BETWEEN THE STATUTE AND THE SCRIPTURE: CHILD BEGGING AT THE CROSSROADS OF NIGERIAN LAW AND ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE

Abstract

The phenomenon of child begging in Nigeria represents a critical intersection where statutory law meets religious tradition, creating both protective frameworks and enforcement vacuums. This article examines the legal regulation of child begging through two distinct yet increasingly convergent lenses: Nigerian statutory law, primarily the Child Rights Act of 2003, and Islamic jurisprudence fiqh, particularly the authoritative resolutions of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy. Focusing on the Almajiri system, wherein millions of children pursue Quranic education while engaging in systematic street begging, the article analyses how colonial disruptions, post-independence policy failures, and socioeconomic deprivation have transformed a historically revered educational tradition into a mechanism of child exploitation.While Nigerian law unequivocally criminalises the use of children for begging, punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment, enforcement remains fragmented due to jurisdictional complexities and non-domestication of federal legislation in twelve northern states.Conversely, contemporary Islamic jurisprudence has evolved toward explicit prohibition of child begging, with the International Islamic Fiqh Academy's 2023 Resolution No. 246 (A Shariah approach to the Phenomenon of Street Children, Child Beggars, and Children in Hard Labour) establishing that poverty cannot serve as a pretext for violating children's rights to education, health, and dignified upbringing. The article argues that despite apparent doctrinal convergence between statutory and religious frameworks, effective protection requires harmonised legal implementation, institutional empowerment of religious enforcement mechanisms such as the Hisbah, and socioeconomic interventions addressing the structural poverty driving families to abandon children to exploitative systems. Drawing on comparative analysis of West African Quranic school systems and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child's landmark decision against Senegal (2014), the article proposes a framework for culturally sensitive reform that respects religious autonomy while ensuring child protection