How Maiduguri market takes almajirai off streets

At street corners and makeshift houses of Bulunkutu, Gomari and Dala areas in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, almajirai gather in Tsangaya setting to study the holy book of Islam (Qur’an).

Around 5:00am, these kids, brought to Maiduguri from different parts of the country, would start reciting the holy Qur’an, which takes them three hours to finish.

At 8am, their teachers release them to the streets and people’s homes where they get food from begging or menial jobs, while few unlucky ones fall prey to gangs of criminals.

But a new set of almajirai have now begun to hustle legitimately for survival, developing multiple skills in smart-phones, computer repairs and other highway information technology.

On a daily basis, tens of these almajirai, who are between the ages of 13 and 20, troop into the famous Bulunkutu GSM market, tapping from the numerous opportunities of faulty devices, buying and selling of used and new gadgets.

In this market, when our correspondent visited, majority of the shop owners interviewed said they had never been to any formal education before venturing into the hi-tech business.

Though not big, the market is rapidly changing the lives of thousands of almajirai, who admitted to have been driven away from their parents’ homes by poverty or quest to study the Quran.

One of them is a 13-year-old Sadiq Baana, who left his parents’ house at the age 6 and was scavenging for food to survive before destiny brought him to the market.

Baana said his life changed when a GSM repair expert enrolled him into the business, which now helps him to feed and even send money home to take care of his poor family.

“I tried begging, but I was always shy, and most times couldn’t get enough food to eat. So I decided to come here and started sweeping the place to earn some little money.

“Later, I ran errands for the phone repair shop owners before one man took me in as an apprentice. He taught me how to repair phones,” he said.

Baana said his teacher was not comfortable that he started the phone repair business, but he decided to choose the trade over Tsangaya school.

“Our school time usually clashes with business, so my teacher was forcing me to abandon the trade. I later absconded from the school and continued coming to this place.

“It is my parents’ ambition that I memorise the holy book and I still have that in mind, but having a stable income will help me a lot in process of the learning the holy book,” he said

Asked if he was able to mend his relationship with the teacher, he said, “Not too cordial, but I still go there to greet him; gradually, he will understand the point.”

Maneuvering through the noisy crowd of the market, one can see young apprentices who are cutting teeth in this money-spinning trade, haggling with customers over repairs and accessories.

Some of them struggled and erected some makeshift stands in the already saturated market space.

Muhammad Mustafa Muhammad, who grew up at a Tsangaya school studying the Quran, said he had never been to any formal school.

“My parents brought me to Tsangaya as a kid. I spent over 16 years learning until I memorised the holy Qur’an. I joined the market as an errand boy in 2017.

“Gradually, my master taught me how to repair phones and opened this place for me after some years working under him. I am now independent, with three boys learning the skill under me.

“I want people to understand that not only those with Western education are successful in life. I learnt this skill through discipline, resilience and hardwork.

“Back then, we did take phones to some Igbo men who were more skillful to repair the phones for us, but as time went on, I mastered it and handled everything on our own.

“As it is today, I use this business to take care of my parents, wife and three children, apart from the three boys working under me.

“I want to appeal to the government to support us with modern equipment for efficient service and to ease our work.  We need things like screen fixing machines and other things,” he said.

According to him, over hundred of them are making a living everyday from the business. He said, “With these few tools at hand, Alhamdullillah, we earn little money to feed instead of going out to beg in the streets.”

Rabiu Adamu, another almajiri who owns the best phone repair shop in the GSM market, has a reputation for repairing difficult phones. In fact, people call him “Daga kai sai Bola” (if you cannot repair it, it will be taken to trash).

“I grew up as an almajiri, born in Maiduguri. My father was a civil servant who retired here and left me under the tutelage of a Tsangaya scholar. I have never been to any formal school.

“I found myself in phone repairs at the peak of the Boko Haram crisis when many Tsangaya schools were closed down. I convinced myself to fight idleness by joining the phone repair business.

“As they say, an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. I was roaming the streets with my bowl when I met an Igbo man, Emma. His parents were from Enugu but he was born in Maiduguri. He trained me on how to repair phones.

“Emma is my mentor. I learnt so many repair skills from him. Another thing I learned from him is that he loved helping and training kids to be independent, especially almajirai.

“We came to this market to open business together, but after some back and forth, Emma decided to relocate and operate elsewhere. He said he was not comfortable here. But we are still in touch and he remains my mentor.

