they claim. The government of the state today is not happy about such stain. It is like a bad tag on the image of the Seat of the Caliphate. This problem must be tackled and solved. Saturday Sun while in Sokoto last week found out that is what the government of Governor Aliyu Wamakko has decided to do. “It is a fight against indignity, and he is resolved to tackling it”, so said the Permanent Secretary in the Governor’s Office, Alhaji Abubakar Dan Shehu.

Wamakko, according to his media team, “decided to toe this line because it is the people that brought him into power. There is no overstatement about this, and it is beyond politics because everybody in Nigeria saw what happened in Sokoto governorship election, its annulment by the court and the repeat election.

Immediately Wamakko came to power, he started a project of rehabilitating beggars and helpless persons in the state “to make sure they are off the streets and likely find means of livelihood of their own. He started this project by taking a census of all beggars and disabled persons in the state. Now he has a database containing 6507 eligible beggars that are qualified for the rehabilitation project he handles, and each of these is to receive N6,500 per month. That implies that Wamakko will run a budget of N42,295,500 per month for rehabilitation of the underprivileged. In a year, he drops from the government purse at least N507, 546,000 for the beggar to get a lifting in life.

But there is an additional package where the government will expend another huge budget to train and equip the beggars so as to acquire some skills that will empower them with time to be self-reliant, thereby dropping begging and dependence finally. With such projects, the Wamakko administration also intends to support the trained artisans with materials to make them practice the trade. “It will also involve the financing of mini businesses for these persons, all in a sincere bid to rid the state of this indignity”, Dan Shehu said.

Source: http://sunnewsonline.com/webpages/po...8-2008-001.htm

[No Smoking]

The Almajiris may not be the target of this project. It appears to target the disabled folks. Even so, it is a welcome development. The Sokoto govt could go a step further to encourage Sokoto State indigenes begging in other states to return home, to get on this laudable rehabilitation project.

Almajiris, as we know, are able-bodied youths being retained in a sub-culture, reservists for attack dog duties...

[bobokite]

Originally Posted by No Smoking

The Almajiris may not be the target of this project. It appears to target the disabled folks. Even so, it is a welcome development. The Sokoto govt could go a step further to encourage Sokoto State indigenes begging in other states to return home, to get on this laudable rehabilitation project.

Almajiris, as we know, are able-bodied youths being retained in a sub-culture, reservists for attack dog duties...

Will they agree to return? beggers begging in a state like Lagos will never agree to return home because of the money they make. Anyway, Fashola has promised to get all of them off the streets.

[No Smoking]

Will they agree to return?..

If the Sokoto govt is truly ashamed of their inglorious position of having the most beggars in the nation, then they should repatriate their begging ambassadors from the other states, too. It's not enough to rehabilitate those they can find around Sokoto.