The outbreak of the deadly coronavirus dealt a devastating blow to many countries of the world, of which Nigeria is one of those countries that was taken unaware.
A country like Nigeria plagued by bad leadership that is laden with corruption, where citizens live below the poverty level, with youth restiveness and unemployment level on the increase on a daily basis, where terrorism, kidnapping and banditry have become the order of the day, it is very glaring that greater proportion of Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty with less than 1 US dollar as a per-capital income.
No wonder during the initial lockdown imposed by the defunct Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, the plight of the under-bellied members of the society was exposed. Men, women, youths and children were forced to break open some warehouses to help themselves with food. Just before the second wave of the virus in the country, it was gathered that the number of those who died of hunger were far higher than those who were actually killed by the dreaded coronavirus.
While this happens to be the case with the larger society, my concern is drawn to this particular set of people in the society which neither the government nor the civil society groups seem to be paying attention to. Yet their wellbeing cannot be overlooked. The beggars – this set of people, whether young or old, posses a great threat to the general public if they are neglected in the scheme of things, because if one beggar contract coronavirus, it could spread like a wildfire in as much as they are members of the general society.
With outbreak of COVID-19, commercial activities have decreased drastically. This means that these roadside beggars no longer have people to beg from like they used to, which is both good and bad. Child begging is very damaging to the children and even the adults and it should be discouraged by all means. However, most of these beggars were forced into the menace as a means of survival but it also shows that many families in this part of the world are suffering from extreme poverty. They, therefore, resorted to begging to sustain themselves.
According to Yinusa Abubakar, a 13 year-old teenager who was brought from Kauran Namuda, Zamfara State to Kaduna to seek for Islamic knowledge when he was only 8 year-old, he said for him, there was nothing like COVID-19, hence there was need to take any precaution. Similarly, Mallam Salisu Gogo, a beggar in the federal capital territory Abuja, who spoke in Hausa language said his major problem was not coronavirus but hunger.
“We don’t have food, no shelter, when we are sick, we don’t have access to the hospital. We are begging the government to help us so that we can live like every other person,” Gogo pleaded.
Truth be told, amongst these people, there are many of aged men and women who probably have underlying illnesses that urgently need medical attention but yet, they have little or no knowledge on what to do and how to take proper precautions on the deadly COVID-19 disease in other to stay safe from contracting the dreaded virus.
***This report was facilitated by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under its Free To Share Project.