“I never attended any Western education school, but the Qur’an I memorised has given me a sharp mind and the curiosity to easily understand and solve complex phone problems.

“I specialised in repairing expensive phones like IPhones and androids but I love fixing Samsung brands. I currently have six apprentices under me and I graduated many of them. We are all almajirai.

“I picked some of them from Tsangaya and others came on their own, but I discouraged them from begging or doing menial jobs.

“My ambition is to incorporate millions of almajirai into this business to change people’s perception about us.

“It pains me when people profile almajirai as beggars and thieves. That is why I am looking for funding to expand my workshop and take in more almajirai to train,” he said.

Recounting his experience on the first phone he dismantled, Rabiu said he was confused by what he saw inside, thinking on where to touch for it to work and how to reassemble it.

He said, “Luckily enough, I repaired the phone, reassembled it and returned it to the owner. Since then, I have continued to repair phones.”

Rabiu advised upcoming people in the business to make honesty, resilience and hard work their guiding principle everyday.

Going round the GSM market, this reporter learnt that some of the almajirai have now grown big in the trade, with net worth millions of naira.

Kamal Ali, also known as Ajibo, is another almajiri that specialises in repairing various phone brands. His grandparents enrolled him into formal education, but halfway, he dropped out to sharpen his skill and become self-reliant.

“I am an indigene of Bauchi State. I was taken to Tsangaya school in Kano under the tutelage of a cleric at Hausawa Sabon Titi, called Malam Haruna.

“My journey into the GSM repair business began when I came to stay with my grandmother in Maiduguri to continue with my study shortly after Boko Haram terrorists attacked the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.

“My grandfather, DCP Ibrahim Minkaila enrolled me temporarily into Lamisula school before my grandma took me to serve as an apprentice in the GSM market.

“I would come to the market after school and spend 8 hours – from 1pm to 9pm. Sometimes I will not eat until I have t the skill.  Today, I am the breadwinner of my family.

“The job buys me everything: a house where I live with my wife and children, cars and support for my extended family and the seven apprentices under me.

“My business has grown so well that I supply goods from Lagos, Abuja and import hard-wares from China once a week. I am now trying to raise at least N100 million for export to expand the business,” Ajibo said.

These almajirai now constitute a large number of phone repairs and accessories businesses in the market, with many of them mastering the art, even better than educated colleagues.

Ali Danbabur also grew as a shop boy and later built his multi million naira smart-phones accessories and brand new phones business inside the market.

According to Danbabur, a man approached him with a huge capital to invest in the business, which he obliged and spent years in the partnership before he opened his own shop. Today, he is one of the richest GSM business owners in the market.

There are about 10,000 people that carry out daily businesses, ranging from phone repair, buying and selling of new and used phones, selling accessories and tens of other businesses attached to phones, computers and the market itself.

Aliko Dala Ahmad, the chairman of the GSM market, said they had over 10,000 members working in the GSM market and they take in almajirai and other less privileged children.

He said, “It is wrong for people to perceive that the almajirai cannot excel in life. They usually come to us and identify the area they fit in, such as repairing phones.

“We have companies for technicians, where we give those children as apprentices over a period. They will excel and their bosses would settle them and they would open businesses of their own. Many of them excel in this aspect.

“Also, there are those with interest in trading, like selling accessories, brand new phones and laptop computers. If our members have a demand for extra hands, we link them with these less privileged boys because they are talented; they just need a little push to realise their pull potentials.”

He said some of the almajirai used to sweep the market in the morning seven years ago.

“They were between the ages of 12 and 15. When we relocated to this new place, we took them in, enrolled them as technicians and sales boys. Today, a lot of them have become sole proprietors of their businesses. Some of them are big technicians in the market. Ten years back, they were nobody, but the market gave them an opportunity to grow.

“I personally took over 18 of these almajirai and resettled them. Now, they have shops of their own. They also have cars, houses, and are married with children.

“If you go to the technicians now you will see wonders. You will find an almajiri that has never been to school but he can repair phones the manufacturers said could not be repaired.

“At some instance, it will even amaze you that we will sell a phone that has a warranty and take it to the company and the company will say the phone would not be repaired because it has been damaged by water or other hazardous elements. We will give it to those almajirai we trained and they will repair it. Even the Chinese used to be surprised,” he said.

He thanked the governor for building the market and supporting them with a business capital of over N320 million in 2024 and the massive empowerment of N1 billion in 2025.

