₦airaland Forum

naptu2: There's something missing in the article above & that's the voice of the people that were returned (note: returned, not deported). It also seems that people do not know the details of the Lagos State policy. Nobody is deported (that would be unconstitutional), rather, people are returned (which is constitutional and within the laws of Lagos State).

I'll be back with a description of the process that leads to someone being returned.

naptu2: I'm going to recount from memory because I'm on the move at the moment, but I'll try to get articles, etc when I get to a place of rest. The sources for my memory are newspaper articles, documentaries of Lagos Television, news reports and even nairaland.

[size=14pt]The Process[/size]

1)The environmental laws of Lagos State (laws against street trading, begging, etc) have been in place at least since the 1970s (probably earlier). They've been reviewed quite a number of times (Akhigbe, Rasaki, Tinubu).

2) The process was fully established by the Tinubu Administration.

3) Beggars, street traders, destitutes, area boys, psychotics, etc are arrested by the Task Force on Environmental Offences.

4) They are given a choice: (a) go to prison (b) go to rehabilitation centre (c) return to your state of origin.

A) The law stipulates punishment for those who commit these offences. They include prison term, fine, forfeiture of goods.

B) Rehabilitation centres were set up (the most famous/infamous was at Ita-Oko Island). At the centres the inmates are sorted. They are tested for drugs. Those who are drug addicts are detoxified. Those who have mental illnesses are sent to the asylum. The inmates (apart from the lunatics) are then taught skills (skills acquisition centre) so that they'll be able to earn a living. When they complete the course, they are given a loan with which they will start a business and made to sign an undertaking that they will not return to the streets.

C) Return: Those who choose to return are transported to their state of origin. The state government is usually informed ahead of time (although I know of 3 instances in which their state governments claimed that they were not informed) so that they can make arrangements to cater for the people. Most of the people who have chosen to return are from the northern part of the country (note: they chose to return).

[size=14pt]Press Releases



Feb 1, 2005 - LASG Completes N110 Million Ita-Oko Rehabilitation Centre[/size]

As part of efforts to offer comprehensive rehabilitation for social miscreants and youths in the state, the Lagos State Government has completed works on the Rehabilitation and Skills Acquisition Centre located at Tekunle Island (Ita Oko) near Ise along the Lekki Peninsula.


The 4200 square metre centre, has facilities for training residents in fabrication, carpentry weaving, an agriculture component (involving snailry, poultry and fish production), detoxification centre, clinic, and residence for 200 along with a staff quarter and helipad.


Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who along with his cabinet visited the centre yesterday noted that by the second quarter of the year it would have become operational once the new tools had been fully installed.


He said the pilot phase of the rehabilitation programme will exclude females and will be based on offering the youths a n opportunity for change.


Sounding a note of warning that government's gesture if shunned by "area boys" will lead to dire consequences, Asiwaju Tinubu declared "anyone who refuses this good gesture and our goodwill to offer him/her a new life must be ready to leave Lagos".


According to him, the six months period of residence will not only lead to a complete rehabilitation but also lead to the internationally recognized trade test certificate.


The Governor also said the administration had envisioned a two pronged plan for rehabilitation after graduation either to become self-employed with a financial bank or employable.


He further said his administration plans to have other centres at appropriate areas in the state adding that government will continue to dialogue with miscreants and offer them the goodwill to change.


In a report presented by the Commissioner for Works, Engr. Rauf Aregbesola said about N110 million had been expended by the government in both phases of the rehabilitation of the centre.


According to him, the centre had been established as a slave post but was rehabilitated as a detention camp by the military government in 1985 with such facilities as 12 wooden dormitories, dwarf walls, steel poles and sand screeded floor.


While also stating that the project will be fully delivered by mid-March, Aregbesola urged that the necessary deployments by the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development should be concluded.


Earlier while conducting the Executive Council round the agriculture component Dr. Jide Basorun, Director of Agric. Services disclosed that the facilities have capacity to sustain the centre through the production offish, poultry products and snailry.


