By
Matthew Hassan KUKAH
Yes, you are right,
the title for this Essay draws inspiration from Phil Collins’ song titled, “What Happened on the way to Heaven?”
The Almajiri and his spiritual father, the Mallam, are now the poster children of all that is negative in face of Islam in northern Nigeria.
The life of the Almajiri is supposed to be a spiritual journey of nurture and knowledge,
guided by a Mallam,
his spiritual foster father.
Today, all of this is now besmirched.
In his record,
Phil Collins asked:
How can something so good go so bad?
How can something so right go so wrong?
In other words, was the Almajiri supposed to have ended up as a liability to the religion?
The Almajiri has become a scapego