Learning  in the ‘Labour ’ Camp..Inside Zamfara Quranic School where under-age children are hired for a fee

By Tunde Omolehin, Gusau/Nigeria

This undercover investigation at Zawiyya, an Islamic Center in Gusau, Zamfara Northwest State Nigeria reveals how pupils are rented to ‘Strangers’ for labour exploitation by their teachers known as Mallam under whom they are tutored in learning Qur’anic recitation. The investigation also engaged a cross-section of underage children, mainly male on their plight and wellbeing within the facility. Walking into Zawiyya Islamic Center situated at Kanwuri in Gusau, the Zamfara State Capital, Northwest Nigeria, gives us a perfect look into a modest Qur’anic learning institution where students were coached to memorize the holy Quran in the shortest duration possible with long-term retention. With solid and well-painted structures of classrooms for Quran recitations, hotels for the pupils and a small mosque for daily prayers, Zawiyya Islamic Center is a replica of any standard tertiary institution in Nigeria. But beyond this, the Center serves as a place where children were given to potential labour merchants for exploitation, this Reporter’s encounter with Audu Kaura, a Qur’anic teacher at the center had revealed. Wearing a long and white kaftan dress, Malam Audu as he is fondly called by the pupils walked this Reporter through a mini hall behind the center’s mosque with agility and a steady pace to hear his mission. The conversation started shortly after a 16-year-old Sadique, a Nigerian, and one of the pupils in the overcrowded learning center led the walk to meet the Qur’anic teachers at the center. The mission at the center was to allow any of the Qur’anic teachers to facilitate the ‘hiring’ of some pupils for a fee. The hired pupils are to be engaged in a marathon clearing of a new apartment newly secured by this Reporter and then take them to a farmland for cultivation, which Audu was ready to do. Within some minutes, he had assembled three of his pupils for the ‘job’. “You will follow this ‘God’s sent’ man (referring to this Reporter). He will engage you for some days to clear his new apartment and do some cultivations in his farmland.” Audu orders. The moments of greetings and stating the purpose of visiting ensued; Audu then ushered this Reporter into a corner to know more about the offer on order to secure the service of four of his students. “I know this is your first time coming here. So, you can tell your budget for the three boys. Though, some people pay N2,000 per person. This is aside from the food they will provide for them at the workplace.” After negotiations, N5,000 cash was handed to Audu as a fee for facilitating the three students while additional N2,000 was handed for the cost of renting farming tools as requested. Saidu Abubakar, 13, Dauda Yakubu 24, and Nasir Ali 15 were the three pupils that were ordered by Audu, to follow this Reporter and transported from the facility to the outskirts of the State capital to engage them in the purported exploitation. The three pupils were successful taken out of the facility without any challenge – no security surveillance mounted at the main gate that exits the Center. Within a twinkle of an eye, the children were transported in a commercial tricycle to safer destinations within the metropolis for conversations about their plights. At a safer location far from the center, this Reporter interacted with Saidu who said he was brought from Salka in Magama local government area of Niger state by a friend. According to him, he had left his hometown without informing his parents while the Islamic Center did not bother to know his family background. Saidu was enrolled and joined about 10, 000 learners already in the camp with little personal details about his family background. “A friend informed me about the Qur’anic center in Zamfara state, and we just boarded a vehicle and landed here.” Saidu explains. Since his arrival at the camp, the teenager has continued to be exploited by his teachers disguised to be helping him to source for income for personal upkeeps.Each day, Saidu and his contemporaries said they often assigned by their teacher to follow individuals to farmlands or similar labour work for a fee. The advanced money collected by this teacher is handed as a way of compensation for his gesture. “We worked for different people that want our services through any Malam (Teachers). Mostly, Mallam Audu helped sort for those who wanted our services, and we also returned part of our earnings as he had instructed.” Saidu said. Dauda, 24, who is the eldest hired from the Center by this Reporter with the help of his teacher, Audu narrated how he has been working as a laborer after completing his Quran recitation four years ago. “I decided to stay back in the Center to sort for menial jobs because there is no other place to go again.” “People are coming to the camp to seek for our ‘service’ like working on their farmland or any available jobs they might have, request for our service. On how he scheduled his daily activities, he said; “We woke up at 4:30 in the morning to enable us to prepare for morning prayers and then a Qur’anic recitation starts. After this, a break is given for us to solicit for alms or follow people to farmland to do all kinds of soil tidying and cultivations. We then return to the Center for evening prayers and it goes on and ends at 10pm.” He explained. The duo’s’ stories were part of windows to the extensive abusive labour against children seeking Quranic knowledge at the Zawiyya Center. Unlike Saidu and Dauda who hailed from the same town in Nigeria, Nasir said his parents who live in the Mafara town of Zamfara state had in 2020 dropped him off at the Centre to pursue Quranic memorization. Four years on, rather than grow fast in the Qur’anic knowledge, the young Nasir has been preoccupied in begging skills to enable them fund their welfare rather than concentrate on the learning.The next day, this Reporter returned to the Center to schedule a fresh engagement of another set of pupils from Audu. This time, the children will travel about 40 kilometres to Maru, a neighbouring town, where they are expected to work on farmland for three days in a row. Audu did not have a second thought before agreeing with the terms of engagement set. In a few minutes, he had assembled four pupils for the task. The children were much younger than the previous ones. “These are the boys and as I told you, I am their teacher and they will comply with my directives.” Audu told this Reporter in a show of authority over his pupils. The pupils brought forth were; Aliyu, 13, Garba, 15 and Muhammad, 12. The teacher had a brief chat with them, apparently to discuss the task by the teacher. In their presence, the teacher demanded the sum of N5,000 as his fee and another N2,000 to rents farm ‘tools’ from this Reporter which was handed to him. After the payment of the demands, a latter day was scheduled for the journey which this Reporter never returned.    