Now, I’m not trying to make light of anybody’s plight, neither am I trying to deride anyone but who seems to have noticed that there seems to be an upsurge in the number of people that step up to you, well dressed and good looking, only to ask you for money? And most times, their story is the same; they tell you that they need money to get somewhere, anything you can give is good enough and you can’t help wondering; “how can someone well dressed like this be stranded so far from home and with no sign of help in sight only to resort to begging passersby?”. If it had happened to me just once, then I would have thought it was possibly that the person actually had a problem but I think this has become a kind of trend. Almost every day, for the past two weeks, I’ve been accosted by at least two people virtually each day, asking me to help them with transport money. People of all shapes and sizes.

Last Saturday (or was it the previous one before it, I’m not sure) I was approached by this lady and a man. When they began approaching, I thought, maybe they wanted to ask for directions to a place or ask the location of an event they were to attend because they were fully dressed in rather gorgeous traditional attire. So I was stumped when the lady came up and told me that they were actually coming from an event in the area and that they were stranded, her husband (the guy) had lost his wallet and could I help them with some money to get them home? Anything would be good enough. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough money to even get myself home and had resorted to cut short the transportation cost by doing a little walking.

The following day, I was met by a mother and her little boy coming from church. Stranded as well. Monday had me seeing a guy who wanted to get back to school and needed some money to get there. Tuesday was a woman who apparently had her purse stolen at the market and wanted to get home. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday all the way to today that I decided not to go out, I have been approached by different people at different parts of Lagos that need money to get home.

So my question is this; is this the latest begging scam in Lagos or is there someone going around emptying people’s pockets, especially when I’m close. If I were stranded and had a phone on me, I would probably get back to wherever I’m headed. So do all these people not have phones? Or do they leave home with just enough money to get to where they are going but not enough to get back only to throw themselves at the mercy of other Lagosians? Someone please provide me with an answer.

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