We are barely living because life is not sweet again. When you wake up hale and hearty and you thank God but there is nothing to enjoy life anymore. Living has become expensive, compared to how it was many years ago. Some of us that God has blessed with long life saw yesterday and we are seeing today. We are nostalgic about the past. We only feel sorrow about today.”
The above were the lamentations of Abubakar Garba, a physically challenged beggar in Jos, Plateau State.
Garba told Saturday Tribune during the week that it was disturbing how it has become difficult for the people in the country to feed. He recalled that back in the days, they bought rice cheaply and life was easy.
Garba, who spoke in Hausa language, groaned that life had become increasingly hard for “people like us” because only people with kind hearts still give alms because of the state of the economy and “this is what we depend on to cater for our families.”
He said: “Things that were beneath our means are now beyond us. We can no longer afford them. This is where we are today. One goes looking for what to feed his family with and it is nearly impossible to find because life is now difficult for everybody.
“One would be out a whole day and still not be able to put together something enough to buy just a measure of corn flour (garin masara). This is disturbing. As little as that is, you will struggle to afford it.
“Today, a measure of rice is way above N1,000, and it has become a battle to get even N500 in a day. So, how would one even think about rice? We bought a measure of rice with kobos back then and that is why it is annoying for some of us when we look back.”
Garba said some food ingredients were now reserved for kings and big men because they are now above their means and they are just after getting the basic food ingredients in order not to stay hungry.
“A measure of corn flour today is N900. When you buy that, what about ingredients for the soup? Where would that come from? We are not even talking about meat that has been reserved for kings and big people.
“We are talking about locust beans (dadawa), salt and seasoning for the soup and if we are lucky to have rice, we just sprinkle some oil and pepper powder with salt and eat just to fill our stomachs so we don’t starve. That’s the level we find ourselves in today.
“It is quite difficult for people like us because it takes only a person that has a kind heart and has sympathy to reach into their pockets to give us something at this time. If not for God that is merciful and rules over the affairs of men, who are we to feed ourselves let alone our families at this time?” Garba submitted.
The father of eight told Saturday Tribune that his children were struggling and could not afford to take care of him. He also said he was still struggling to ensure that his youngest child gets secondary education like her siblings.
“I have eight children and they are all struggling. The boys are petty traders because they don’t have capital to grow the business enough for them to take care of us, their parents. For the girls, some are married and others are still single. They all went to school up to the secondary level.
“Some of them want to further their education, but we can’t afford it. I am still struggling to see the youngest through her secondary education. She just graduated from primary school, but I can’t afford to send her to secondary school now, because I am more concerned about their feeding,” he said.
Garba said he had been begging on Ahmadu Bello Way in Jos for a very long time, recalling how he started during the times of Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa. He said he had lived on the goodwill of people since he started begging.
“I have been begging here for a long time, about 60 years now. You must have heard about Sardauna and Tafawa Balewa. I was very young then. It was about that time I started coming here. This is where I obtain my livelihood. I get my income through people who have kindness in their hearts. As they pass by, they give us money and that is what we live on.”
He said he had seen it all: the good, the bad and the ugly, but one of the memories that would never leave him was how he became disabled.
He revealed that he was a vibrant young boy who did everything for himself, including climbing trees, farming and even rearing of cattle, before tragedy struck.
He said what started like a fever changed the cause of his life forever.
“A lot of things have happened: the good, the bad and the ugly, but the one I will never forget is when this predicament befell me. I would say it was witchcraft (iskoki). I was a teen boy already and I could walk and do everything on my own.
“I climbed trees to get firewood. I went to the farm and even reared cattle. I did all those things by myself hale and hearty and then everything changed.
“That is one of my unforgettable experiences. I was in the farm with my parents when it all started. I felt somehow while we were in the farm; it felt like fever and I went back home and that was it.
“I started feeling pain in my legs. We treated it with some traditional medicines and we noticed that my legs were shrinking and. It was at that point that my parents thought that it could be as a result of witchcraft. The legs shrank and I couldn’t walk again. So, of the many things I have experienced in this life, this one is unforgettable,” he told Saturday Tribune.
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