According to him with a 1000 layer bird poultry, 2000 fish capacity aquaculture and 1000 capacity snailry, the centre can not only expand but has the yield to make the centre self sustaining.

naptu2: I didn't post the link to the source of that article, but I'll tell you the source. It is taken from Bola Tinubu's website.

naptu2: Now, for a bit of balance, a more critical article. Written by Reuben Abati, the article provides a lot more information (including figures of people returned, etc)

naptu2: Before we go on, why is there so much emphasis on "Fashola"? These laws were inherited from previous administrations. The Tinubu administration also returned destitutes, etc and this action is being taken by the Lagos State Government (Ministry of Social Welfare).

[size=14pt]The beggars' opera in Lagos[/size]

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IT is difficult to believe the statement allegedly made by the Special Adviser on Youth, Sports and Social Development, Dolapo Badru, to the effect that there is a law in Lagos state which makes the giving of alms to beggars anywhere in the state, an offence punishable by two years imprisonment without an option of fine.

He said: "Lagos state frowns on giving alms to beggars. It is punishable under the law and you can get up to two years imprisonment for giving money to beggars. We have places where such money can be put to good use. The government is committed to best practices in social care." The places under reference we are told are "churches, mosques, registered orphanages, motherless babies homes or social welfare institutions." The law and the determination to enforce it, is obviously an expression of government's frustration with the growing population of beggars in Lagos.

In the past few years, successive administrations in the state have adopted a number of measures to check the menace of beggars including the establishment of rehabilitation and vocational centres (to provide shelter and skills acquisition opportunities for the destitute), the deportation of beggars from other states of Nigeria to their states of origin, and the demonisation of begging as a way of life. But none of these measures has worked. Lagos is perhaps the only state and city in Nigeria whose population increases on a daily basis in an exponential manner. There is hardly any Nigerian that does not have a relation, close or distant in Lagos, and there is arguably no community in Nigeria that does not have some of its people in parts of Lagos including beggars!

Beggars flock to the city every day, and like others, they have no intention of leaving. Even when they are arrested by the state authorities and shipped back to their states of origin, they still manage to return. Lagos in the popular imagination is the Nigerian city where anyone and everyone can make a quick buck. Since 2007, the Fashola administration has embarked on a robust urban renewal programme. Lagos is now a much cleaner city, with its parks and gardens and with tax payers' money being put to work in many ways. The position of the Lagos state government it seems is that beggars constitute a nuisance, many of them are part-time criminals, and if they would not relocate to vocational centres, they might as well face the wrath of the state government. Having failed to convince or intimidate them, however, the state authorities are now warning all persons to desist from giving them alms. I really do not see how the Lagos state government can win that battle. In the past year, the state reportedly "deported" over 3, 000 beggars from Lagos. NEXT Newspaper reports that out of these, Sokoto State had the highest number of 196 beggars, Oyo State (83), Kano (75), Osun (67), Ekiti (21), Ondo (7), and from other countries- Niger (12), Chad (2) and Cote d'Ivoire (1). The state government should redirect its energies to more purposeful engagements.

There are too many contradictions in its chosen path. One, it makes no sense to "deport" a Nigerian from any part of Nigeria to another, whether that person is destitute, able or not. The Constitution guarantees the freedom of movement, and that right extends to beggars. Yes, beggars wander from one location to another, transporting their nuisance across the city, but wandering is not an offence. The law prescribing a two-year jail term for alms-givers, if indeed it exists, is ludicrous. In a country where those who burn down houses, kill in the name of religion, rape women, kidnap children, and sabotage the state are walking free, in a society where those who loot the treasury collect national honours and chieftaincy titles, it is those who give alms to the poor that we seek to send to jail for two years without an option of fine? That law will be difficult to enforce. How do you identify a beggar? Do beggars wear uniforms, or do they carry identification badges? The Lagos state authorities should avoid the kind of human rights crisis that occurred when a directive was issued that indecently dressed women should be arrested: many housewives, accused of exposing too much flesh ended up in police cells, resulting in public outrage. With regard to beggars and the destitute, the enforcement agents could end up arresting and molesting physically challenged persons who are already badly treated by the Nigerian state, and that will be most unfair, for it is not every physically challenged person that is a beggar.

