BACK TO BASE LYING CORPORATE BEGGARS

Video: Battabox

Despite the unending effort of Lagos State Government to put a stop at begging on street, some beggars still not cave as they stepped up by turning the illegal act, making it look legal by their approach and dimension.

Lagos, the commercial capital of  West Africa, is saturated with tons of interesting activities across different bases within its metropolis. The endowment of this State from base to base consists of bus-stops and garages for road transportation, outlets by productive owners with provision of different goods and services purchased by reliable customers. Also, corporate institutions and organizations with potential workers cut across different bases in the State and residents of the communities.

Lagos, truly is blessed with hardworking men and women who by all means strive hard to meet ends mean every day. However, it is also cursed with beggars who lie ferociously and desperately in order meet ends mean as well.

Speaking to a commercial driver in the area of Ikeja, Kazeem Makinwa, he expressed that back in the days was when disabled people were only those who begged; nowadays were filled with able men and women beggars, coming up with different stories in order to extort money from people in a piteous way.

Obviously, it is quite embarrassing with all efforts played out by the Lagos State Government to curb the menace of street begging—all efforts proved abortive as these beggars turn from old ways which look illegal into a new dimension of manner and approach, allowing them to escape any form of prosecution or apprehension by the authority.

Investigations revealed that Lagos has witnessed several types of beggars in accordance to how some factors changed their approach overtime. First amongst them is the Destitute Beggar, this is the common and old type of beggar—he looks dirty, haggard, impoverished and his pitiable soul lodged on the roadsides or garages without a home or source of living.

A frozen food outlet owner at Ijora market, Aduke Fasheun, explained that this destitute beggar was a kind of beggar that is unable to participate and compete in the workforce; neither has anyone providing his welfare nor clues where to go for help, and so resort to handout from strangers for survival. 

 “It is usually difficult to pass these people without dropping a coin or note.”

Aduke stressed further the second type of beggar witnessed in the area, saying experience with disabled beggar is usually heart wrenching. “Have you ever walked by some area in Ijora market back then and a tap on your leg, looking down you see a physically disabled being asking for sustenance?”

“You’re most times compelled to wonder: how did he/she live through his teenage time? Does he/she have a family? What were his ambitions? Your heart will always sympathize with this set of beggar, because the circumstances that brought him/her to that condition may include amputation or some infested with an extensive or terminal disease.”

“When the government still allowed for begging on street, these disabled beggars sit in groups and usually have their love-base not too far away,” Aduke narrated.

Truthfully, there is no harm in giving alms, in fact, religiously; there is blessing and reward attached to is as the saying that ‘givers never lack’ backs up the divinity behind giving other. However, one might find it annoying 

when arms are extended towards those who give false story about themselves in other to extort money from someone who has worked hard enough to meet ends mean.

The third kind of beggar is the Child Beggar; this is the strata where beggars start becoming corporate. These beggars run after people on the street tugging their clothes, asking for handouts of financial assistance. These children usually have their parents around keeping watchful eye while they go about begging.

“It is hard to ignore these children even when you know their parents are around watching as their chants have a way of appealing to almost all kinds of people. It is best to give these child beggars food or clothing rather than cash, as they benefit better from those than cash—which are taken away by their parents,” Aduke said.

Similar to child beggars is the Mother-of-Many Beggar, this type of beggar doesn’t leave the children begging now, rather she begs herself displaying the children on the ground of backing either one of them as a strategic means of conveying pity in the minds of the passers-by.

Talking to a Staff of First City Monument Bank in Ogba, Ijeoma Ebube, said 

 “a woman shabbily dressed, usually with sunken eyes that express her dire state of helplessness, sits with a number of babies, sometimes crying continually to draw attention and pity of people.”

She further stressed that they usually tell the sorrowful story of how they were abandoned by their husbands or how they and their husbands has lost their jobs. 

“These beggars who are hard to ignore, request for cash donations and food supplements from people who stop by to offer assistance.

“There have been rumours that some of these beggars actually borrow these babies from other women and they work as group, however, whatever the case may be, it is obviously best to alert organizations specialized in that area to cater for such people, point them to the base of the beggar, so, they offer help where need,” she explained.

Citing an example is a fish monger of Mile12 market place, Blessing Bomore, said 

 “I was going home one night after the day’s market when a woman with two children approached me telling me all sort of sorrowful stories, not wanting to mind her, another woman blocked me from the front talking like an imbecile with pitiful face asking me to help them, I couldn’t ignore them totally, so I gave them N200.”

“To my greatest surprise, this same set of people approached me the next day, this time it was the fat women who blocked me while I was trying to ignore them the first time, she came with kids narrating the same story they had told me the day before but she was talking normal unlike the first time which she was talking like an imbecile. I screamed at her saying ‘you succeeded extorting money from me yesterday because I did not know you are just a liar! Today is different, I will not give you a dime’ the woman responded ‘aunty sorry oo’, I hissed and left,” Blessing explained.

Also, the beggars most people in the bases of Lagos find very annoying are the Settle-Us-Base-Lord. These beggars are not the typical beggars with genuine needs or seeking assistance—they are able bodied individuals who lurk around busy areas demanding for privileges that they do not necessarily deserve.

Kazeem gave an insight explanation about these beggars saying that they target certain people.

“They demand from people either they look affluent or vulnerable. These kinds of beggars usually work in groups, they help victims whose car gets stuck and they request for settlement for energy use in helping, and they can also get very belligerent, especially when you are around their base.”

