El-Rufai asks operators of almajiri schools to vacate Kaduna

Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, has asked operators of almajiri schools in the state to relocate.

The governor said this during the inauguration of the Kaduna state child protection and welfare committee on Tuesday.

“We are working on the almajiri system and many people do not agree with what we are doing, but we are very confident and sure of the rightness of our actions,” he said.

“So, my message to all those that have almajiris in Kaduna state, you have a choice to relocate otherwise sooner or later we will get you.”

He said the government developed and approved the social protection policy so as to have clear legislation targeted at supporting the poorest and most vulnerable in the state.

“We want the poorest people to benefit. Politicians often get involved with their ‘slot mentality’, and when we give them those slots, they don’t give them to the poorest,” he said.

“So we must find a way to identify who is poor and who is vulnerable and target this kind of assistance to this kind of households.”

El-Rufai said the state’s social investment office has been working across the 24 LGAs to have a comprehensive register of the most vulnerable residents.

He added that the social register has more than one million households, and assured that every government intervention would be channeled to those included.