And can a man be punished for spending his hard-earned money the way he likes? I earnestly await the day when anyone in Lagos will be sent to jail for giving alms to beggars! To give teeth to the law could cause a social uproar for it runs contrary to the people's religious and cultural beliefs. The Lagos state Government could be accused of an assault on the people's faith and belief systems. The two major religions Christianity and Islam encourage their adherents to give alms, to help the poor and the needy in society. This is a sacred obligation in both religions, and that is why the most popular haunts for beggars are places of religious worship. So established is the culture of begging, that in Lagos, there are at least two major beggars' colonies: one in Ebute Meta/Oyingbo, the other in Agege.

But the bigger issue is how the explosion in the population of beggars in Lagos and elsewhere in the country, is a function of the economic dispossession in the land and the high rate of unemployment. In Nigeria, beggary has become a way of life. It is one of the easiest occupations in the land. In part because of the religious belief that beggars should be assisted, it has become one of such occupations where investment is low and return is high. Often on Lagos streets and elsewhere you are likely to run into able-bodied men and women, neatly dressed, soliciting for alms as the traffic crawls. Then you have the so-called "corporate beggars": he or she tells you he just lost his purse, his English is impeccable, he is a University or college graduate, he is so persuasive, he wants you to assist him with "a widow's mite" and he asks God to bless you abundantly. He may even entertain you with an informed commentary on the state of the nation, with stinging criticisms of the Nigerian dilemma.

Out of pity, you'd be tempted to part with some money. A few days later, you may run into the same fellow again. He knows you. This time, he would change the story and even struggle to give you a copy of his resume: if you could help him get a job. Confused, you give him some money just to get him off your back. Or is it the woman with twins or a baby, her flattened breasts hanging loose, bearing all the worldly scars of deprivation and the wickedness of men, running after your car and begging you to help her child or the "ibejis" – you give her money and go to jail for two years? Or it could be the physically challenged, blind like a bat, lame like a possum, assisted by a younger man, who should be in school, the two of them joined together by a long stick, navigating crazy Lagos traffic, and there you are in your air-conditioned car, wondering why this world is so unfair to some people, and then you take a N50 note, moved by the entertaining prayers being showered on you and your future descendants, and you go to jail for that, for being human?

The Lagos State government should leave the beggars alone. Lunatics are also being chased off the streets. Why are they on the streets in the first place? This is the question to ask. When beggars are taken to vocational centres, they run away because it is more profitable to be on the streets. They have no faith in the Nigerian system. They know that they could be treated as if they were prisoners. They know that government officials could turn the maintenance of the centres into a source of livelihood, and an opportunity for looting state resources. What Nigeria needs is to address the distortions within the system. Beggars may never disappear completely from our streets, but if the factories can begin to function again, if the government can check the misfortune of de-industrialisation, if those trucks which used to ferry workers to and fro in the 70s and 80s can return to our streets and the warehouses that have been turned into churches can become warehouses again, the population of beggars should reduce. Nigerians love to work. But when there are no jobs, they become desperate, and constitute themselves into colonies and families of beggars.

The Lagos State government is targeting the beggars on the streets: has anyone considered the army of beggars that exists in every extended family? If you have a job in Nigeria, that job does not provide for you and your nuclear family alone, it compulsorily takes care of beggars within the extended family who monitor your movement and the salary payment season; often they lay ambush by your door, sometimes as early as 5 am, or very late in the night, with the plan to sleep overnight: eat, disturb your peace and still collect your money. Like the beggars on the streets, these family ones are also very good at praying. By the time they finish telling you all the wonders God has decided to do in your life, you will be tempted to take a loan to help them sort out their long list of problems!

Nigeria needs a strong social security system that provides for the poor, the weak, the needy and the aged. Nigeria needs a functional healthcare insurance system that can take care of the army of the poor, who go onto the streets with distended scrotums, blood-soaked breasts, broken and rotten legs, smelly injuries, soliciting for alms and pushing their wounds in the faces of decent people. Nigerian beggars are the children of a system that has gone awry and is in need of urgent repairs. When next I see a beggar, I will give alms as a good Christian. A two-year jail term? What kind of vexatious law is that?

Reuben Abati Writes

naptu2: Now, my criticism of the article.

1) They did not interview Lagos State Government officials to get their own side of the story.

2) They did not interview the people that were "dumped" to hear their own side of the story.

