THESE BEGGARS ARE ALREADY STRIKING!

- By Henry Osinimu Tawose

‘. . . Their presence is harmful to the prestige of our country; they are a running sore which should be kept hidden, at any rate in the Capital. This year the number of tourists has fallen considerably, in comparison with last year’s figures, and it’s almost certain that these beggars are to some extent responsible. We really can’t let them invade our cities and form a threat to public hygiene and the national economy.’

The above is an excerpt from Aminata Sow Fall’s ‘Beggars’ Strike’, credited to a not too bright Mon Ndiaye, a government Inspector, whose instruction to his very intelligent subordinate, Keba Dabo was to get rid of beggars in the country. The instruction came as a result of the unsightly scenes beggars in the city of Senegal had carved out to ply their daily beggaries which culminated in to delivering a retrogressive blow to the country’s economic good fortune. It was a loathsome activity the Inspector was ready to rid off the cities which he invariably achieved, in order to save the country’s fast dwindling economy. Although, he later paid for the repercussion with his personal ambition, this discourse will not be hemmed on that.

In a sharp contrast from the situation as painted by Aminata Sow Fall in Senegal, beggary activities littering the cities of Nigeria have not in any way plunged Nigeria’s economy into a stinging misfortune - at least, not in any way that would rouse the government’s attention - neither has it dubiously plagued the Nation’s treasury, instead, at a point, the government tried to legalize the activity by proposing a taxing system on it (That is a discussion for another day). While the government have continued with their activities unhindered given its well-oiled and crime-suppressing security apparatuses, the common man have not found it easy scavenging for his daily bread in the presence of some of these beggars.

Beggars whose looks exude pity, hunger and haggardness during the day, but by night, living above darkness, yanking off arms, carving out sexual organs and, ripping heads off human flesh and shredding such for consumption, nefarious rituals and mercantile activities – all, for ‘spiritual fortification’ and sudden wealth. A pauper during the day, a Night-King, beggars!

While the less-privileged and beggars are part of our existence and should at least be shown a modicum of pity, it's disheartening that people are deprived of their precious acquisitions, sanity, and even life by these beggars in the same society where they are supposed to be helpless or presumed to be so. People going by their daily activities are jolted to unpleasantness in the morning by nauseating injuries, gory sights by beggars exhibiting their disabilities to attract people’s mercy – while this might not be their making, these are making life uncomfortable for people who owe them at least nothing – and people making a return in the night after the day’s work are waylaid, coerced and maimed into losing ‘all.’

Most recently, security personnel smoked out and arrested some people perpetrating heinous activities underground somewhere in Ijaye, in Lagos State. Not too long ago when a similar swoop was carried out in Sooka in Ibadan where scores of people were discovered to be under chains and hundreds whose carcasses littered the godforsaken and dingy underground. The excavations in Sooka and the revelations therein have left too many questions still begging for answers. Many whose relatives have been declared missing for long immediately had their minds turned there if there could be an eruption of a sudden miracle. These were all kidnapped by people who were thought to be frail, abnormal or even stricken by poverty by day but who weren’t anything near that by night.

Without vain thoughts, it could only be applicatory to think that these people are not only armed with life-denying weapons but also sophisticated technologies too, which a

aid in garnering intelligence during the day before they launch an onslaught in the dark.

Apart from these mind-wriggling revelations, apparently, people who engage in beggary in order to survive have continued to constitute despicable nuisances to the sanity of the society. Children of school-age or who should be in school are loosed under the watch of their parents to engage in petty stealing and beggary activities in motor parks or various places where they can ride roughshod on people's emotional incapability. It’s annoying that these days, beggars are no longer gentle on people when begging for alms, they either stifle peace out of them by deliberately goading them with plea to part with what they don’t want to part with or forcefully taking it away from them. These beggars also lurk around ATM points, Bank entrances to play their commiserative ruse on unsuspecting persons. We all should be alerted that this will become a menace soonest, when these piteous stories are no longer salable to the public that small scale robberies will become the trend and translate into what might not be easily contained. An allusion on point was a boy who was burnt alive sometime ago in Lagos, whose picture went viral on the internet, rousing people’s curiosity in the process on why a punitive measure like death could be meted on a child on an offence bordering on Garri-theft. The popular voices were already instigating vehement emotional actions before the truth about the issue slipped out and the case died a natural death. This boy, age twelve at most, and his gang, had already become terror to their community, perpetrating criminal activities like picking pockets, maiming their victims and carting away their valuables. A case of a person, who was stabbed and left hanging between life and death, was instantly stated. Although, employing jungle justice is not excusable under the law, not even on a boy who only needs corrective measures to becoming a better person, it paints the horrible picture of how criminal, beggary could go. It all started simply as innocently begging, before it became a lucrative avenue to raking in money and when beggary is no longer reaping satisfactorily, it graduated to stealing and maiming, putting a community into a jeopardy that is suppose to be preventable. Its pertinent to point out that Most times, laziness plus hunger, breeds beggary, and beggary, desperation, and desperation, crime in the long run. Though sarcastic, but factual that many who are into begging are much richer than those they seek alms from. They live affluently, holding tenaciously to religious tenets and societal weaknesses to cheating people who could barely have their daily bread.

Although, Some of these beggars are as handicapped financially as they are physically, living on what is thrown at them as alms, and also trapped in a system fraught with discrimination and neglect, without any social security to rely on, it's not enough to endanger a lot of people, whose fundamental human rights should not be tampered with.

its for these reasons and many others that, government should make sure the issue of social security for beggars and the less-privileged be taken seriously - this, undoubtedly, will curtail the activities of those hiding under the cover of beggary to perpetrate terror - subsequently, making sure that any threat emanating from the angle is periodically checked and the harbingers evacuated. Those who are due for punishment should not be spared and parents who sit out at home waiting for alms their children bring should be made to face the stern face of the law( ‘E rójú olè e ò mu, omo yin ò se àgbàfò, ó ń kaso wálé.’ Simply interpreted as ‘who else is a thief, your ward brings home cloth without being a washerman’).Religious organizations should be sensitized on the need to discourage worshipers on being beggars when they can work. The public should be served with the fact that the safety and sanity of any society tran

[b][/b]Contd

its for these reasons and many others that, government should make sure the issue of social security for beggars and the less-privileged be taken seriously - this, undoubtedly, will curtail the activities of those hiding under the cover of beggary to perpetrate terror - subsequently, making sure that any threat emanating from the angle is periodically checked and the harbingers evacuated. Those who are due for punishment should not be spared and parents who sit out at home waiting for alms their children bring should be made to face the stern face of the law( ‘E rójú olè e ò mu, omo yin ò se àgbàfò, ó ń kaso wálé.’ Simply interpreted as ‘who else is a thief, your ward brings home cloth without being a washerman’).Religious organizations should be sensitized on the need to discourage worshipers on being beggars when they can work. The public should be served with the fact that the safety and sanity of any society transcend the survival of any individual.

This issue must be addressed now, before it becomes untamed, because these beggars are already striking.