Apart from GSM repair, my students study – Tsangaya teacher

Malam Said Babayo Mustapha, an Islamic scholar, said he had graduated over 400 almajirai students, adding that some are doctors, engineers, lecturers. He also encouraged his students to learn skills and various trades.

According to him, Quranic memorisation makes the students’ brains more retentive and flexible to study and excel in western education.

“My students are now studying engineering and other challenging courses in the University of Maiduguri. Some have graduated. And they have time to read and memorise the Quran every morning and evening.

“Some make time to also learn skills like automobile and electronics repairs. We have electricians, mechanics, carpenters etc.

“I have a student here that repairs handsets from his room. Any complex mobile phone fault is referred to him from the GSM market; and he always fixes them. He has never been to any formal school,” he said.

On why some Tsangaya teachers don’t allow their students to venture into such trades, he said, “No serious teacher would deny his student an opportunity to learn skills, unless that person became unserious about his studies”.

He said the students were entrusted to them purposely to study the holy book, but they usually encourage them to learn certain skills and trade when they attain some level of education.

“They only beg when they newly arrived and pass through the rigour of learning. At that time, all their lives are dedicated to learning, but once they reach a certain stage, we give them the leverage of acquiring skills of their choice.

“It will surprise you to know that in this school, five of my students are graduates. And currently, some of them are medical doctors and engineers,” he said.

We should borrow a leaf from China – Prof Umar

Professor Ibrahim Umara of the University of Maiduguri, who spoke on the evolving trend in hi-tech and high way information technology, said it was high time for Nigeria to stop judging people’s skills and knowledge based on the language they speak

He advised the government to borrow a leaf from China, Korea, India, Russia, South Africa and other developed countries, where talents are sought based on what one can offer, not the language he speaks.

“When you are talking about the system of education, people tend to underestimate the existence of the Tsangaya school system. Tsangaya is an institution that has been with us for more than 1,000 years before the advent of Western education.

“Tsangaya has a curriculum and school system. The only difference between Tsangaya and Western education is the ability to effectively communicate in English. Even the numerals were brought from Arabic. Put that in your mind.

“If you are talking about competence in English in terms of communication in relation to the English language, those that have perfected digital technology or highway information technology are the Chinese, Koreans; and some of them don’t understand English.

“Also, if Russians are so sophisticated in astronomy, they don’t speak English, and the Indians’ advancement is not as a result of English but their local dialect,” he said.

According to him, what is happening around the world is an inter-generational challenge and it is left to those in the position of leadership to adjust, adapt and accommodate to changing trends.

“These Tsangaya students are national assets because if an almajirai can repair starlink and invent contact lenses used by the Borno State Transport Agency when engineering professors couldn’t repair their vehicles, they need special attention.

“Philanthropists, development partners and the government need to search for such talents and train them on cyber security, software engineering, robotics, data processing and management and other contemporary skills.

“If the government is wise, they would urgently mobilise resources, keep them somewhere, develop their skills and send them to other countries in order to improve in whatever interest they have. Create a digital hub where they will exhibit their talents as the Chinese used to identify.

“My invitation to Wuhan by the Chinese was to witness somebody who invented a robot that could obey commands. He was from a blacksmith family and had never been to any formal education.

“The government of China recognises him as a professor. His house and workshop was turned to be a faculty under the University of Wuhan. And he served as a dean of the Faculty of Robotology,” he added.

He commended the efforts of Borno, Yobe and Katsina state governments for introducing certificate courses for Tsangaya students through their agencies of mass literacy.

“That certificate is equivalent to a diploma, but no, somebody who committed the Quran to memory is above a diploma. It should have been equal to a bachelor of art or science,” he also said.

Zulum disburses N1bn to train, equip GSM repairers

Last month, the Borno State governor, Prof Babagana Umara Zulum, disbursed N1 billion for the training and resettlement of 3,000 youths across the 27 local government areas of the state. Among them, 1,050 youths were trained on phone repairs and maintenance.

Speaking during the event, Zulum said each of the trainees would receive cash support and a complete set of modern working tools.

“It comprises an 852D hot air rework station; a separating machine, Kc2025; battery booster, S2025 pro; an adjustable temperature soldering iron V900c; digital multimeter, DT9205Plus and a precision screw driver set 60 in 1, to enhance their repair businesses.

“In addition to the tools, all the 1,050 GSM trainees will receive direct cash support to serve as seed capital for their ventures,” he said.

The governor noted that the training cost was N482 million while cash disbursement comprised four categories.

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