3) It is clear to me that the story is designed to inflame passions (particularly with the use of the words "deport" and "refugees" ).

naptu2: By the way, this practice is not limited to Lagos State. Abuja has also returned people to their states of origin.

[size=14pt]Lagos, Abuja accused of dumping destitutes in Kaduna[/size]

September 18, 2009 | 12:02 am

By Emeka Mamah

Kaduna -  Kaduna State Government, yesterday, accused the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Niger State governments of allegedly dumping destitutes in the state.

The state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Maryam Laka Madami made this known while briefing newsmen on the rationale behind the decision of the state government to repatriate destitutes in the state to their states of origin.

The state government’s joint task force for the relocation of the destitutes in the state evacuated about 2,000 destitutes from the streets and transported them in several truckloads to their states of origin, Monday.

The destitutes were escorted by anti-riot policemen to Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano and Jigawa states.

Madami, however, said that the Lagos State government dumped the 65 destitutes at the Kaduna end of the Abuja-Kaduna expressway adding that some of the affected destitutes were non-natives of the state.

She further accused the FCT and the Niger State government of similarly dumping beggars in the state.

According to her, it was the action of the Lagos and Niger state governments, as well as the FCT, that forced Kaduna to send away those destitutes from its territory  as the destitutes had constituted themselves into nuisance.

naptu2: These laws have been in existence since colonial time. Differennt administrations have adopted various strategies to combat the offences (Colonel Marwa used soldiers).

Begging = pan handling is against the law (in Lagos and most cities of the world)

Street trading is illegal (that's actually one of the first Lagos State laws that I learnt as a child).

Psychotics are meant to be in mental institutions

There are also associated offences (eg offences against the child rights act).

See environmental laws of Lagos State.

naptu2: I was about to provide some context and background on the story, when I heard something (very funny) on the BBC.

Chinese officials have devised a new method of dealing with street traders. . . They stare at them (yes, stare).

This morning, chinese law enforcement officials gathered on a certain street and stared at the illegal street traders. After a few minutes the street traders left in shame and embarrassment.

The time around 1975 and '77, police go seize expensive goods dem go start to burn burn them. Army go go market, anything cost money go burn burn dem (2x).

Why dem like to burn the things wey dey costee money? Government fit sell to people cheape cheape. Government fit dash people wey no get money.
And the burn burn na im dey sweet dem pass (burn and bribe). Na im dey sweet them pass. Oya oh, burn burn.

ACM10: Another shameless hypocrite is trying to spin the shameful action with English. Pls what is the difference between "deported" and "returned"?

Ishilove: Kai, my guy, e be like sey u old o

In 1985 I was...

uncleb: Please can we get volunteers to go on this special course. I guess its one of the specialty we need to curb all the evil practices in the country.

We also need info on schools that offers them and govt should be willing to give scholarship sponsors. otherwise, our constitution or whatvere should be changed with immediate alacrity. lol

[size=14pt]Hangmen wanted![/size]

Are you keen on a job? Do you have a killer instinct? If you do, then this job suits you! It even gives you the legal authority to loop a noose round the neck of fellow human beings, and snuff life out of them.

As with James Bond in the epic series - 007 - you are licensed to kill. Here, the people who do this kind of job are called Hangmen! That’s the type available right now. The pay, it has been touted, is “good”, but it requires guts, courage and boldness. Beyond that, however, you have to possess a degree in Criminology.

Around the country’s prisons formations right now, there is a dearth of Hangmen - professional executioners, that is. Which explains why there are hundreds of condemned criminals awaiting execution at the moment.

Only last week, 27 of such men on death row in kiri-kiri Maximum Prison alone, dragged both the Lagos State and Federal Governments to court challenging the constitutionality of keeping them in the gallows for periods ranging from 10 to 24 years. No date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

But if you ever imagined that most Nigerians would shrug their shoulders over the suggestion of taking a job at the gallows, here is a shocker. Sunday Sun learnt at the weekend that there has been a deluge of applications by Nigerians who have suffered unemployment for years.

Justifying the need to hire more executioners, a source said: “The Service is in dire need of the services of Hangmen. Right now, there are about four hangmen in the country. Their services are needed now, more than ever before. Imagine how many condemned criminals are in the cells as we speak, so they are needed.”

