Inside Lagos’ new beggars’ colony

Beggars are supposedly infirm. But BOLA BADMUS, CHUKWUMA OKPARAOCHA, OLALEKAN OLABULO and NEWTON-RAY UKWUOMA ran into an exclusive club of beggars in Lagos; and they are without infirmity.

Begging in Lagos–as in many other places–is often seen as the preserve of persons with disabilities or, at least, people who are visibly poor or homeless. However, there are now increasing instances of normal and regular people begging openly along the streets of Lagos. Traders, who are not patronized, now beg for money to eat. Some target canteens where they beg for food. Sometimes, well dressed people who claim to have lost their wallets or handbags stand along the roads, begging.

Over the last few years, security men and women at banks, eateries, malls and other public places in Lagos have virtually turned to beggars. They no longer wait to see if customers would tip them; but now brazenly ask for it.

Lekan had gone to a restaurant at Ikeja for his launch. He had already started eating when a young lady and a young man walked in. The two of them were holding a bag each with some items. They quietly sat beside Lekan and introduced themselves as sales representatives of a company.

The young man said, “We are sales reps and we have some items to sell to you. We have clippers. We have shaving machine .We have small rechargeable fans and we also have lanterns.”

When Lekan said he did not need any of the items, the young lady quickly said, “But you can buy because of us. If we don’t sell anything, we won’t get any money. We paid our transport fare ourselves. We have not eaten anything since morning. Even if you are not buying anything, buy food for us.”

For emphasis, the young man added, “We are not saying you should give us money. Pay the money to the food seller and we will take the food. We are very hungry.”

Lekan was forced to part with some money for two plates of food for the sales representatives and he watched as they delightfully and hungrily devoured the food

There is another style of begging which somewhat tows the spiritual line. Here, a religious-looking individual enters a canteen and makes efforts to ‘pray’ for the canteen owner in exchange for a meal. First, the individual in question enters a canteen and takes his seat like any other customer. Soon, he begins to chant some words of prayer, which would eventually capture the attention of the canteen owner.

Within a few minutes, the chants evolve into a full prayer, as intercession will be made for the canteen owner to keep recording good sales. At the end of the whole thing, the “prayer man” is handed a plate of food which he relishes and as soon as he is done, he takes his leave. However, after a few days, he comes back to repeat the same process.

Our correspondent, who recently witnessed this at a canteen in Ikeja, chatted with the canteen owner who said she didn’t mind parting with a plate of her food for someone who had just prayed for the success of her business.

“There is a popular adage in Yoruba which says, ‘It doesn’t matter if they are answered or not, prayers will always be preferable to curses.’ So, I see nothing wrong in giving a plate of food which is worth less than N300 to an individual who took some time to pray for me, even if such a person is fake,” said the canteen owner.

Sometimes, these prayers are conducted on buses. In this instance, ‘preachers’, after delivering sermons ask commuters to contribute some money towards a good cause.

Again, Saturday Tribune witnessed such an incident recently on a bus from CMS to Ikeja. This time round, it was an 18-seater LT bus which took almost 20 minutes to load. As soon as the bus began its journey, one of the passengers proceeded to preach.

For half an hour he spoke on the need for everyone not to give up, even in the face of the harsh economic situation in the country. “God has not forgotten you. Never give up. Keep trusting Him and He will make a way for you”, he said and this attracted a loud chorus of “Amen” from the rest of the passengers.

However, towards the end of his sermon, the preacher began to talk of the need for people to support some patients in dire need of financial assistance at Igbobi-a popular orthopedic hospital in Lagos.

“I am raising money for a man who is currently on admission in the hospital. He needs the sum of N50, 000 to save his leg from amputation. The mission group where I belong has been able to raise N40, 000 for him, but we still have N10, 000 more to go. Therefore, I want to encourage as many people on this bus as possible to contribute towards this and, as you do so, the Lord will raise help for you. As you obey, accident will never be your portion,” he said.

He did manage to get some money from a couple of people on board, the sum of which could not be ascertained by Saturday Tribune, but, judging  by the rather cold response he got from the majority of passengers on the bus, it might be plausible to say this trick is gradually becoming old-fashioned.

Sometimes, things take a deeply spiritual turn. For example, a few days ago, at Berger in Ojodu area of the state, a strangely dressed man, approached a food seller at her canteen and urged the woman to offer a sacrifice to God by giving him some food.

The woman, who runs her canteen along the popular street at Berger behind the popular Ojodu market, normally sells rice, plantains, beans and spaghetti. According to the food seller, who did not wish to be named, at the time the man came, she was still cooking rice and there was nothing ready to be served except stew.

However, towards the end of his sermon, the preacher began to talk of the need for people to support some patients in dire need of financial assistance at Igbobi-a popular orthopedic hospital in Lagos.

“I am raising money for a man who is currently on admission in the hospital. He needs the sum of N50,000 to save his leg from amputation. The mission group where I belong has been able to raise N40,000 for him, but we still have N10,000 more to go. Therefore, I want to encourage as many people on this bus as possible to contribute towards this and, as you do so, the Lord will raise help for you. As you obey, accident will never be your portion,” he said.

He did manage to get some money from a couple of people on board, the sum of which could not be ascertained by Saturday Tribune, but, judging  by the rather cold response he got from the majority of passengers on the bus, it might be plausible to say this trick is gradually becoming old-fashioned.

Sometimes, things take a deeply spiritual turn. For example, a few days ago, at Berger in Ojodu area of the state, a strangely dressed man, approached a food seller at her canteen and urged the woman to offer a sacrifice to God by giving him some food.

The woman, who runs her canteen along the popular street at Berger behind the popular Ojodu market, normally sells rice, plantains, beans and spaghetti. According to the food seller, who did not wish to be named, at the time the man came, she was still cooking rice and there was nothing ready to be served except stew.

She said she explained this to the man, but he said he would wait, for as long as it would take to get the rice done. “When the man approached to ask that I should offer a sacrifice of food to him, I told him that only the stew was ready and that the rice was still on fire. I saw that he was still waiting. After some time, I was forced to repeat the message and even went as far as showing the stew to him and pointing at the rice still on fire to convince him. He didn’t move.”

“When I could not bear it anymore, I had to step out of the canteen and walked a little distance away. No customer was yet around then. But to my surprise, the man got angry and started saying all sorts of things, even to the extent of pronouncing a curse which I know would not work because I was always ready to serve food to beggars, whenever they approach me”, she also added.

The food seller said people who listened to him while he spoke were even shocked as they gathered around watching him, in disbelief.

 

Government reacts

The Lagos State government is not unaware of this growing menace. Indeed, Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, the state Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, has continued to urge residents in the state to desist from encouraging street beggars by not giving them alms.

Reacting to the rise of street beggars and their method of operation, especially those who resort to all sorts of disabilities to beg, Akinbile-Yussuf said the government would take steps to arrest the menace, stressing that the government was working to ensure people do not use disability or any other form as an excuse to beg.

She said, “The fact that you have any disability does not make you a potential beggar. The Lagos State government has provided a lot of avenues where people living with disabilities are being catered for.  And we have new plans to improve upon what has been done.

“Henceforth, we will allow the law to take its full course on anyone caught begging. We are saying, instead, let anyone living with disability come to the agency so that we can assist them. The government will no longer tolerate residents who beg for alms. It is rather unfortunate that as we try to evacuate these beggars from the street into social facilities the more they relocate from other states down to Lagos.”

Despite the official threat, these new beggars may not be running foul of the law because no visible disability can be fixed on them, except, possibly, stomach disability.