Establish More Higher Arabic, Islamic Schools To Check Youth Banditry, Delinquency – Gov Abubakar

As the growing number of out-of-school children, dwindling level of education and youth unemployment continues to be sources of worry to governors in northern Nigeria, Governor Mohammed Abubakar has identified the establishment of schools for Arabic and Higher Islamic Studies as lasting solutions to the lingering problems bedeviling the northern region.

According to a statement issued by press secretary to the governor, Abubakar Al-Sadique, the governor made this statement on Thursday when he received the leadership of Bauchi State Association of Arabic and Islamic Studies Schools on a courtesy call.

Governor Mohammed Abubakar explained that schools for Arabic and Islamic Studies have key roles to play in the survival of Muslim societies as primary agents of molding people’s behaviors and prepare youth for future leadership.

“Bauchi state needs more of such schools to purify our delinquent youth who do not take education seriously. When you look at the trend carefully, we are now sitting on a keg of gun powder because youth now abhor education. I just wonder what kind of leaders their generation is going to produce. Such a society is doomed,” the governor said.

While regretting that illiteracy had contributed to the persistence of insurgency as unemployed youth are ready recruits to the menace, the governor explained that his administration deliberately identified education as a priority area of intervention, which has been pursued since the assumption of office in 2015.

The governor therefore urged governments at all levels and private individuals to put heads together and establish or support schools for Arabic and Islamic Studies as lasting solution to the problem of youth delinquencies that pose serious danger to the future generation of Nigerians.

Earlier, chairman of the Bauchi State Association of Arabic and Islamic Studies Schools, Ustaz Mustapha Baba Illelah revealed that apart from training Arabic and Islamic studies teachers the schools are the sources that produced best qualified Imams, Khadis and Shari’a court judges for Bauchi and neighboring states.

Ustaz Illelah said the objective of the association is uniting Arabic and Higher Islamic Schools in the state, which has so far 73 private and 3 public schools across the state, mostly operates from government facility.

The chairman commended the state government for offering scholarships to students of Higher Islamic Studies classes and producing question papers for Junior Islamic Studies examination for over 6,000 students introduced since the governor came into office.

The chairman appealed to the governor to help with the payment of one hundred thousand naira for centre registration for each school and settlement of the registration fees of nine thousand naira for each student writing the Higher Islamic Studies examination.

Ustaz Musapha Baba Illelah commended the governor for his numerous intervention programmes in education and health sectors as well as in the restoration of critical infrastructures that have gone moribund.