Similarly, Entrepreneur Beggars are like Settle-Us-Lord-Base but more corporate. Though, people view them as quite nuisance as they offer services to those who never requested for it and expect their customers who they have rendered the service to tip them off, but they do not get pugnacious.

A resident of Ikeja GRA, Chucks Udoma, said 

 “you will start imagining when you happened to be in a heavy traffic and someone comes to wash your windscreen without your own consent and afterwards requesting for recompense.”

“Whilst these beggars are making an effort to make a living by finding creative ways to earn money instead of just asking, they can also be very annoying, most especially when they are offering a service you do not particularly need or averse to. In  the market sometimes, some ladies rush towards you offering to beautify your skin with henna patterns and asking to be tipped afterwards,” Aduke added.

The most corporate of all the beggars that can be seen lurking around Lagos bases are Stranded Professionals; they are not shabby looking or haggard in appearance, most of them wear expensive clothes and perfumes. Unlike some beggars they do not offer any untold service, rather they narrate good stories to passers-by. They are mostly found around wealthy bases such as restaurants, parks, bars, shopping malls, banks and where people make ATM withdrawal and so on.

These beggars accost you with stories of how their wallet got stolen or how they ran out of cash and stranded in a particular location which happens to be their base at most times and seek monetary assistance from whoever they view is affluent enough to help their false situation. To make their story credible, some of them claimed to be unfortunate travelers or tourists looking for funds to get on with their journey.

Whilst not dressed like the typical beggars, they can equally be persistent and annoying if the amount offered to them by their Samaritan does not measure up to expectations; they get on with repeating the false stories, really emphasizing and hammering on the sadder nuances of the tale, coaxing people into giving more.

In an interview with Corper, Adeyera Olubunmi, he gave an account of his experience with of these Stranded Professionals saying that he was on his way to work one fateful morning and he had branched at GTBank in his area to make withdrawal; just as he stepped out from the bank premises did this beggar approached him.

“A man actually dressed as a muslim cleric popularly called ‘Alfa’ approached me and started the whole story of him being robbed that morning while he was going for a job interview. He claimed that the robbers took off with all his personal effects, alongside his phones and credentials, so, he was totally stranded at that moment.”

“I didn’t want to waste time with him, so, I gave him the sum of N500. He thanked me and even offered me some prayers in Arabic. Not understanding the Arabic language, I just said ‘amen’ and left for work. In the evening while I was returning from work, passing the same route I took while going in the morning, I saw this man again.”

“Immediately I saw him, I recognized him through his shoes, because he has changed into another attire entirely which rendered him to look like a kind of Jehovah Witness Pastor with a flat book which almost look like a flyer, I was thinking within men if he had gathered all his required funds to move on. Just as I was close to him, he approached me and repeated the same story he told me in the morning.”

“I went into a deep thought and wondered what I would do to the man who is nothing but a major scammer. An idea ran through my mind and I put it to use. I asked if he has N500 change that I am left with just N1000 note, he was delighted to hear that and brought out a note of N500, I collected it and dipped my hand into my pocket like I was going to bring out the N1000.”

“In anticipation, he waited and I asked him why had gone home to change his previous outfit but he acted as if he did not understand me. Then, I described his morning outfit when he approached me and reminded him that I gave him N500, and lucky for me, I have retrieved it back. He left quietly without uttering a word, Olubunmi explained.

Kazeem gave a similar account of one Kehinde Olatubosun, 56, who was arrested by Rapid Respond Squad (RRS) at an alcohol joint as a drug addict. He then disclosed he was a beggar and he made up to N300,000 monthly from begging.

Kazeem said 

“Olatubosun confessed that he usually got drug prescriptions papers from hospital waste bin. With this in his hand, he could convince any motorists, passengers and passers-by that a relative of his in dire need of money to buy drugs and show them the prescription papers.”

“This is what he said he has been doing since he was deported from Germany in 2004, also, he explained that before the deportation, he was working as an Electrical Engineer in Bauhusa, Colon, Germany before he was deported 12 years ago,” Kazeem stated.

However, it was reported that the upsurge of numbers of beggars in Lagos bases charged the Government into moving destitute back their states of origin. The State Government reported that 2,217 beggars, destitute and mentally challenged persons were rescued from the streets for rehabilitation in the year 2015 alone.

It was further reported that a court sitting in Lagos sentenced 30 beggars to jail for involving themselves into public nuisance, among other related offences. Also, last month, the State Government concluded arrangements to prosecute a woman who engaged in begging for alsm with the two children she brought from village to assist her in trading.

It was gathered that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State had earlier ordered the State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation and Other Special Offences to rid the state off miscreants and enforce the law prohibiting begging in the state.

Furthermore, he noted that some unscrupulous persons hide under the guise of seeking alms to rob unsuspecting members of the public saying 

“efforts will be made to rid the state from street beggars and destitute. We’ve had security reports on the activities of persons who pose as beggars, especially in traffic, but their sole aim is to perpetrate evil.”

Bases and cities in Lagos are on the quest of purging out these lying corporate beggars from back approach to current base. Outskirts of Lagos are no exceptional on this quest, some concerned residents, outlet owners, office workers and so on, who are aware of these lying corporate beggars, bases and activities have promised to set out to help the Lagos State Government in curbing the menace of this beggars.