The Kid Beggars’ Syndrome

Plastic bowls in hand, often chanting diverse shades of songs, growing number of kid beggars are roaming the streets of Port Harcourt in a manner that bothers residents of the Garden City. The number of child beggars has increased over the years with the bulk of them found at various locations in Port Harcourt.

At the inception of his administration on October 25, 2007, the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, was seen arresting beggars on our roads and streets, sending them to rehabilitation camps. But observers say the project has failed because the government has not taken it seriously after then, hence beggars and their children have re-flooded the streets.

Fearing that the activities of the beggars might pose serious social menace if it is left unattended, some Port Harcourt residents recall a media report that a disabled adult beggar allegedly caused the disappearance of the reproductive organs of four men at Rumuola, in the Garden City. They are jittery that some of the adult beggars whose children are in the business, might be tutored in the act of obtaining money from their victims through diabolical means, thus becoming social nuisance.

The residents observe further that, the  kid beggars, who mainly hail from the northern part of the country and neighbouring countries, are attired in filthy, tattered clothes. They move from one location to the other and sometimes hang around around traffic light junctions.

“The presence of these children is causing nuisance and eyesore. They know nothing about parental care, love and affection and therefore see everyone as an enemy responsible for their deprivation”, says a Port Harcourt resident, Mrs Patience Abam.

Mrs Abam referred to her visit to a mall where a group of children lined up and stretched out their bowls towards shoppers, begging for alms. She says the religion the parents of these children belong must encourage begging as a way of fending for themselves and in some cases menial jobs.

“These children do not think about education because that has no meaning to them. For them nothing matters apart from the daily struggle for survival for themselves and their parents. The street is their home, school and office’ they live and die by the street. Such is the unfortunate situation this problem has turned into,” Mrs Abam quips.

A retired principal, Mr. Robert Lawson-Jack, sees child beggars as potential danger to society. According to him, children who go this way grow into irresponsible adults and engage in drugs and prostitution. Some of them, he says, indulge in physical and sexual abuse.

“These children pose serious danger to society. They necessarily grow into irresponsible adults who grow into drugs and prostitution. For me, it does not matter whether they are indigenes of the state or not. What is important is that they are in Rivers State and whatever negative activities they indulge in will affect those who are resident in the state. Therefore the government has to fashion out a rehabilitation programme for them the details of which should be worked out”, Mr. Lawson-Jack suggests.

To Mr. Owuje Harry, a journalist and publisher, child begging is a pervasive problem that happens all over but is predominant in the north. According to Harry, they are called “Almajiri” in the north, “area boys” in the south and west and “abandoned children” in the east.

“I feel very bad about it. The development amounts to wasting large number of children. I don’t see the difference between child begging and child trafficking for labour. Some children are sent to beg while others are forced to labour, and in most cases the labour they provide is not paid for. It is sheer exploitation” Harry declares.

The publisher attributes the hazard to the inability of parents with many children to take care of them. Harry says these parents turn the children into beggars in order to rid themselves of the extra burden of catering for them. He observes that there has been an influx of the children into Port Harcourt recently. He describes the situation as a hopeless one, since the constitution guarantees freedom of movement to any part of the country.

“What I am telling you is real. Go to “Yam Zone” along Creek Road. You will observe massive influx of these little ones into the state, some of whom are not older than babies. It is unfortunate that the state government cannot check the trend. The reason is that the constitution provides for free movement to any part of the country. All the government should do is to work out a programme to contain the trend. I am particularly concerned about the security implication of the mass influx of the children, especially in the face of current happenings in the country,”  laments Harry.

Investigations by The Tide reveal that some child beggars are accommodated in crammed rooms provided by their mentors and are made to sleep on bare floor with poor sanitary condition. The situation is pathetic.

A Moslem cleric, Jubril Musa, admitted to The Tide that he harbours some of these children for Koranic training. He says many of the children are dumped with him by their mentors who would not return to take them after their training.

“Some are dumped with me by their parents who never show up again”, says Musa.

A legal practitioner, Barrister Soye Brown, warned of the danger in harbouring this trend in any part of the country, and said that with the current security situation in the country, child beggars could provide ready foot soldiers.

“Hungry and angry, these children could easily be mobilised to engage in killings and looting during crises as an avenue to pay back society because they  see everybody as the source of their frustration,” Brown declares.

The legal practitioner sees kid beggars as a threat to the elites and law abiding citizens of the country. He calls for every hand to be on deck to tackle the menace.

“We have to provide for these child beggars for our safety and our children’s safety. The pathetic life they live breeds heartless criminals”, Brown adds.

Arnold Alalibo