Child Begging in Katsina

8/8/2019 Child Begging in Katsina

1/5

THE MENACE OF CHILD BEGGING IN KATSINA STATE:

OUR RESPONSIBILITY

By

Aliyu M. Katsina.

[email protected]

INTRODUCTION

How to eradicate or even at least reduce to the barest minimum possible, the problem of child

begging in this part of the country has never been an issue of serious concern with most of our

policymakers. Possibly it is because their children don't beg. Nevertheless, for fear of issuing an

overly generalized and sweeping statement, one would have said that the problem has indeed become

so pervasive and dangerously harmful affecting virtually all parts of the Northern Nigeria and even

beyond. Cataloguing the negative social consequences of this disgusting social anomaly is like

walking in hell. But much as we want to proffer solutions to this problem, the success thereto will

remain seriously handicapped, so long as we choose to continue playing ostrich by pretending that it

is indeed not a Red- Alert case. But for how long should we wait until it has reach this stage before

we act. If it is any consolation to those skeptics, then it has already reached this stage. Consider these

following social abnormalities: most of the cases of drug abuse, child labour, child prostitution, and

those of youth violence and thuggery are a direct fall-out of child begging in the first instance.

We have a situation or circumstance mainly borne out of ignorance, and poverty where we forced a

child to fend, and to cater for his needs - to feed, clothe, and even shelter himself - under the guise of

acquiring religious education at a very tender age. Meanwhile, he is completely un-tutored to the

dangers and vagaries of society without proper parental guidance. What are we doing, if not simply

condemning them to become prey to many anti-social elements and influences amongst us? In a

research conducted by the National Council for the Welfare of the Destitute in 1996, the average age

of these helpless children put at between 4-9 years constituted 39.4% of all child beggars in Katsina

state alone, while those in the range of 10-14 years made up 40.4%. Elsewhere this could be higher,

and even here in Katsina state, twelve years is a long stretch meaning that the figure must have

quadrupled over and over again.There has been no attempt to study these figures again. This is cruel,

disgusting and heart wrenching. A child of four (4) years is fending for himself completely devoid of

parental support, care or guidance, and the government, traditional rulers, Imams, and community

1


2/5

leaders sit idly doing absolutely nothing to check this menace. Yet, everyday we talk of youth

empowerment and power shift. Which empowerment, which development? What are we talking

about? The society is indeed guilty! Yeah! Guilty of complacency, of complicity, of duplicity and of

silence.

In Katsina, the same study puts 89% begging and 10% labour as the basic means of sustaining these

poor souls leaving only 1% for the parents. On moral depravity, the study gives three causes viz: hash

discipline 45%, lack of parental participation 25%, and exposure to social ills 30%. So far, at

governmental level, there has been no concerted effort to check the spread of this menace. Policy

initiatives and measures are not forthcoming. One would wonder: why? Answer to this question is not

as simple as the question. For one thing, by acts of commission or omission, we are all guilty of

ignorance and complicity. We have insulated our selves in our air-conditioned homes very oblivious

of the happenings around us. As such, we cannot explain the actual causes of child begging with

certainty. We are simply content with shouting poverty and ignorance. Nevertheless, are they

sufficient explanations? I dare say no! We as members of the society, have the responsibility to reach

out to find the truth, and have the courage to act upon the truth. May be we are waiting for the time

when we shall all be consumed by this social catastrophe before we could act. By then however, alas

it is late. There is also the danger of interpreting the scriptures upside down which has not been

combated again since Danfodio.

CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD BEGGING TO THE SOCIETY

Definitely, there would come a time when Katsina and Northern Nigeria will wake up to find her

children destroyed, her future wasted, her dreams in ruin, without anything to clutch on except good

old tales of glory. This is exactly what will happen should we refuse to act now. I refused to be called

an alarmist, for the facts speak for themselves. We have been producing thugs and hooligans, drug

abusers and peddlers, small-time pimps and prostitutes who shall soon graduate to big-timers. When

this deluge overwhelms us, God help us, we would have by then lost all initiative for progress and

development. Our society will become bereft of a new and enterprising generation: teachers, doctors,

engineers, administrators, all those who are the cog in the wheel of progress and development.

Instead, we shall have criminals, thugs, drug pushers, AIDS carriers and distributors. And the elites?

Well, they will be left with thugs, and pimps to rule, and to employ. No self-respecting individual

would love to be a citizen of such a society. By the time, they realize their undoing: the ship has

capsized, and every one drowned.

2


3/5

What about rural-urban drift, which we often talked about as crippling agriculture? In fact we have

reached a stage where some of those poor souls not only come from the rural areas, but we cherish

them so much that we have to import them from neighbouring countries further compounding our

problems. When our immigration and custom officials choose to busy themselves with other

occupations abandoning our borders literally open under the almighty excuse of ECOWAS solidarity

we are further descending into the doldrums. Give to those poor souls out of pity, you encourage

them, and should you refuse to give them you are literally joining those who choose to condemn them

to life of misery. For in so doing, without adequate arrangement to cater for them, we are asking them

to look for succor possible. This is the worst humanitarian crisis unraveling before our eyes. Pity we

would not act until Nigeria becomes another Liberia and Sierra Leone mixed. I mean, in the movie,

Blood Diamonds, we see the kids turned into beasts, and robots, impassive killing machines,

perpetrating worst forms of atrocities. If you asked me I would tell you, they represent the moral

equivalent of our child-beggars.

When we deny these souls our love, affection, and guidance, we are sending them ill-equipped for the

drudgeries of future life, where ill-prepared as they are, they shall join the gangs of the damned; those

who have pact with the devil, and together they shall terrorize the society: ours. They will make life

miserable to us all. Crime, moral depravity, degeneration and destruction of societal ethos will not

only increase, NO, they will reign supreme. Since the moral fiber of the society has been torn, to

whom then do we turn for deliverance and salvation?

WAY FORWARD

They say a stitch in time saves nine. We ought to act NOW and save ourselves the calamities of even

thinking over this problem, and the attendant embarrassment. We do not have to wait for the

intervention of the government, who at any rate seems to be pre-occupied. We do not have to wait for

the rich amongst us; those are presently busy making more money out of us. At any rate this is a

collective problem one with a capacity for parity, it will make no distinction when it descend on us. It

is going to do so with such fury and vengeance. So why wait?

As individuals, we can do a lot. By inviting like-minded persons, we can start with establishing

awareness groups, where we can proactively discuss the ills of child begging. We can organize

campaign tours especially to the rural areas, where we can sensitize the people, especially the rural

dwellers, on the serious dangers inherent in sending their children to far-off places to acquire

knowledge without fully preparing them to the rude awakenings of life.

3


4/5


5/5

circumstance should we delude our selves with the evident semblance of normality on the surface.

Deep under, discontent is boiling fiercely with such fury that when it exploded, its devastation will be

worse than Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Sierra Leone put together. The responsibility on us

is therefore this simple question: WHY WAIT.

By so doing I believe we do not have to sit again and engage in debates on how best to address this

terrible problem. In my view these measures, though modest, are not in-adequate. In fact, should we

heed the counsel of our hearts and decide to implement them, we shall no doubt impact positively on

the menace of child begging in Katsina state and indeed Nigeria as a whole.

For: Vanguard for the Restoration of Democracy.

5

Documents

Child Begging in Katsina