ACRI urges N’Assembly to sustain Almajiri child rights, issues
The Almajiri Child Rights Initiative (ACRI) has called on members of the 9th National Assembly to continue from where their predecessors stopped in promoting Almajiri child rights.
ACRI made the call in a statement signed by its Team Leader, Sabo Keana and some state coordinators made available to newsmen in Sokoto.
The organisation enjoined the incoming National Assembly members to pursue an all encompassing solution to child destitution in Nigeria, declaring that the world at large needs to resolve the Almajiri child right crises in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The statement urged SDG advocates in Nigeria and across the international community to add their voices to the plight of the Almajiri child.
It stated that the call followed a meeting to commemorate the second annual Almajiri Child Right Day being marked on May 25.
“With at least 8 out of the 17 SDGs connected to the plight of Almajiri children, it simply means that they considered child rights as critical to the attainment of the SDGs in Northern Nigeria,” the statement noted.
ACRI described the prevailing situation as “an urgency driven by both time and democracy that neither Nigeria nor the world can afford to miss if we are to meet our global targets by 2030. 11 years from now, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) hope to have eliminated hunger, ensure decent work for all and achieved 15 more things aimed to leave no one behind.
“At our current rate, over 10 million Almajiri children will be part of those who have been failed by the rest of us,” it added.
It is for this reason that the theme for this year centres on: “Almajiri plights and the attainment of SDGs,” the group said and therefore, urged the federal government to immediately set up a multi-stakeholders’ task team to come up with a unified position on how to address the social, educational, nutritional and security situation of the Almajiri child.
