In 2009, I wrote a strong article on my blog condemning street begging, now commonly called bara in Hausa. In that lengthy article, I argued that there is nothing Islam in it. The society is only helping people to become lazy or it is encouraging relatives and communities to abandon the responsibility that God in the Qur’an imposes on them to take care of their disabled.
We ‘Hausas’ are not the only Muslims in the Nigeria; the Yoruba Muslim hardly wanders the street begging. Also, we Muslims are not the only community in Nigeria that has physically challenged or vulnerable families; others too have them, but hardly do you see them on the streets begging. If we must generalize, we can say that street begging in Nigeria is a tradition of northern Muslims. Specifically, however, it is a tradition of the Kanuri, Hausa and, now, the Fulani for it is difficult to see Muslims from the smaller tribes like Gwoza, Igbira, Igala, or Berom begging. Check it out: over 95% of our street beggars are those from the three tribes we aggregate as Hausa-Fulani. Street begging in Nigeria, therefore, follows a particular ethnography.
We ‘Hausas’ are not the only Muslims in the Nigeria; the Yoruba Muslim hardly wanders the street begging. Also, we Muslims are not the only community in Nigeria that has physically challenged or vulnerable families; others too have them, but hardly do you see them on the streets begging. If we must generalize, we can say that street begging in Nigeria is a tradition of northern Muslims. Specifically, however, it is a tradition of the Kanuri, Hausa and, now, the Fulani for it is difficult to see Muslims from the smaller tribes like Gwoza, Igbira, Igala, or Berom begging. Check it out: over 95% of our street beggars are those from the three tribes we aggregate as Hausa-Fulani. Street begging in Nigeria, therefore, follows a particular ethnography.
Some of us side with the street beggars describing any measure to stop them as anti-poor. Some, convinced that the begging is not desirable, argue that adequate measures need to be put in place before the streets are cleared of such beggars. This argument has been there since the 1970s. The blame is thereby shifted from the beggars to the government. The truth is that, before now, in both tradition and Islam, provisions are made to cater for whoever cannot earn a living as a result of his physical incapacity. The burden was on his relatives, then on his immediate community, and never by begging on the streets, because of its denigrating nature. Government, if able, comes in only as a last resort. And different governments in Nigeria have many times tried to do something for this category of people since the days of Audu Bako in Kano down to those of Sule Lamido that paid stipends to every handicapped individual in the Jigawa State. Yet, the beggars refused to be restrained in any form unless they are allowed to return to the streets.
Also, almajiri, before now, used only to roam houses, not the streets, in the evenings asking for leftovers; and during the day they engage in gainful economic activities in addition to their learning curriculum, all before they reach the age of fourteen when they become adults that are barred access to houses and have to be self-employed, even while still studying. The patronage that they started to receive in towns with the debut of urbanization is what bloated bara into the what can now be rightly described as the industry of street begging. This is the reason why in my discourses I always consider classical almajirci as different from street begging.
Hence my support for any government that tries to clear the streets of such beggars. I supported the deportations made by some southern state governments, especially Lagos, some few years ago. It will be interesting to learn from my readers whether such measures have been sustained or whether there are still beggars roaming the streets of Lagos. I also support the recent effort of El-Rufa’i to clear the streets of the Kaduna State of similar beggars. And now, I hereby lend my voice to the effort of Edo State government, which hounded the beggars into prison after due consultations with all the Hausa community leaders on the matter.
The street begging in Edo will particularly enrage any patriotic Nigerian. The state while struggling with the phenomenon of women trafficking overseas is at home battling with a new phenomenon of ‘Hausa’ girl-child prostitution in the streets of Benin and its other major cities in the name of street begging. The program Gane Mani Hanya aired by the BBC yesterday was self-revealing. I am waiting to hear a single ‘Hausaman’ that will support this disgraceful action.
Those beggars should be cleared off the streets of such cities in a sustainable way. If the Edo State government is kind enough, it should deport them to their various states as did Lagos State before. Those that are interested in prostitution can go into it head on, there in Benin, and obtain license from the government like other sex workers, if such license exists. Those brought back to the North can transfer their burdens to their relatives or communities from whom zakat and now other forms of extortions are taken in mosques on which some Pentecostal malams live fat. In the extreme, their local and state governments should come to their aid. This disgrace must end.
Finally, I would like to reiterate that our support for government measures against street begging must be supported by similar measures to put our treasury looters out of circulation. If we can find enough reason to clear our streets of beggars, we must also be strong enough to quickly bring to book those thieves whose greed and recklessness continue to sustain the environment where deprivation and its symptoms like street begging prevails. These people have looted billions and are freely living amongst us, flying their jets, driving the bullet-proof cars they stole from government and living in the palatial houses they built out of the blood of the women and the children they starved of drugs to death or whom they condemned to perpetual poverty when they denied them the dignified life of the educated, entrepreneurial citizen.
The unfortunate thing is that I have seen little resolve in many state governments to prosecute these criminals. Even at the federal level, the efforts of Buhari will definitely be compromised by the corrupt judiciary and police. My hero among the governors will, therefore, be the one who, more than any anything else, makes the arrest and prosecution of these criminals the cardinal objective of his administration. The smallest of them in my eye will be the one who dines with them and their cronies or tries to learn their ropes instead of fighting them.
So as we gladly wait for Governor Oshiomole to deport those beggars from Edo, let us do our best here at home to cut the umbilical cord of corruption by putting pressure on our Governors to pursue those criminals and run transparent and corrupt-free governments.
So as we gladly wait for Governor Oshiomole to deport those beggars from Edo, let us do our best here at home to cut the umbilical cord of corruption by putting pressure on our Governors to pursue those criminals and run transparent and corrupt-free governments.
Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
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