Those flooding southern states are not Almajirai, says Yakasai

Tanko Yakassai 

Elder Statesman and founding member of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Tanko Yakasai, has said that northern youths flooding the Southern states are not Almajiri.

He explained that Almajiri kids do not wear shirts but those flooding the south wear shirts, so they cannot be tagged as Almajirai.


However, the elder statesman call for investigation to know those behind the influx of the Almajiri kids to the South.

“You need to investigate those who are sending these Almajirai. Is it true that they are Almajirai?: “I saw a bunch of youths wearing shirts; the Almajirai don’t wear shirts. In the beginning, they said Fulani and now they changed to Almajirai,” Yakassai said in an interview with Vanguard.




He added, “They wear the same things most of our compatriots wear. These are not the Almajirai from where I come from.

“This is part of the kill-and-hate Nigeria campaign and I will not be part of it. I am a committed Nigerian; I spent all my life, starting from 1953 when I was just 28 years old, to fight for the unity of Nigeria. I will not support or associate myself with anybody who is anti-Nigeria.”


Meanwhile, the spokesman of Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, Abdulazeez Sulaiman, has accused Southern governors of humiliating northerners residing in the region under the guise of intercepting Almajirai.

Sulaiman said the inhumane action of the southernern governors against the northern citizens has been their long time agenda against the region which they have been working "strenuously to ensure that the region remains backward, weak, confused and bewildered by myriads of challenges and problems."



He said, "What is happening in the South in the guise of intercepting almajiri is part of a wider agenda to frustrate all northerners, particularly the Hausa/Fulani out of southern Nigeria.

"For too long, enemies of the North both foreign and local have worked strenuously to ensure that the region remains backward, weak, confused and bewildered by myriads of challenges and problems.

"The current onslaught in the pretext of sending back almajirai, is, therefore, part of a mega but clandestine plot spanning several years. It is one aspect of the plan to dehumanize the North and decapitate it through exploiting its internal weaknesses and cleavages.