Beggars flood Abuja streets

DAILY TRUST

Abuja, Nigeria’s bustling capital city, is a landscape of contradictions. While luxury cars weave through broad avenues and glass buildings glimmer in the sunlight, at intersections and street corners, another world unfolds—a world populated by men, women and children eking out a living through begging. For many, life in the streets of Abuja is their only option, the culmination of a series of unfortunate events, poverty and desperation.

Street begging in Abuja is visible at major intersections, malls, airports, parks, markets and places of worship. Beggars range from elderly individuals to children, and some are seen with placards detailing their plight, while some carry infants, capitalising on the sympathy that comes from showing vulnerability. 

The number of these beggars has continued to rise despite the intervention of the relevant agencies of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration.

While the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) is saddled with the responsibility of cleaning the city, including the removal of beggars from the streets, the FCT Social Development Secretariat is responsible for the rehabilitation of those removed from the streets.

But investigation by Weekend Trust showed that the two government agencies have been overwhelmed by the growing number of street beggars in the country’s capital.

Why Abuja is witnessing more beggars

To understand the lives behind the outstretched hands and pleading eyes and why they continue to choose Abuja as their destination, Weekend Trust spoke to a few beggars at various busy points across the city and their responses showed that they are mostly from the trouble parts of northern Nigeria as a result of insurgency. 

They are mostly from Niger, Zamfara, Katsina, Nasarawa, Kano, Adamawa, Borno, among other places.

Specifically, some of the women that beg with their kids told Weekend Trust that they were widows displaced by the unrest in some northern states.

Sakinatu Bello from Nasarawa State said before now, she lived with her husband in Funtua town in Katsina State, but had to relocate after her husband was abducted.  

Another woman who escaped from Zamfara, her state of origin, said her husband was killed along with their two children. 

She said, “My father was a retired soldier who married my mother from the southeastern part of the country during the civil war. He passed on during my childhood and my mother separated from him after the war ended. She was rejected by my grandparents; hence, I was raised up without knowing my mother or any of her relatives.’’

The woman said she has spent more than five years on Abuja streets, day and night.  

Also, Nura Alhassan, who hails from Kakumi community in Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State and does not have any form of disability, said he resorted to begging in Abuja city centre after residents of his community were displaced by bandits about a year ago.

He said, “In my family house alone, 16 people were abducted, while about 70 cattle owned by my father were rustled. In all, about 130 members of the community were abducted.

“On each of the 130 people, N1 million ransom was paid before they were released. That’s the reason I relocated from there and now reside at the Ruga area, near the Abuja City Gate.”

He said he divorced his wife due to his condition before relocating to Abuja.

Some of the beggars said they were forced to engage in begging because there are no job opportunities in the country.

Nuru Imam said he was brought from Borno State to be engaged as a site worker, but on getting to Abuja, because of the situation in the country, he discovered that many construction sites had folded up, so he was left without option than to look for an alternative, adding, “I think this is better than stealing.’’

Asked why most of them choose to come to Abuja instead of other cities, the beggars said the FCT seemed to be one of the safest towns in the North.

Umar Isah from Zamfara also said, “If you are running from Boko Haram or bandits, where would you want to go, apart from Abuja? From Borno to Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, nowhere is safe like Abuja. Aside that, many believe there are opportunities in Abuja because there are rich men who can change your life if God is with you. This has happened to many of us several times.’’ 

How they live

Many of the beggars told Weekend Trust that life is not easy for them on the streets, but they are forced to be there because there are limited options.

Bashiru Ibrahim, 22, from Jigawa State, an amputee, said his life had been full of struggle. “My uncle brought me to Abuja six years ago, saying I could earn money as a laborer, but when I got here, this is what I found as nobody would give me a job,” he said.

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