Although the job is usually reserved for serving prisons officials, Sunday Sun however learnt that somehow, outsiders got wind of the vacancies, and are already showing interest in the job; even lobbying to be hired.


Ideal situation

A source revealed that Hangmen are usually serving Prisons officials, who double as executioners. They are never publicly acknowledged in the latter category. Nonetheless, they are believed to be “well remunerated”.

The veil over their identities, a source suggested, is to protect them from odium and public ridicule.
“Yes, they are our colleagues, but I can’t honestly point at one person and say, ‘this officer is a Hangman’. We do not know their identities. So you might just be sitting and chatting with a colleague without knowing that he is a Hangman. That’s the way it is,” the source said.

Confirming what the source told Sunday Sun, the Prisons Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, CSP Ope Fatinikun said the Hangmen issue is an in-house matter, which must not be revealed to outsiders, even among their colleagues. He further said, any prison warder could be appointed a hangman because it is part of their training.

The PRO said the identities of hangmen are usually kept under wrap. They are only summoned to the gallows when there is an ‘assignment’ to be done. Even then, they usually wear masks.
What is curious, however, is the criterion attached to the job: They must be graduates of Criminology.


Psychiatrist’s opinion

So why would anybody want to do the job of a Hangman?
A Principal Clinical Psychologist, Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Mr. Ajirotutu Omotayo, said: “a hangman must be a hard-hearted person who does not have emotions for human lives nor have value for live. Such a person must be someone who takes decisions without looking back; thinking that the convict must have killed unlawfully, therefore killing him lawfully is no sin.”
Mr. Omotayo further argued that for any person to do the job of a hangman, he must have gone through a period of apprenticeship, understudying other, adding that they must take a thorough counseling and psychological therapy.

Nonetheless, he said, “no matter how fat their salary, the psychological effects are bound to be there, which varies from one person to another.”
Considering the unemployment situation in the country, who, in fact, would agree to be a Hangman?
Ordinarily, this is not the type of job, as Sunday Sun found out, that most people would be proud of. Which explains why, those who bought the idea, declined to have their names in print, let alone give out their photographs. Conversely, those who expressed disdain for the job had no inhibition whatsoever giving out either their names or photograph.

The time around 1975 and '77, police go seize expensive goods dem go start to burn burn them. Army go go market, anything cost money go burn burn dem (2x).

Why dem like to burn the things wey dey costee money? Government fit sell to people cheape cheape. Government fit dash people wey no get money.
And the burn burn na im dey sweet dem pass (burn and bribe). Na im dey sweet them pass. Oya oh, burn burn.

The time around 1975 and '77, police go seize expensive goods dem go start to burn burn them. Army go go market, anything cost money go burn burn dem (2x).

Why dem like to burn the things wey dey costee money? Government fit sell to people cheape cheape. Government fit dash people wey no get money.
And the burn burn na im dey sweet dem pass (burn and bribe). Na im dey sweet them pass. Oya oh, burn burn.

CAMEROONPRIDE: did they interview all lagosians or they did a facial profiling? cuz i still don't get ..was the deportation based on the people's names? how about those who bear foreign names(not european) i guess an Igbo can bear a Yoruba name and etc..? we had the same problem in Cameroon but you can deport people lol but the constitution specify people origin you are from where your father is from ...notion of "Autochtone" and "hallogene" which i support but is very controversial can a Nigerian be a foreigner in Nigeria?

CAMEROONPRIDE: i just have a question ..how do they did to know that those people aren't from Lagos?

[size=14pt]Lagos, Abuja accused of dumping destitutes in Kaduna[/size]

September 18, 2009 | 12:02 am

By Emeka Mamah

Kaduna -  Kaduna State Government, yesterday, accused the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Niger State governments of allegedly dumping destitutes in the state.

The state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Maryam Laka Madami made this known while briefing newsmen on the rationale behind the decision of the state government to repatriate destitutes in the state to their states of origin.

The state government’s joint task force for the relocation of the destitutes in the state evacuated about 2,000 destitutes from the streets and transported them in several truckloads to their states of origin, Monday.

The destitutes were escorted by anti-riot policemen to Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano and Jigawa states.