According to Nicholas Ajadi, a legal practitioner with interest in labour law said Audu role in exploiting his pupils it is a clear violation of the the country’s signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1999 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 2001Zawiyya: Learning or Labour Camp?Zawiyya Islamic Center, is a household name islamic center in Gusau, Zamfara State capital, founded in the 18th century. It is located within the bustling area of Kanwuri of the ancient town and known for housing the largest number of pupils seeking Quranic knowledge memorization otherwise known as Almajiri in Northern Nigeria. Dr Atiku Shehu Balarabe Zawiyya, the Proprietor of the Center, said Zawiyya is established for teaching children the Qur’an memorization and if they are unable to memorise it, they should have the basic knowledge of the Holy Quran and other knowledge related to Shariah laws. “The Shariah law constitutes a way of life. This center was established for the purpose to imbibe the concept of Islamic doctrines. That was what we inherited from our fore-fathers over 200 years ago. “This has been the practice even before the coming of Shehu Usmanu Ibn Fodio. This formed the present Center with over 10,000 enrollment capacity” Atiku who also served as Vice Chairman, Ulama Consultative Council in the State said. During several visits to the learning Center by This Reporter findings revealed the gory conditions under which many children between the ages of 8 and 18 were camped in over-populated buildings, without a functioning health facility. In late September 2024, during a visit to further preliminary findings, an anonymous who resides close to the camp told this Reporter that, the struggles of the pupils to care for themselves on the streets had reduced them to beggars and rather than aiding them to comprehend verses of the Holy Quran they had committed to memory. Bashir Auwal (named changed), a resident of the area recounts that in December 2024, two cases of sexual abuse of these pupils were reportedly traced to the same Qur’anic center. “These incidents of child labour are a common practice here, and there have been further reported cases of sodomy and other sexual abuses happening in the Center.” He spoke. In May 2019, a Zamfara based lawyer, Hamza Shinkafi, told this Reporter how he facilitated the arrest of one Murtala Mode, an Islamic teacher in a similar Islamic center, after being accused of child abuse and sodomy. The suspect was alleged to have serially raped his pupils, who were mostly from the neighboring Zamfara state, and had suffered this fate because they were under his custody for the purpose of receiving Quranic knowledge, – they had for years been turned into his sex slaves until he was apprehended “The pupils, aged between four and fifteen, also said the teacher also collected money from some external homosexual clients and forced the children to submit themselves to sexual acts “The suspect was paraded by the police but the trial was obstructed by the nature of the Islamic justice system, which requires at least four witnesses against the accused before being prosecuted.. So, he was later set free” Hamza said in an interview.The Growing Numbers Nearly 160 million children, are involved in child labour, making it a significant issue on a global scale while in Nigeria, over 24 million children are in child labour, according to the 2022 data from National Bureau of Statistics. Out of these, Zamfara has the highest number of over 6.4 million children in child labour.Also, the 2024 report by UNICEF says in the north-western states where Zamfara belongs, 35 percent of Muslim children receive Qur’anic education, which does not include basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. However, the Nigerian Government considers children attending such schools to be officially out-of-school. “Most Almajiri children have become a source of cheap labour, contributing to the alarming statistic of over 15 million children in Nigeria involved in child labour,” says a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).In north Nigeria, there has been an increase in human rights abuses namely forced labour, inhumane and sexual abuses against underage children seeking Quranic knowledge under the guidance of Islamic teachers which they have been blamed for.Culture of Silence, Ignorance Residents in interviewed by this Reporter say a culture of silence and ignorance have continued to legalize child abuse, as both victims and families have no knowledge that such acts are against humanity. “Many parents do not know that most of their children have been abused in one form or another. What they care about is to just fulfill the Islamic rites of taking their children for Quranic memorization, says Kabiru Altine, a Sokoto based Human Rights Findings by this Reporter showed that some lawyers in the state were uninterested in handling rape and domestic violence cases because culprits prosecuted at Sharia courts always regained freedom since allegations were often difficult to prove in line with Islamic jurisdictions. “The majority of the victims are Muslims and when established cases are taken to magistrates’ courts, the case will be transferred to Sharia court, where you have to produce evidence and witnesses, which