It used to be said that a beggar has no choice. “But that’s not true in Lagos, beggars here make a choice,” a sociologist, Isaac Otuamala, told the reporter while explaining why people beg. “In Lagos, the beggars, especially the professional ones, tell you exactly how much they want.
“The professional ones amongst them believe they make more money from begging than engaging in a meaningful enterprise and they really do, because they take advantage of the sympathetic nature of people and make begging a vocation,” he said.
Different colours
Indeed, the streets of Lagos parade legions of beggars. They are of different statures and status and cut across all ages, gender and tribe. While some are stationary beggars that operate at specific spots, uncountable others are mobile, traversing the width and breadth of the state, exploiting sympathetic givers, either to meet real life needs or indulge their insatiable desire for drugs, booze and women.
Beggars spread their tentacles to various spots, including bus stops, eateries and beer parlours.
While some beg for beer, some beg for food. Some beg for money to buy medication for real or imaginary health issues. There are the corporate ones in suit who forgot their wallets at home while rushing to work. Yet, there are contract- beggars who beg for their masters and receive a cut at the end of the day.
A lady banker told the reporter that the number of beggars in Lagos is turning it to mega beggars’ city. “Even in banks, beggars wait for ATM users. Even inside, they beg for pen to fill forms. Neighbours beg for water, beg for oil, salt and seasoning cubes. And if you don’t give, you are branded wicked,” she said.
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At various corners of the street, the women of easy virtues beg for patronage. “Oga come, I will do you well. I will give you different styles; anyhow you want it. Buy me cigarette,” they chorus.
Different tales for different folks
Mrs Amara Okafor told the reporter that sometimes she is torn between whether to give arms to beggars or not. According to her, the scepticism arose from different stories she heard about beggars. She said there is an allegation of some beggars making up to N5000 daily, owning their own homes and live lavishly outside their areas of operation. Some also allegedly use money collected for rituals.
Similarly, a prominent journalist told the reporter how a corporate beggar asked him for financial assistance and he willingly gave. Thereafter, hardship hit him.
He said: “Hardship made real meaning to me. Lack and want flooded me like torrential flood. My family and I saw hell until I consulted my pastor. He told me that I gave money to a man and he used it for rituals. It was after fasting and prayers that the yoke was broken. Since then, I became wary of giving alms.”
Conversely, someone told the reporter that some give for ritual purposes, not that they really want to help the beggars. “That’s why some of the beggars tear-off tips of the naira notes when they receive money from the suspected ritualists to avert any curse that may have been placed on the money,” he said.
Investigation revealed that many of the beggars are fake or liars. They just spin all manner of stories to attract pity.
Take this from Akosa Igbedu. “I entered a bus at First Gate at Festac Town and saw a young man begging for assistance. He said he was released from the Kirikiri Prison and needed money to return to Owerri, his home town. I had pity on him. He looked dirty and hungry. I asked him how much he needed to go back to his village and he said N2000. Luckily, I had enough money on me. There and then, I gave him N4000 and was happy I helped a fellow human being that was in need. Little did I know that the young man was a scammer and had turned begging to an occupation.
“Few weeks after, I entered a bus at Cele bus stop going to Ikotun and the young man telling the same story and people were giving him money. Immediately he recognized me, he jumped down from the car and melted into the crowd at the bus stop. People asked me why he saw me and ran away and I told them the story. Since then, it is only the physically challenged that I manage to assist sometimes.”
Internet operators
There is also Internet begging, which is the modern practice of asking people to give money to others via the Internet. Internet begging is not only targeted at people who are acquainted with the beggar as it has expanded to soliciting help from strangers.
A victim, Ashamed, explained: “I got in touch with Catherine Hannisick through MeetMe App where she always claimed that she loved me and wanted to marry me. She said her commander promised to pay half of her airfare and she needed to come up with the other half of $1500. I had sent her the $1500 already. I asked her for proof because she said she had nothing to eat because her military camp was attacked. She sent me an image of pasta from the internet. I felt so stupid now because I wonder if it is possible for anyone on a mission in the army to have that much time to be texting on dating App.”
Another respondent, who preferred to be identified as Islandgemini50, shared her experience about scammers who pretended to be beggars online. “I was talking to someone on Plenty of Fish. He had a European accent and told me he was from Sofia, Bulgaria. We spoke for a long time and he told me he was on a ship heading to Australia for business in shipping. That’s fine and he never did ask me for money initially, just an iTunes card. Eventually, he did beg if I would accept a check that a client owed him. I said no due to scams. I did think about it and said I would accept the check but I would not deposit it in my account. He didn’t like that but too bad.
“I went to the bank and asked them to check if it was legit. First of all, why would someone ask a stranger to accept a $4000 check? I can steal it! The check was deposited in a new account just for that purpose. The following day the bank told me the check was fake. I also requested copies of the check. I was able to contact the supposed sender that lives in Maryland. He was an elderly man who told me that he and his wife had identity issues and he never heard of the third party bank the check was cut from. The bank was legit, just not his bank.
“I called the sender of the check and told him it cleared but I was keeping the money. Then after much fighting, I took pictures of the check that the bank had stamped and told him it was fake and that I spoke to his client that never had an account at that bank. Anyway, he denied all and had accused me of stealing his money. What nerve!”
Global
As it is in Nigeria, so it is in many parts of the world. Last month the Advertising Standards Authority in United Kingdom reprimanded Nottingham City Council for a poster campaign over the summer that saw five different notices pasted up around the city suggesting that beggars were frauds, junkies and drunks. They complained that the advertisement “reinforced negative stereotypes” and “portrayed all beggars as disingenuous and undeserving individuals that would use direct donations for irresponsible means.”
At the heart of this row is whether people should hand over cash to people on the streets. Over there, there are myths about beggars doing a shift outside Boots for eight hours and then jumping into their BMW parked round the corner and heading back to their mansions to count their takings. The fear expressed by the indigenes is that when your neighbourhood vagrant has amassed enough shiny pound coins from liberal givers like you, they’re just going to go and blow it all on drugs and booze.
Thames Reach, a London-based charity which works with homeless and vulnerable people in the capital has the ambitious goal of ending homelessness through trying to get the people it helps into accommodation. They are in no doubt why begging exists: “Overwhelming evidence shows that people who beg on the streets of England do so in order to buy hard drugs, particularly crack cocaine and heroin, and super-strength alcoholic beers and ciders. These highly addictive drugs cause an extreme deterioration in people’s health and even death.”