Madami, however, said that the Lagos State government dumped the 65 destitutes at the Kaduna end of the Abuja-Kaduna expressway adding that some of the affected destitutes were non-natives of the state.

She further accused the FCT and the Niger State government of similarly dumping beggars in the state.

According to her, it was the action of the Lagos and Niger state governments, as well as the FCT, that forced Kaduna to send away those destitutes from its territory  as the destitutes had constituted themselves into nuisance.

[size=14pt]The beggars' opera in Lagos[/size]

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IT is difficult to believe the statement allegedly made by the Special Adviser on Youth, Sports and Social Development, Dolapo Badru, to the effect that there is a law in Lagos state which makes the giving of alms to beggars anywhere in the state, an offence punishable by two years imprisonment without an option of fine.

He said: "Lagos state frowns on giving alms to beggars. It is punishable under the law and you can get up to two years imprisonment for giving money to beggars. We have places where such money can be put to good use. The government is committed to best practices in social care." The places under reference we are told are "churches, mosques, registered orphanages, motherless babies homes or social welfare institutions." The law and the determination to enforce it, is obviously an expression of government's frustration with the growing population of beggars in Lagos.

In the past few years, successive administrations in the state have adopted a number of measures to check the menace of beggars including the establishment of rehabilitation and vocational centres (to provide shelter and skills acquisition opportunities for the destitute), the deportation of beggars from other states of Nigeria to their states of origin, and the demonisation of begging as a way of life. But none of these measures has worked. Lagos is perhaps the only state and city in Nigeria whose population increases on a daily basis in an exponential manner. There is hardly any Nigerian that does not have a relation, close or distant in Lagos, and there is arguably no community in Nigeria that does not have some of its people in parts of Lagos including beggars!

Beggars flock to the city every day, and like others, they have no intention of leaving. Even when they are arrested by the state authorities and shipped back to their states of origin, they still manage to return. Lagos in the popular imagination is the Nigerian city where anyone and everyone can make a quick buck. Since 2007, the Fashola administration has embarked on a robust urban renewal programme. Lagos is now a much cleaner city, with its parks and gardens and with tax payers' money being put to work in many ways. The position of the Lagos state government it seems is that beggars constitute a nuisance, many of them are part-time criminals, and if they would not relocate to vocational centres, they might as well face the wrath of the state government. Having failed to convince or intimidate them, however, the state authorities are now warning all persons to desist from giving them alms. I really do not see how the Lagos state government can win that battle. In the past year, the state reportedly "deported" over 3, 000 beggars from Lagos. NEXT Newspaper reports that out of these, Sokoto State had the highest number of 196 beggars, Oyo State (83), Kano (75), Osun (67), Ekiti (21), Ondo (7), and from other countries- Niger (12), Chad (2) and Cote d'Ivoire (1). The state government should redirect its energies to more purposeful engagements.

There are too many contradictions in its chosen path. One, it makes no sense to "deport" a Nigerian from any part of Nigeria to another, whether that person is destitute, able or not. The Constitution guarantees the freedom of movement, and that right extends to beggars. Yes, beggars wander from one location to another, transporting their nuisance across the city, but wandering is not an offence. The law prescribing a two-year jail term for alms-givers, if indeed it exists, is ludicrous. In a country where those who burn down houses, kill in the name of religion, rape women, kidnap children, and sabotage the state are walking free, in a society where those who loot the treasury collect national honours and chieftaincy titles, it is those who give alms to the poor that we seek to send to jail for two years without an option of fine? That law will be difficult to enforce. How do you identify a beggar? Do beggars wear uniforms, or do they carry identification badges? The Lagos state authorities should avoid the kind of human rights crisis that occurred when a directive was issued that indecently dressed women should be arrested: many housewives, accused of exposing too much flesh ended up in police cells, resulting in public outrage. With regard to beggars and the destitute, the enforcement agents could end up arresting and molesting physically challenged persons who are already badly treated by the Nigerian state, and that will be most unfair, for it is not every physically challenged person that is a beggar.

