“In a world of plenty, we can spread a smile
of joy; throw your arms around the world at
Christmas time, but say a prayer, pray for the
other ones.

“At Christmas time it’s hard, but when you’re
having fun, there’s a world outside your
window; it’s a world of dread and fear, where
the only water flowing is the bitter sting of
tears..!

Well, tonight, thank God it’s them instead of
you…..’’ (Abridged version of Band Aid 20
Lyrics, titled “Do they know it’s Christmas?’’)
Only 12 years old Jones has spent the last two
Christmases on the streets homeless. His
most frequent “home’’ in Lagos Metropolis is
the space under a giant water tank at the
National Theatre, Iganmu.

“It is cool here; I have friends, and we are
having fun’’, says the skinny, obviously
malnourished and unkempt boy who claims
to have been born in Port Harcourt, but was
forced to run away due to maltreatment by
his stepmother.

“She used to beat me with a small pestle
whenever my dad was not around. She was
always accusing me of stealing her money or
pieces of meat from the soup pot,’’ he says in
broken English — with a grin showing
brownish set of teeth that needs brushing.
According to Jones, his mother ran away with
a Ghanaian sailor when he was just three
years old, and his father — a carpenter —
remarried six years later.

“I am the only child my mother had for my
dad. I learnt she is from Cameroon; nobody
seems to know where she is with her new
husband,’’ Jones narrates.
He has, however, been deprived of spending
his nights in the “protective’’ space under the
water tank.

“The National Theatre’s private security men
said we must not sleep here; I and two of my
friends have moved to under the Ijora Bridge
at Badiya.
“But, we come to the theatre to play, sleep,
and beg for food in the daytime.
“Some churches bring food to us, especially
on Sundays and festive periods, and we hold
prayer sessions with their pastors’’.
Jones is not thinking of going back home to
his dad. “I want to hustle and make money
on my own, here in Lagos,’’ he quips.

With no education, having dropped out in
primary three, the boy believes he will find a
way and become rich and famous, even
though currently homeless!
One of Jones’ friends and “roommate’’ seems
unhappy with him for speaking with this
writer. He prefers they continue playing
football on a section of the tree-lined
expansive National Theatre Complex.

However, as soon as the writer beckoned on
an itinerant “puff-puff’’ seller to join him, the
boys abandoned football and crowded him in
anticipation of having something to chew.
They live on the benevolence of picnickers
and passersby, as well as leftover food from
the more than 20 canteens and beer parlours
around the National Theatre.

What does Christmas mean to Jones and his
homeless colleagues? “It is not too different
from our normal days, except we may get
more gifts and money from the increased
population of fun-seekers around the
theatre. No new clothes and shoes; no live
chicken to kill, and no family members to
celebrate with.’’
It may seem as if the “Joneses’’ became
homeless through their individual acts, but
many are in similar positions because of
circumstances, natural disasters, wars and
other forms of violence.

Nigeria and most of other West African
countries have been lucky to be spared of
earthquakes, serious flooding, Tsunamis,
extreme cold and intemperate high
atmospheric temperatures.
But, insurgency, especially the activities of
the Boko Haram terror group, has killed
many in North-Eastern Nigeria and rendered
thousands homeless.

Many other countries bordering Nigeria in
the Lake Chad region — Cameroon, Niger and
Chad — are grappling with the horrors of this
insurgency. Internally displaced people
(IDPs) abound in camps in the war-torn
regions of Nigeria and along the border with
her neighbours. Uprooted from their
homesteads and violently separated from
loved ones, they hardly know it is Christmas!
Prof. Joshua Agbo, a lecturer of Political
Science at the Benue State University, wants
government to “provide an intervention
scheme for the homeless.

“It should be geared at creating jobs for the
homeless, provide a return of remuneration,
however, minute.
“This remuneration will, in turn, empower
them economically to be able to make ends
meet, more specifically, payment of house
rent’’.

Agbo says, “For the very elderly homeless’’,
there should be creation of more poor
people’s homes with trained personnel to
cater for their needs.
“This will bring a ray of hope in the way of
such indigent persons’’.
The Lagos State Government has three
rehabilitation centres: The Rehabilitation and
Training Centre, Majidun, houses rescued
beggars, the destitute and the mentally
challenged. The centre has 1,200 rehabilitees.
The state also has the Rehabilitation and
Vocational Training Centre, Isheri-Berger.
This has 45 male drug dependents.
Lagos also has the State Vocational
Rehabilitation Centre for Persons Living with
Disabilities in Owutu-Ikorodu, with 35
inmates.

According to a social worker, most of those in
need of help, especially a roof over their
heads, prefer to remain on the streets
begging instead of being “restricted’’ in a
rehabilitation centre.
The Director of Social Communications,
Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Monsignor
Gabriel Osu, calls on all tiers of government
to go back to their drawing boards as they
have done in the past.
“If the government is serious with human
management, it knows what to do. In those
days, government used to go round with its
vehicles to look for them (homeless). They
would take those who should be in school to
school, and some would be engaged.
“In those days, we used to have the late Pa
Huppers Centre, Boys Scout in Agege, Yaba
Training Centre, Alakoro Centre, Ministry of
Sports and Youth Centres. We also had
individuals taking care of the homeless.
“They engaged them in different vocations;
apart from that, they (homeless) still went to
school. Even different ministries too used to
do that, but they suddenly stopped caring.
They should go back to those days.’’
The Director of Muslim Rights Concern
(MURIC), Prof. Ishaq Akintola, urges parents
to be responsible by taking care of their
children.
“Government at all tiers should make it their
priority to educate parents to give birth to
the number children that they are capable of
taking care of. They should also make it their
duty to check on parents who are unable to
give education, accommodation, feeding and
all the needful to their children. If possible,
such parents should be punished.
“They should make sure that parents do not
ignore that aspect of their responsibility,’’
Akintola says.
The vulnerable, the displaced, the bereaved
and broken-hearted, the sick (especially the
terminally ill) and the homeless, should be
reached out to in a season that emphasises
sharing, caring, loving and giving in general.
Conflicts should be avoided to save people
from being uprooted from their homesteads,
and the National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA) and its state subsidiaries
should be empowered to cope with
emergencies.

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