Why so many religious students in Nigeria beg in the streets

for the posh malls of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, are often accosted in car parks by boys in ripped kaftans with begging bowls. The kids sing mellifluous laments in Hausa, the main language of northern Nigeria. Auwal Musa begs for food and cash to pay for his weekly religious studies. He is only eight, has never been to a state school and hasn’t seen his parents since he was five. He is one of an estimated 13m unschooled children in Nigeria.Auwal, like 10m of them, is an , Arabic for an emigrant, implying a searcher for religious knowledge or freedom. Yet the boys’ lack of formal education limits their life chances. When riots break out for political or religious reasons, Nigerians often accuse such boys of being thugs for hire.