It is the first sight that greets you as you enter Anambra State capital, Awka. You are caught between pity and disgust. Three youngsters jumped on my car as I was about to negotiate under Awka flyover toward my destination recently. My tires screeched as I applied my brakes. The three kids were unruffled and were still trying to get my attention. “Spare us some money, brother.” They took turns to repeat to my hearing. I swore under my breath. I almost knocked down these ones. What the heck is this new beggars conference under this flyover?
I drove pass and got to a safer spot and stopped. I stepped down from my car. I needed to get a better look of this multitude of shabbily dressed families of beggars accosting every passerby; pedestrian and commuter borne alike under Anambra’s signature flyovers.
They looked like they came from outside the state. They looked like they were practically living under these beautifully painted flyovers. Their belongings were scattered by the walk ways. Among them were able bodied male and female adults and a predominance of kids. They have come to make nonsense of the previous administration‘s zero street begging policy. They are littered all over Anambra State now, especially under the flyovers, at the motor parks and entrances of houses of worship.
What should be the right attitude towards these beggars? I almost felt pity for them. But the economist in me reminded me that these were leakages to the Anambra economy. They are not contributing anything to the economy. Rather, they are constituting nuisance, multiplying themselves and kids like used water proof packs are littered all over the metropolis.
When I asked some of them where they came from, some said Ebonyi state. Others, Enugu, yet others mentioned Cross River. These were able bodied humans; mostly Igbos, who are blatantly destroying the very fabric of the dignity of labour and dignity of Igbo identity. They have refused to make themselves resourceful. The only resource they appear to give is childbirth implying that indeed they have the productive power, though wrongly applied.
Historians who captured the original Igbo society before the intrusion of other cultures noted that our communities were devoid of beggars. The society was so well programmed that everyone was a functional member and those adults who met any mishaps got properly reintegrated in no time. It was, in fact, a thing of shame, to have a kinsman who was poor and not resourceful. He was quickly assisted into finding his niche in the functional web of the community.
I recalled that a certain lady from Anambra State was recently sent back to Anambra from a neighboring state for constituting begging nuisance. There is need for these ones who litter our streets, occupy incomplete building structures and keep birthing new babies every other year without recourse to economic value to be identified and repatriated to their home states. The Igbo wise would say that “one cannot be poor and a vampire as well.” These beggars are vampires, taking advantage of our religiosity to swindle us of our hard earned monies.
There are people from the aforementioned states who have found great success in Anambra State in different fields of endeavor they diligently applied themselves in. The least of them are hawkers, selling all kinds of stuff at various spots. These are the nobles whose image are being tarnished by these beggars.
It is high time the state government rose to the occasion. Anambra people are being tormented by this new epidemic in town. And we cannot achieve Professor Soludo’s clean and healthy livable Anambra State by tolerating these ones.