families of victims often shy away from. Tasiu Maru, a resident said. Rabiu Gandi of Save the Child Initiative, a non-governmental organization who is championing the rights and wellbeing of children, said issues of child labour, street begging and child abuse will be on prevalence except there is full enforcement of laws protecting vulnerable children by the relevant agencies. Many but weak Laws Aliyu Hamza, a Sokoto based legal practitioner gave a insight into many legal frameworks addressing child labour and exploitation in Nigeria. “We have a child rights act passed in 2003, this Act provides that no child shall be exposed to any form of exploitative labour, employed as a domestic help, or even be involved in carrying anything too heavy for his physical physique. “Similarly, the international Convention on the Right of a Child provides in Article 32(1) that; “State Parties must recognise the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development”. “Another law, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) prohibits economic exploitation and the engagement in hazardous labour that might disrupt a child’s physical well-being or mental development. It curiously leaves out the age that falls under the class of a child.” Hamza dismayed that in spite of the frameworks, child labour in Nigeria remains a cause of concern in many parts of the country like Zanfara state, where religious beliefs with high poverty rates and limited access to education are on the ascendency.Blame Games? The stories of these children shed light on the hardships endured by their families and the economic forces that propel them into child labour. Many parents whose children work as child labourers say they allow them to work because they have no choice.This contradicted the various child rights laws including the 2003 Child Rights Act signed by Nigeria, which Zamfara State is a party under the United Nations that forbids any forms of child labor and modern slavery against underage children.Findings by this Reporter revealed that Zamfara State has several laws to combat the raising child abuses in the state. These include the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law of 2022, the Child Protection Law of 2022, the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of 2023, and the Sharia Penal Code and the Sharia penal code which applies only to Muslims. However, most of these laws have been in effect for less than two years, but 66.83% of the population, especially the victims, are unaware of them and find them ineffective. Zamfara State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Abdulazeez Sani, a Senior Advocate of Nigerians, blamed the parents for sending these children to Islamic centers to escape from their financial responsibilities rather than to fulfill religious obligations as they claimed. “Nothing religious about sending these children to study under Islamic teachers without food, shelter and medical welfare. “You can see the rate at which these children are being exploited during the farming season by individuals.” He reveals that his ministry has various Child Rights Laws to protect the children in the state but there has been a lack of its implementation due to religious perspectives promoted by some Islamic scholars. “In Zamfara, we have Violence Against Person Prohibition Law (VAPP) 2022, and we are trying our best to apply the law accordingly. “We all enrolled in the Qur’anic education during our childhood but not in these ways that have been practiced. I will suggest that the practice should be limited among rural dwellers and not these children trooping into the cities without any child-support from their parents making them vulnerable to all kinds of abuse, Abdulazeez, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigerians (SAN) asserted.Mariam Abubakar, a Guidance and Counseling specialist also blamed parents and guidance for the growing numbers of child labour in the country. According to her, the primary responsibility for a Child’s well-being rests squarely on their parents’ shoulders. This responsibility encompasses providing comprehensive care and protection for the child until they reach the age of 18 and achieve maturity.” She notes.For Alhaji Abdulfatai Abdulsalami, Proprietor of Darul Salam School of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Sokoto, wants government, corporate bodies and wealthy individuals to invest in private Qurani’c school. ‘This is the only way to guarantee the welfare of the indigent children seeking qur’anic education without parents’ support.’ “We have Disciplinary Measures For Errant Teacher, says Management When confronted about Audu’s wrongdoings Badamasi Zauma, Secretary of the Center said the Center forbids any form of child abuse against the pupils. He acknowledged that cases of child abuse against the pupils have been recorded in the past but the Center management has pushed such incidents and brought the culprits to justice. “We have cases of child molestation, bullying and other minor issues within the pupils. We have a committee that monitors the activities of the Center. If there are cases of child exploitation by the teachers. We will be glad to serve justice accordingly.” Zauma assures TheWill when contacted.The Proprietor of the Center and Vice Chairman of Ulama Consultative Council in the State, Dr. Atiku Balarabe said child exploitation is an act that is prohibited in all ramifications, especially in the Islam. “We are here to uphold the tenets and teaching of Islam. If your investigation truly revealed that any of our teachers goes in contrast. We will take action against the person.”Dr. Shehu Kakale, a member of the Nigeria Presidential Committee on the Reform of Almajiri System, suggests a holistic reform of the Quranic learning system with recognition of a formal certificate to the pupils. “The equality with proper funding by the three tiers of governments will position Islamic students to have equal opportunity as Western education and minimize all such sorts of abuses.” This investigation was carried with support from Tiger Eye Foundation, Ghana and MacArthur Foundation, United States.