Nigeria is affected by many problems, problems that may be created from the same source. One of the many problems Nigeria faces today is the issue of beggars on the streets. There may exist several reasons why these people occupy Nigerian streets. Corruption, lack of education, lack on common sense, lack of experience, lack of job opportunities and unreasonable salaries, and sometimes even laziness. These people are regarded as parasites, all they do is benefit from their host for free, they tarnish the image of Nigeria, not only in terms of the physical but the financial as well and also, it shows that Nigeria is far away from proper development.
What we should ask ourselves is what lead to this issue and how it became something major and think of possible solutions. It definitely started out small, only a few beggars on roadsides, and just like a plague this problem gradually grew bigger, and before anyone could say a thing, it became the major issue it is today. There were far less beggars on the streets fifteen to twenty years ago. The number has increased ever since. This only goes to show that there is some kind of motive behind begging, however small or useless it may be, these beggars get something out of it and that is why they do it in the first place. Different people may give different reasons as to why people beg. It maybe due to lack of wealth, orphanage, disabilities, lack of school or job opportunities, or maybe even forced upon them by their parents who live in far away villages. All of the above may be reasons why we find so many beggars today; an individual beggar may pick one of the reasons while another may have collective reasons. Whatever the reason, it still does not provide any justification what –so-ever as to why anyone should beg. The reply you will almost always get from beggars on the street when you ask about the begging issue is that they have nothing else to do, or they have no other option. I say this is absolutely unacceptable. Most of the beggars’ people see gallivanting roadsides are able people who are capable of getting decent jobs such as gardening and cleaning for reasonable pay. But they refuse to, most probably because the beggars before them did the same. It has now become a vicious circle, the issue of beggars, it has started and it will not stop until someone breaks it. That someone could be the government, wealthy individuals or even the beggars themselves. It would even be better if these three factors come together as one and tackle the issue.
I have noticed that people only talk about the issue of beggars but they do not necessarily care about it. People should be afraid of this issue whether they feel it applies to them or not. This is because if care is not taken, the same little children that we look at as harmless little beggars are the ones that would grow up to form rebel groups and cause civil unrest in a state or even a country. It is happening around us everyday. We have seen the problems other African countries faced or are facing today. Rebel groups causing chaos for no reason. They might use political or religious issues to back their actions up but when one gets past all that, he finds out there is no true reason behind it. Beggars carry out most armed robberies, they themselves often confess and give reasons why and when looked carefully, we see that the reasons different robbers give are not so different from each other. Because they lack quality education, they cannot secure decent jobs and so they go for jobs with less value, jobs such as house cleaning, laundry or security guards, but they feel the salaries they receive from these jobs are not enough and so they work on fast, easier ways of getting money, which is no other than fraud and armed robbery.
The government should intervene, and fast because the earlier they intervene the better because the number of beggars on the streets is steadily increasing. We know that only a fragment of beggars in Nigeria have little or no academic knowledge; both western and religious. I just recently found out that not all of the beggars up North are Muslim, as I previously thought and as a lot of other people still think. The truth is far from that. These kids actually pose as Muslims so as to get help from Islamic leaders that train beggars and teach them the Qur’an and the ways of Islam. Even so, it is only a small percentage of these beggars that get such help; most of them depend on themselves for almost everything, walking around town day and night, looking for something to eat. What I feel the government and other wealthy individuals should do to intervene this problem is to support the people that raise and train beggars by providing them with quality tools, modern facilities and so on. Provide not just religious studies but western as well, because as I stated earlier, most of these beggars have no knowledge at all of the west and of their religion. People might ignore this because they feel it does not count, when actually the sad fact is that every little counts. Something good is lost for every uneducated person is how I see it. As at 2006, based on statistics, Nigeria’s adult literacy rate stood at 68.0%, now I am not saying that this is a terrible score but Nigeria is capable of doing better.
Other than funding schools and education for the less fortunate, other creative ways of putting these beggars to good use maybe created. In England for example, beggars are provided with a Magazine called the big issue to sell to the public, what they make is theirs and from it they can find shelters to stay for a night. At least this keeps them from sticking people up or stabbing innocent people and stealing from them. The Nigerian government could make something similar, at least something to keep them busy but at the same time give them something to take care of themselves.
Of course the government and other wealthy individuals have other issues to address and so all focus should not be put on this issue, the beggars themselves have to do something for themselves. Since the problem mostly arises from the villages or outskirts of a town or city were people bore more children than they can actually take care before sending one or two of them down to the city to beg. Such people should also be kept on close watch.
If we really think of it, all these children could be put to good use and to aid in making Nigeria a better place. Why can’t the able ones help, why can’t the government do what it is supposed to do for these kids and for Nigeria as a whole? The issue or lack of funds should not even arise when addressing this case because the funds exist. The funds are there in place and with the blessing God has given this Nation, I strongly believe it highly impossible for the government to lack funds for helping the beggars.
Nigerians want to belong were other developed countries are, but how is this possible when we have failed to accomplish even the simplest task. We have leaders saying they want to re-brand the country, change the image from negative to positive. The question is who are we deceiving if not ourselves. It is very impossible to brand the negative image Nigeria has propelled outwards with a positive one because there will be no proof to justify that we are positive in any way. Trying to re-brand Nigeria is exactly like changing an old book’s cover and selling it at the price of a new one, the pages and text in the book remain the same old thing. Just a week ago, 10billion naira was proposed for Nigeria’s 50th birthday. First of all, we have not achieved anything worth celebrating yet and the money can be put to better use. We have bad school and hospital services; even our defense forces need bright rays of light. We still experience electricity and water problems but we have 10billion to spend on absolutely nothing.
This same funds aimed at Nigeria’s 50th anniversary could have gone to clinics, schools, roads and electric and water problems, it may have been used to put most, if not all of these beggars out of the roads and into well maintained foster homes and provide them with good quality schools.
The main reason why Nigeria remains like a turtle on a pilgrimage to Mecca from South Africa is because there is miss allocation of resources and mismanagement of funds, and to top it all, there is too much corruption and illiteracy running through the minds of its people. People blame the government, but if you check, even the poorest of poor are cheating one another. Corruption has eaten Nigeria to such a level that people lack common sense and know not their rights as citizens and as human beings.
This issue of beggars is a very vital issue, and I feel it should not be ignored at all because it is these same people that are our future. What future will we have if our leaders cannot count to ten?
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