Lagos street beggars and the danger ahead

Iyalode o.’

‘Our mama.’

‘Find us something.’

‘Your children will find helpers.’

‘We have not eaten anything since morning.’

‘Any amount will do.’

‘At all, all n aim bad.’

There were three of them, boys, knocking on my car windows, praying like Egungun Atipako ( a certain Yoruba masquerade). At first, I kept a straight face, maintaining my resolve to stop patronizing traffic jam ‘prayer warriors’. But one of them looked so young and desperately hungry. His prayers and plea broke me. I gave him N1,000.

I cursed and mumbled and agitated right there in my seat until I got home. Where are these ones’ mothers, fathers? These children who sleep in the open when it is raining and cold? These mothers who sit in one corner and send their eight-year-old to beg when traffic light stops motorists, are they not guilty of any offence in Lagos? These ones who wrap ‘kolorado’ in the open and start smoking as early as nine in the morning, is Lagos afraid of them or what? Where is KAI, the police, NDLEA in all this? Where is our humanity?

The Almajiri menace did not start overnight. It was a monster that first looked innocent, harmless, something that would eventually go away. Who would think a worm could grow into a snake, a venomous mamba? Did ordinary street begging look like it could metamorphose into a phenomenon that would threaten a whole region and give a nation a bad name?

They were just hungry boys.

 What is in a begging bowl?

 What harm can barefoot, homeless boys cause?

They are not even that many, really?

We will contain them.

We have set up a task force.

There is a committee looking into it.

Until everything went up in flames. The begging bowls were weaponised against the poor hungry boys and the entire community. While the state governments were constructing roads and designer flyovers and tunnels, the worm became a snake, in communities that had no venom antidotes. We are now all writhing in pain but this is not about a northern problem. This is about Lagos and my suspicion that there is another worm reproducing itself faster than the state can count. These little worms look totally harmless. Indeed, Lagosians make time every day to feed them, show them compassion. Poor girls. Poor boys. We wound down our windows to give them ‘change’. Some give them food, packed food. I gave one a bottle of soft drink the other day. He looked so worn out and desperate.

Giving alms is part of our culture. Being compassionate is like a religion, indeed part of every religion we practise in Nigeria. We cannot help ourselves. We must not even stop. I am all for lifting others up. We must not look away from the suffering of others. This is Nigeria. This is Africa and supporting one another, living like one big family (at least, pretending to be one family) is a culture. But shouldn’t we structure almsgiving so we can all do better, give more? If I was stopping over at a ‘Shelter for the Poor’ that Tuesday afternoon, would I have donated just a bottle of soft drink, not a carton or crate? But I am jumping the gun here. This is about my fear for Lagos, not just about giving.

The streets of Lagos are filling up with beggars. The sidewalks are now beds for druggies. The traffic light points are now places where children ‘rush’ you to give them something. There are also ‘mothers’ using babies to beg. Teenagers and young adults are washing windscreens of moving cars.

Long before ‘Japa’ became an international thing, Lagos has been a victim of its own success. From university graduates to artisans, educated and uneducated job seekers, Lagos has been home to green pasture seekers who believe that all you have to do is save up transport fare to Lagos and you will make it. Over the years, it seemed the other states of the federation have slumped back and become increasingly unattractive to their ‘indigenes’. Even when the federal capital was moved to Abuja, the green pasture and the golden fleece did not move with it. Lagos remained the Japa destination in Nigeria. With the gainfully employed making significant contributions to the state’s economy, Lagos can’t complain. But the rising number of children begging in traffic, young boys sleeping dangerously on road medians is not just worrisome but defacing Lagos.

Those who sneaked on the hungry gullible, uneducated children of the North and convinced them to wear timed bombs did not bring their poisoned chalice to town until they were sure their nets would catch the fish they wanted. They bade their time. Then, boom, one day, an explosion. Not long after that, we started having double explosions, multiple explosions, then abductions of children, school children in their hundreds. We all know where we are today with scores of empty farms and burnt villages.

It may look like none of all that happening in Borno and Kano can happen in Lagos. I am sure the inhabitants of those region also once thought their streets would always be safe. We can even snap our fingers three times and shout ‘God forbid” but faith without works is nothing and dead faith is what will help the worms acquire venom and lay plenty of eggs. The looming trouble may not land this year. It may not happen during the time of Governor Sanwo-Olu. It may take many moons but it will come. Yes, Lagos will pay something eventually if it does not do something with these unparented minors.

For as long as there are ‘mothers’ pimping’ their children in LASU-Iba traffic jam, something will eventually give. The kolo-heads at Jakande, especially, and virtually the entire Lekki-Epe Expressway, will shake both the centre and the excellence of Lagos. Just imagine the dozens of UN Buildings look-alike that Lagos has. May this my half-a-word be enough for Lagos to do what it needs to do.

But I will not paint this wake-up picture without making a suggestion or two. Not that I have not made them before.

First, I will acknowledge that Lagos has made efforts, several efforts to clean up its streets. The state has gone under many bridges to clear out those who had portioned under-bridges into flats and even restaurants. Yes, they were and are still cooking and roasting under Lagos bridges. Under the Ijora bridge, the Karkashin Gada settlement was brought down. Yes, there are landlords who collect daily and even annual rent as owners of Lagos bridges. Shocking? They also give quit notices too. They are most likely people who japa to Lagos without concrete plans and found out that there are no gold-plated streets in Lagos. Indeed, it is a tough city-state. These night landlords and their tenants expose the cover of the reinforcements of these bridges and compromise the integrity. Lagos went after the ‘residents, under Elegbata bridge near Apongbon in November, 2024. From the days of Majidun Rehabilitation Centre in Ikorodu built under military administrators to the establishment of KAI (Kick Against Indiscipline), Lagos has made efforts to stop the defacing of the state. But maybe it is time to do more, something extra.

Low self-esteem, inferiority complex, depression, drug abuse live on our streets and need I break down the offspring of those problems when they explode in our faces?

How about Lagos introducing Community Service into its laws and actually enforce it? How about the state starting a massive farm? Every morning, buses and vans of The Farm go to the streets and under bridges and take the unemployed and those sleeping in the open to the farm to work. The state puts them to work till 4 p.m., feeds them, takes their stories to determine their needs and then returns them to the streets by 5 p.m. The farm interviews will reveal the ‘lifestyle’ beggars who just want to beg for a living. The state will also be able to sort out those who want to learn a vocation, the children who really want to go to school and the women who married lazy men who cannot take care of their families. All these can be sorted on Day One. The state has enough civil servants in the relevant ministries and agencies to do the sorting in hours. The coordinating officers should announce that the operation –clean-the-streets will be done daily but those who want to stay back on the farm will be given accommodation and a daily stipend for their work. All those who want to return to the streets should be taken back to the streets by 5.pm and picked up again by 6am the following day. This should be repeated every day for 30 straight days, in the first instance and then weekly subsequently.

There are three quick results I foresee here. The vegetables, sweet potatoes, corn or cassava planted on Day One would have sprouted and the land would be beautifully covered in edible greenery. Two, some of the street boys would have become resident farmers, earning a stipend and happy to have a roof over their heads. Three, the professional or lifestyle beggars and the stubborn ones would be off the streets, in hiding, because they hate working at all and the state would have made them work and for free too.

Dear Lagos State Government, this is a problem you must confront. It is a battle you must win. You have tried thus far but if you leave this menace, it will not stop at just defacing the state; it will swallow Lagos. Let us not wait for the worm to become a snake.

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