And can a man be punished for spending his hard-earned money the way he likes? I earnestly await the day when anyone in Lagos will be sent to jail for giving alms to beggars! To give teeth to the law could cause a social uproar for it runs contrary to the people's religious and cultural beliefs. The Lagos state Government could be accused of an assault on the people's faith and belief systems. The two major religions Christianity and Islam encourage their adherents to give alms, to help the poor and the needy in society. This is a sacred obligation in both religions, and that is why the most popular haunts for beggars are places of religious worship. So established is the culture of begging, that in Lagos, there are at least two major beggars' colonies: one in Ebute Meta/Oyingbo, the other in Agege.

But the bigger issue is how the explosion in the population of beggars in Lagos and elsewhere in the country, is a function of the economic dispossession in the land and the high rate of unemployment. In Nigeria, beggary has become a way of life. It is one of the easiest occupations in the land. In part because of the religious belief that beggars should be assisted, it has become one of such occupations where investment is low and return is high. Often on Lagos streets and elsewhere you are likely to run into able-bodied men and women, neatly dressed, soliciting for alms as the traffic crawls. Then you have the so-called "corporate beggars": he or she tells you he just lost his purse, his English is impeccable, he is a University or college graduate, he is so persuasive, he wants you to assist him with "a widow's mite" and he asks God to bless you abundantly. He may even entertain you with an informed commentary on the state of the nation, with stinging criticisms of the Nigerian dilemma.

Out of pity, you'd be tempted to part with some money. A few days later, you may run into the same fellow again. He knows you. This time, he would change the story and even struggle to give you a copy of his resume: if you could help him get a job. Confused, you give him some money just to get him off your back. Or is it the woman with twins or a baby, her flattened breasts hanging loose, bearing all the worldly scars of deprivation and the wickedness of men, running after your car and begging you to help her child or the "ibejis" – you give her money and go to jail for two years? Or it could be the physically challenged, blind like a bat, lame like a possum, assisted by a younger man, who should be in school, the two of them joined together by a long stick, navigating crazy Lagos traffic, and there you are in your air-conditioned car, wondering why this world is so unfair to some people, and then you take a N50 note, moved by the entertaining prayers being showered on you and your future descendants, and you go to jail for that, for being human?

The Lagos State government should leave the beggars alone. Lunatics are also being chased off the streets. Why are they on the streets in the first place? This is the question to ask. When beggars are taken to vocational centres, they run away because it is more profitable to be on the streets. They have no faith in the Nigerian system. They know that they could be treated as if they were prisoners. They know that government officials could turn the maintenance of the centres into a source of livelihood, and an opportunity for looting state resources. What Nigeria needs is to address the distortions within the system. Beggars may never disappear completely from our streets, but if the factories can begin to function again, if the government can check the misfortune of de-industrialisation, if those trucks which used to ferry workers to and fro in the 70s and 80s can return to our streets and the warehouses that have been turned into churches can become warehouses again, the population of beggars should reduce. Nigerians love to work. But when there are no jobs, they become desperate, and constitute themselves into colonies and families of beggars.

The Lagos State government is targeting the beggars on the streets: has anyone considered the army of beggars that exists in every extended family? If you have a job in Nigeria, that job does not provide for you and your nuclear family alone, it compulsorily takes care of beggars within the extended family who monitor your movement and the salary payment season; often they lay ambush by your door, sometimes as early as 5 am, or very late in the night, with the plan to sleep overnight: eat, disturb your peace and still collect your money. Like the beggars on the streets, these family ones are also very good at praying. By the time they finish telling you all the wonders God has decided to do in your life, you will be tempted to take a loan to help them sort out their long list of problems!

Nigeria needs a strong social security system that provides for the poor, the weak, the needy and the aged. Nigeria needs a functional healthcare insurance system that can take care of the army of the poor, who go onto the streets with distended scrotums, blood-soaked breasts, broken and rotten legs, smelly injuries, soliciting for alms and pushing their wounds in the faces of decent people. Nigerian beggars are the children of a system that has gone awry and is in need of urgent repairs. When next I see a beggar, I will give alms as a good Christian. A two-year jail term? What kind of vexatious law is that?

Reuben Abati Writes

icon8: @naptu2: we need to ascertain if they CHOSE to RETURN and if their state governor was contacted prior to their return, which I doubt (if the write-up is anything to go by) anyways. At any rate, thanks for the insight!

naptu2: There's something missing in the article above & that's the voice of the people that were returned