The National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, has said he had feared that the poor handling of Almajiri by Northern governors would expose herdsmen to covid-19, but thankfully, non were infected.
Bodejo also showered praises on former president Goodluck Jonathan for taking good care of Almajirai during his tenure, but wondered why he was hated by the North.
He said Jonathan was not a Muslim but the way he treated Almajirai was far more better than the way the northern leaders are treating them.
In an interview with THE SUN, Bodejo lamented that the way the Almajirai are being moved from one state to the other by the northern governors instead of building places for them just as Jonathan did is worrisome.
His words, "I’m not happy with the people involved in moving Almajirai from one state to the other because they are Fulani. They said their movement is because of coronavirus, but the committee I set up, said no Fulani man has tested positive for COVID-19, nationwide. Our fear is that moving these people is another strategy to go and infect the herdsmen inside the bush."
"I don’t see reason for this movement because they are children. As a governor, it is up to you to make a place for them. That is why I remember former President Jonathan; he is not a Muslim, but he went and built places for these Almajirai in different states."
"No matter how you hate the former president, you must remember, he tackled the Almajiri issue far more than some people in the North, and I will not mention names. The Almajirai are Nigerians, they are not from Niger or any other country, and it is a culture in the North."
Asked why the Almajirai are being taken to the South under the interstate border closure he said:
"I don’t know who is taking them to the South. The only thing I know is their movement from one northern state to the other; they are trying to make every Almajiri to go back to his parent’s house."
"If they are taking Almajirai from North to South, maybe, their parents are there because Fulani are everywhere; for the fact that they don’t produce governors, senators etc in the Southeast, South-South and Southwest doesn’t mean that they are not in those regions, they are just lying low, not making noise. They are everywhere, if they want they will be producing elected officials, but that is not their problem; their problem is to look for where to graze their cattle; that is their business."
"If they exhaust their grazing area, they migrate to other area, they can from here go to Ghana, Senegal, and nothing concerns them about the state of the schools or infrastructure in that area."