A Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has opined that government must invest in education rather than executing what he called “white elephant projects” for it to address lingering insecurity in Nigeria.

The Islamic cleric also opined that insecurity in Nigeria is a “tricycle of poverty, ignorance and injustice”.

Sheikh Gumi explained that the government must have a rethink on the need to make resources available to those at the grassroots and invest in their education in order to arrest insecurity in the country.

According to the Islamic cleric, if citizens are not educated, insecurity would persist, believing that it is fuelled by ignorance and unemployment that are implications of lack of access to education.

He explained, “First, we need to understand that Almajarai is a cultural thing and until you change the mindset of the people, the fire brigade approach will not solve the problem.”

He further explained that Almajarai is an educational system that is outdated by modernity just like the use of donkeys and camels as means of transportation which have been overtaken by the modern transportation system.

Sheikh Gumi is of the opinion that if modern things are made available, people would leave the old ones, saying that there are still some villages where they still use donkeys and camels to move around.

He added that there are no good roads, let alone good cars in such places, believing that Almajarai is not just a school, but an educational system that is not well-financed.

The Islamic cleric explained that the country has to make education from primary to secondary and even tertiary a universal thing for the benefit of all in the country.

He suggested that Nigerian politicians should spend money on education rather than flyovers, stressing that insecurity is a tricycle of poverty, ignorance and injustice as selecting a few thousand out of millions of out-of-school children in Nigeria is just like a drop in the ocean of the problem Nigerians have.