By Dodoh Okafor
They are not your regular or normal street beggars for they are not dressed in tattered clothes, they are neither blind nor disabled, andno, they are not sick, they are just hungry or stuck or both.
You find them at several of the ubiquitous shopping malls and bakeries in the capital city, at worship centres, around government offices and parastatals, social events and wherever you think only the rich and well-to-do gather. They come dressed in decent clothing, speak polished English and possess all the fine mannerisms you associate with folks living in Abuja.
When they approach as you try to get into your car at the end of a function, you are compelled- for whatever reason- to stop and give them attention. Who would assume that a man dressed in bespoke suit and tie would run short of money to charter a taxi to go home? He was a guest at an A-rated function remember. How can anyone ascribe pennilessness to a hajia you meet at the parking lot of say NEXT Cash ’n Carry or Shoprite? What’s more, the beautifully adorned woman was standing next to a recent model of Toyota Camry. Interestingly, she needs just a thousand naira to buy fuel for the lovely piece of machine standing next to her. What do you say about a young man putting on a starched white kaftan who accosts you at a bus stop in Asokoro asking you to help him with N300 so he can get to his destination in Nyanya?
If you have lived and mingled in the capital city long enough, you sure must have encountered this lot. They are not afraid, they are not shamed and have no need to be. It is inconceivable to imagine that a woman driving anN5-million car would be stranded at a road junction because of a few thousand Naira to buy petrol. They are not afraid of rejection or being said ‘no’to. They know who they are and it is not likely that they are perturbed by what they see as a temporary financial setback. The same can be said of a young civil servant who now finds himself struggling to pay his transport fare at the end of the business day.
Now make no mistake. We are not talking of fraudsters here, the professional class of beggars who move around from one road junction to the other swapping stories, telling how they came for a job interview and needed just enough money to get back to their destinations in Port Harcourt or Sokoto. That on its own would not cause concern, except that our friends in this category would quickly move to the next bus stop, slightly alter the story, all to collect more money from totally unsuspecting members of the public.
We are also not talking about the regulars who stalk people at shopping malls or eateries asking for money to take care of a sick relative. Of course, I take it for granted that you are aware that this conversation excludes the traditional class of beggars from a particular section of the country including children who line up the road junctions and regular markets with plastic plates asking for money from every passer-by. No.
They are not of interest to us. Neither have we included those in genuine need, who rely on handouts and alms for survival, the blind, the crippled and those whose debilitating medical conditions mean that they cannot lead normal lives.
Over the past four years or so Abuja’s colony of beggars has been undergoing multiple expansions. While the number of regular beggars, who throng into Abuja in cattle-hauling trucks in the dead of night, was already proving worrying, a new class began to join in 2016/2017. The new entrants included young men and women who recently lost their jobs, persons whose businesses crumbled or those who suddenly found themselves unable to meet their daily needs. They began by begging from their phones and then migrated to social media messaging apps and right now, like the one who sneaked into the city in trucks, they are on the streets“hustling” and doing whatever must be done to keep body and soul together.
In time they were joined by former labourers at construction sites who no longer had anything doing,and before you realised what was happening, they were on the streets too- begging to survive. In time, students in tertiary institutions who stopped receiving their monthly stipends from home joined,and we now have arrived at a point where men and women who were seemingly living well have resorted to begging from total strangers.
Last month, a friend, an architect, went to visit an old client he had not heard from for a while in the Asokoro area of the city. The client told him what most Nigerians have come to regard as a regular staple in daily conversations:things are hard, business has collapsed, children schooling abroad have returned home….
My friend was, however, totally unprepared for what hit him as he was about to drive out. “Please my brother can I get 10 thousand nairas from you so I can fuel my car and buy gas for the kitchen?”
It was a shocker,but my guy too, struggling for lack of jobs and unpaid balances from clients had to understand, it’s hard for everyone,but he also does not have 10,000 naira anywhere. All he could afford was 5,000 which he gave his former client. The architect explained that he had visited to see if his client had any jobs for him because he was cash-strapped and his children’s school fees were long overdue.
There’s also something to be picked up here. The level of indebtedness is rising especially for contractors. So many people had to borrow money to make supplies or deliveries to government agencies in the hope that as soon as they are paid, they would offset the debts and make do with whatever remains. Sadly, most Abuja government contractors are passing through their worst business cycles. You know for sure that when contractors are owed, they, in turn, owe their vendors, staff and landlord- a very sickening vicious cycle.
Abuja residents are groaning in pain. Before you tag them all corrupt individuals who are only suffering because of all the smoke and mirror anti-corruption sloganeering of the government, be reminded that many of these are average Nigerians doing very legitimate businesses. These food vendors, the staffat construction companies, factory workers and the thousands you find in several parts of the city looking for who to hire out their labour to for a daily fee.
Truth is: Abuja needs help,and if nothing urgent is done to fix the financial crunch in the city, the next natural thing to follow would be an escalation in crime- the type of which has never been seenbefore.