The Kano Mass Wedding Is Not Your Problem As a Southerner Sponsored mass weddings happen all over the world, including in the U.S., which we like to cite as the epitome of development and civilisation. In 2023, New York City sponsored a mass wedding of 700 couples. Please fact-check me. China, South Korea, and Malaysia have them all the time. It is a social intervention scheme done by good governments globally to provide an affordable alternative for marriage-age couples to engage in nuptials. Stop castigating Kano. They do this to maintain the morality level of their society. In many Southern Nigerian states, we have mass fornication of both underaged and of-age couples. Kano does not want that. They are sponsoring these weddings to preserve the moral fabric of their societies. Yes, Kano has a high number of out of Western school children. But these children are not out-of-school children. They are only out of Western schools. Almajiri are students of a Madrassa, which is an Islamic school. The word Almajiri is a corruption of an Arabic word of Islamic origin, al-Muhājir, meaning a person who leaves his home to migrate in search of knowledge. Amongst the Lukumi Yoruba, the system is slightly adapted and called Ilé-keu. Ifedayo Olarinde, AKA Daddy Freeze, is a product of Ilé-keu, yet his father and mother are both PhD holders, and one of them is a Professor of Law. Even more amazingly, his mother is a White European. But she let her son pass through Ilé-keu. In Southern Nigeria, we celebrate people who japa to pursue money and other temporal things that have value only in this life. We tolerate and, in some cases, venerate males and females who migrate to Italy to do unspeakable things for money. If we can do this, why can't we tolerate Arewa's almajiri culture? These children get an Islamic education and become great men and women in society using the disciplines they learnt from their Malams. I do not want to embarrass them, so I will not mention their names. But some of the wealthiest men in Nigeria, who are dollar billionaires, were once almajiri. Some incumbent Governors were once almajiri. If a person bears the title Malam before his name, chances are that he is a former almajiri. In Yobe State, a former almajiri gave me a sports car for my use during my service year and introduced me to then Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim. Going through that system of education instils in you a type of honesty and thrift almost alien to humanity. You can drop an iPhone in a market in Kano and come back one week later to reclaim it. If you do the same at Ladipo Market, it will find its way to its real owner within milliseconds! So, if you do not understand the way of life of the Muslim core North of Nigeria, do not cause offence by insulting them and casting aspersions on their culture. There are other things you, as a Southerner, can focus on, including the fact that more than 95% of Nigerians in prison for drug crimes and romance scams in Asia and Latin America are Southern Nigerians. Of that 95%, over 60% originate from two Southern Nigerian states that contribute little to the VAT pool. I can be more specific area-wise, but I do not want insults. Reno Omokri Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022. 21st Most Talked About Person in Africa, 2024.