SUNDAY NARRATIVES: El Rufai! Stoking Beggars’ Rights Up North

CONTROVERSY hugging and sanctimonious governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el Rufai, has asked beggars and hawkers to vacate the streets of Kaduna, and look elsewhere to ply their trade. Since he got to Kaduna on May 29, the accidental politician, who is adroit at pious postulations, is eager to make Kaduna a model for other states, just as his tenure as minister of the Federal Capital Territory has remained a reference point.

So far, he has achieved a few firsts. He was the first to slash his salary by half, first to appoint a woman as Chief of Staff. He was also the first governor-elect to commence a probe of his predecessor, even before he was inaugurated. He is likely to be the first to have commenced the sack of workers. We are told he had sent home 177, allegedly, permanent staff of Kaduna State Traffic and Environmental Law Enforcement Agency (KASTELEA), who were on a monthly pay of N18, 000. The new Kaduna government had also sent home 20 permanent secretaries, some who still have years in service. Apparently, to have a compact bureaucracy, the government has reduced the ministries from 19 to 13. All of that can be accommodated within the new wave of restructuring blowing around the country, provided requisite auditing processes were followed to avoid vindictiveness.

What is of utmost interest today is el Rufai’s brewing face-off with beggars. These sets of Nigerians, self-employed to start with, are very informed, more than we think. In managing them, you have to understand their sensibilities, because in spite of whatever nuisance they constitute, they remain a moral burden on society.

You always have to deal reasonably with them. El Rufai, on the other hand, does not suffer fools gladly. At the FCT, he did not brook nonsense from anyone. He brought down properties belonging to the high and mighty and also peppered the poor, Okada riders and hawkers, who ventured to desecrate the Abuja Master Plan with their unregulated activities.

Are we set to see a replication of el Rufai’s tempestuous reign at Abuja in his home state, Kaduna? The signs are there already and unless Abuja puts a rein on the galloping steps, Kaduna might present a very exciting theatre in four years. This time, it may not just be the pulling down of houses, but the sweeping away of the toilsome years of hapless citizens. But pray that the APC broom is spotless enough to do an honest job.

Now, anyone familiar with the Kaduna metropolis will agree that too many beggars’ colonies have sprouted and that does not befit the status of Kaduna as the political headquarters of the north. In those faraway days, when yours sincerely pounded that Crocodile enclave for subsistence living, the horde of beggars along what used to be Hospital road, leading to NTA and FRCN was choking. As you descend towards the Post Office, you had to bargain for space with these fellow Nigerians.

What about their colleagues lining Ahmadu Bello Way, clustered around the Central Market? Nauseating. Then you mingle with them as you gravitate to anchor at Railway Station, Kakuri; you had to put your nose in the sky to abrogate the stench that is native to their community. If you ask me, that crowd is not the type el Rufai is familiar with.

Even at Abuja, where senior citizens luxuriate, el Rufai did not spare anybody. He once ejected former Justice Bashir Sambo, formerly of the Sharia Court of Appeal and chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, who was bent on purchasing his official quarters as a retirement abode. El Rufai was not comfortable with the way the old man (now deceased) went about it and he ejected him, a fellow Zarian I suppose, and put him out in the cold.

Many were shocked at the FCT minister’s affront, on account of the other man’s age and experience, but el Rufai did not bait an eyelid. Then, how do we now bother about lowly beggars who have no entitlements?

As for Kaduna, every northern statesman, military or politician, as well as the business class cherishes this metropolis. It used to be the place where the amorphous Kaduna Mafia hibernated and plotted the movement of the pendulum of State. Remember the good old days of the military. Kaduna was equally a sprawling location for business and manufacturing. The textile companies thrived there, until the recession. So, there is a lot to romanticise about this place; and perhaps, that is what el Rufai wants to reawaken. But first, he has to find a way to sweep away the street beggars.

He had started with ghost workers, who had to be fished out. A screening exercise was ordered to take place at the Sabon Gari Local Government Secretariat, Zaria, on July 7. Primary school teachers and some civil servants had gathered to be screened when a suicide bomber crept in and exploded the lethal ware that claimed no fewer than 25 persons.

While reacting to the dastardly act, el Rufai’s government decided to issue a ban on street begging and hawking. Here is what the governor’s spokesman, Samuel Aruwan said: “Kaduna State government’s decision to ban hawking and begging in the state followed last week’s bomb attack that killed 26 innocent citizens and injured 32. The government is a responsible government and conscious of its constitutional role to protect citizens and to ensure law and order for common good. The state government will not fold its arms and allow citizens to be killed via terror act and break down of law and order, hence the decision.”

Blimey! So what is the link between the bomb explosion in Zaria and government’s clamp down on beggars and other street citizens? The beggars are not taking the matter lying low. They have dared the state authority and vowed to remain on the streets until government finds them gainful employment. They also reject their being associated with terrorists, which is what the ban represents to them. They have taken their matter to the Kaduna State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists and have resolved to go to Abuja.

This matter requires careful handling so that all sides are fairly assessed, going forward. Begging is an old social disequilibrium Nigeria has lived with, but its burden can be reduced through awareness programmes and poverty alleviation policies of government. Some beggars are also persons with disabilities, which make their matter more pathetic. They are disabled and cannot engage in normal activities that can generate income. They rely on handouts from fellow citizens who are endowed and well to do. Some use children to beg, instead of putting them in schools or teaching them some skills.

Some others see begging as their divine lot, which they find endorsement for in the holy books. Charity is well encouraged in both Christianity and Islam. You are told to love your neighbour as yourself, meaning that you are not to allow your neighbour go hungry and unclothed. As a matter of fact, this Ramadan season encourages charity, because without it, we may not find favour with God. But should all of that stop government from regulating movement of persons and seeking to clean the environment where beggars are always likely to abuse? Beggars, if not checked will prefer to loiter around and liter choice places in our cities and towns, yet they are our fellow citizens. How does a government deal with this social menace without making persons in government look heartless?

For an APC government that professes something close to socialism, chasing beggars and hawkers off the streets seems to be an incongruity. The first thing to do is an audit of such category of persons, to know what numbers among them are sincerely poor to remain in that condition. Others who are disabled may be taken for some therapeutic sessions to help restore their limbs, preparatory to finding them jobs to do. Of particular interest to society should be the fate of children born into this endless circle of poverty. A sincere government cannot allow that to continue. Children of beggars must not grow into that condition. They must be ‘arrested’ and forced into schools, so that they can be cut off from that heritage. If government is not sure how to commence that noble exercise, let them walk into our sociology departments.

What governments don’t want to hear is that their actions induce poverty. People in government feed fat from society’s common purse. They are the ones who have access and own more than they truly need. President Buhari should flag off his socialist programmes so that persons in his government who own up to 10 houses and more in the FCT and elsewhere can be encouraged to keep five at most, and release the rest for the State to bridge the poverty gap. That might be the shortest way to decongest the streets and avoid a looming beggars’ revolution, as they get more and more aware of their rights.