Begging ‘economy’ booms in Nigeria as more citizens slip into poverty

…Worship centres major attraction

…Not all about biting economy, but laziness – Observers

When Biola and John, her husband, stepped out of their recently acquired fairly-used Toyota SUV, they were impressed by the passion with which a well-dressed gentleman ushered them into the wedding reception hall.

“This is courteous, I like it,” she whispered into her husband’s ear.

Sadly, it was on their departure that they realised that the courteousness and smiles were a smokescreen.

The supposedly usher did not look their way, rather he left them to attend to a younger couple that gave him some money earlier on their arrival.

On an enquiry, the husband discovered that the gentleman was just a self-appointed usher, who uses his courteousness to beg for alms.

“You mean, he is just a beggar with his good looks and smiles. No, this can’t be,” the wife, who is disappointed with the gentleman, decried.

Call them corporate beggars or whatever name you prefer, the reality is that there are many out there doing just this without shame.

The intrigue for many, like Biola, is how able-bodied people have commercialised begging, when they can work, earn more and even assist other dependants.

“When you see someone on tattered clothing approaching you, the next thing is to check your bag or pocket where your small change is to offer them or ignore them. But not when a sweet guy approaches with smile and instead of kind words, he starts begging,” Joyce Onumah, a young banker, said.

She observed that those who have no reason to beg are the ones preventing good people from giving alms to those who really need it.

“I have severally assisted school girls who complain of no transport fare, unknown passengers who pretend to have no money and even some selfish colleagues, who prefer receiving to giving,” she said.

According to her, all those people truly do not need to beg.

“The school girls who used their transport fare to buy chewing gum or ice cream can trek home; those who feigned no money will bring out their last card when nobody answers them. I think begging by the able-bodied is a cancer eating their lazy bones. Just work, no matter how small the pay is,” she said.

Toeing the banker’s line, Susan Eloka, a church administrator, decried that many who have no reason to beg are living off it because the givers are not relenting.

“Despite the hardship people still give alms even to those who they know don’t need it. Some think that it is sin not to give, while others are often moved by pity,” Eloka said.

Read also:Politicians’ handout keeps beneficiaries perpetually beggars in Nigeria

Recalling her experience with people who often come to her office begging for assistance, she said, “They usually don’t like the option of setting up a small business for them or getting them a paid job. All they want is to be getting something after every church service and they can visit three churches every Sunday,” Eloka decried.

The above is also the mindset of the able-bodied young men who invade car parks during events to beg alms from the owners at arrival or departure, some of whom are their mates.

There are cases where a few of the car owners will offer to assist them, and will even mention some job openings they can take advantage of, but they prefer begging.

“There is this tall guy I often see at a car wash I patronise. I have tried to help him, even taken his number and called when I have off-loading jobs or logistics pressure, but he will always give excuse of sickness or no transport fare to come. He is just lazy,” Jude Nnamekwe, an importer, said.

Considering the stress and risk people take to make money and the hardship, Nnamekwe decried that it was disappointing to see someone, especially able-bodied young people, seeking easy money, not minding the giver, in today’s world where ritualists abound.

For Folasade Oyebanji, a senior lecturer at a private university, the sense of entitlement of corporate beggars is baffling as well as fuels their laziness.

“Why will a well-dressed gentleman or lady continue to beg if not because of the confidence that they will always be given something by people. That negative confidence gives them a sense of entitlement and is also the reason they ridicule you when you don’t give them money,” she enthused.

The Psychology lecturer blamed the trend not only on laziness, but on mental and psychology issues.

“If you do a thorough check on the beggars, you will discover other reasons for their actions beyond laziness. Some don’t have the mental power to feel shame, the intelligence quotient of some is too low, and that is why you can hardly convince them to change, even when you offer them jobs, they will return to begging,” she noted.

But Bode Olayemi, a lawyer, blamed corporate begging on poor renumeration, especially among the security personnel.

“The Police like to stop me and will always not find anything to hold me down. In most cases it will end up in begging ‘something for the weekend’ and I will often give, considering the low tone and their realities,” he said.

But on a personal investigation, he discovered that majority of the personnel on the road are poorly paid and work in harsh conditions.

“I have relatives, friends and associates who are in the security agencies. They are not well-paid even soldiers. It is from some senior ranks they start enjoying. So, begging, for some, becomes a way to augment their lean salaries, which for me is better than using the gun to get money,” Olayemi said.

Also recalling an encounter with an official of LASTMA, Olayemi said that the officer preferred out-of-office settlement for a traffic law he did not break because he needed the money to sort pressing needs.

“He said that my front tyres were on the stop sign and that it was an offence. But I insisted and further proved that I did not break the law, the officer freed me later, but resorted to begging, no matter how small for his children’s school fees. If he is well-paid, he will not beg from motorists,” the lawyer said.

Also, passengers at the airports often have same experience as a growing number of airport workers subtly beg them for alms, with some expecting foreign currencies.

“They beg as you disembark the airplane, as they stamp you in or out and as they check your luggage tag.

They don’t have shame again, but I prefer the begging to extortion,” Onajite Mudiaga, a politician and a frequent traveller, decried.

According to him, those who beg when they are fit and should be giving to others, are mocking hard work and encouraging economic sabotage.

“I know that many people will call we politicians all sorts of names. But we are not lazy, we work and earn our pay.

“If you want to beg, beg with your certificate, beg with your skills or contacts, they will give you more and sustainable money. Stop begging when you can work,” Mudiaga said.

Read also: More Nigerians slip into beggars’ clan as economy worsens

Offering solutions, Oyebanji urged people who have relatives that are corporate beggars to seek mental health services for them.

She also noted that relocation of such people to places where they are productively engaged and monitored can help.

But Mudiaga noted that people can give a better face to their begging by putting small work to it.

“An average praise singer is a beggar. But they have instruments with which they praise-sing people.

They only go after people they perceive to have money and their level of praise-singing will determine the amount the client will dole out,” he said.

He pointed to the boys who swiftly clean cars in traffic, insisting that the motorists are giving them money for preferring work to begging.

“I usually give money to the disabled that control traffic or engaged in something productive because he could simple beg because of the disability, but chose to work. Then, what excuse does an able-bodied beggar have,” he said.

In his conclusion, Mudiaga insisted that corporate begging has nothing to do with the multidimensional poverty in the country, as many of the affected have rejected job offers.

Nnamekwe also argued that many rich today made efforts to walk out of poverty and not by begging, while insisting that there is no reason anyone able-bodied person should beg apart from laziness.

“Corporate begging is not a career. If you make it one, it will never be a rewarding and fulfilling one. Get a job if you are able-bodied, no matter how small the pay is,” Oyebanji concluded.

A Cleric, Matthew Akpan, who decried the growing number of Nigerians taking to begging instead of working, said he was particularly saddened that many of the beggars were now found in churches.

“I have tried many times to help some women in my church whom I considered idle because they are always in the habit of begging, but they have always rejected my suggestion that they should take to frying ‘akara’ or selling groundnuts in bottles. I promised to raise money for them and get places for them to stay to do the business, but they prefer begging. People are simply lazy and greedy,” Akpan said.

He said that the only solution to such a habit was attitudinal change.

“I think, the only solution to begging for many people is change of attitude. It must come from their inner being, not forced. It is a mental disorder. There is nothing anybody can do to talk them out of it. It is not possible for the government to give everybody job that will cater for all their needs. People must make use of their hands to work if they want to eat,” he said.