The joint collapses have left a generation with limited ways to scrape by: washing cars; hawking candies, beads, water and fruit; pan-handling; or stealing. The entire Muslim-dominated northern region has suffered, including Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and a trade center dependent on Kano.
With an aversion in the north to secular education, associated with British colonialists and later with a corrupt, Western-educated elite, youngsters have been further enticed by militant clerics to Boko Haram (which translates to "Western education is a sin").
Only 28% of children in the northern state of Borno attend school, according to Nigerian government statistics, and the literacy rate in the north is 32% compared with the 68% national average. Nigeria's poverty rate grew from 55% in 2004 to 61% in 2010, largely because of the collapse of the northern economy.
Panhandling was recently banned in Kano in an attempt to reduce the sea of almajiri on the streets. Yet they remain visible, hollow-cheeked, anxious, their hands extended.