The Unknown Nigerian Epidemic Called Child Begging

For an act that carries life sentence terms for offenders in jail, more than 10 million children in Nigeria have been forced to become child beggars, according to antislavery. org

A few weeks ago, I was on my way to an office nearby to pick up some documents. I decided to go with a Bolt company cab, or taxi, as I had never been there before and didn’t know the route to the place. I only had my transport fare, going and coming back. Nothing left for snacks or drinks or extra 'enjoyment' that I could use along the way.

Almost as soon as we hit the major road, we were attacked by the ‘lions and lionesses’ of Lagos traffic. They devoured us for three solid hours, eating up both my time, energy and patience as I kept wondering if I could make it to my destination before dusk set in.

Then all of a sudden, I saw a little black hand on the window, so small that I could enclose it in mine. The owner of the little black hand revealed herself to be a very little girl, definitely not older than six years old. But this little girl, was quite unlike any six year old you would normally see.

The first thing I noticed were her eyes. They were so yellow, it looked like she had suffered from jaundice. Her chocolate skin looked ghostly white, like she had slept in a pile of dust for weeks and only just stepped out. Her clothes, a white blouse and skirt, could only be called white from close inspection, for it was extremely black from whatever substance had been smeared from them, and she had still worn them anyway. I tried to peep down at her feet, and boy, was I shocked! She was barefooted, and had bruises and swellings all over her straight, perfect legs.

I would have turned my back on her, if she didn’t start to sing. Her voice was like that of an angel, and as she sang, tears began to fill in her eyes. That was the last straw for me, as I wound down the window and parted with some of my money. Her toothy smile as she received it was enough confirmation to know that truly, I did the right thing.

Since then, I have seen many more girls and even boys on the street like her, under the sun and in the rain, hustling for water and a good meal everyday. I wonder to myself — who are they? Where, exactly, do they come from? Why do their numbers increase every day? Most importantly, how can their lives, become better?

Children begging motorists on a busy Nigerian highway

The Problem

This is a practice that results from parents or a group of adults forcefully sending children onto the streets to beg for money from tourists, motorists and the general public at large, according to borgenproject.org

According to the United Nations protocol, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered 'trafficking in persons' even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article." This means that using a child for the purpose of begging, whether instructed by a third party or family member, is against the law and is STILL considered as child trafficking.

Even in Nigeria, it’s also illegal, under the Nigerian Criminal Code Act, especially in the Southern parts:

• Section 249 on disorderly and idle persons establishes that to wander or place oneself in a public place for the purpose of begging or causing any child to do so (Section 249 (b)) or play at any game of chance for money or other good (Section 249 (c)), punishable, also on arrest without a warrant and with a prison term of up to one month.
• Section 250 on rogues and vagabonds establishes that to wander abroad and endeavour by the exposure of wounds or deformation to obtain or gather alms (Section 250 (2), go about as a gatherer or collector of alms or endeavour to procure charitable contributions under false or fraudulent pretence (Section 250 (3), is a misdemeanour punishable on summary conviction with a term of up to 3 months imprisonment for first-time offenders and up to 1 year imprisonment for repeat offenders. In this case, the offender can be arrested without a warrant.

So you see, child begging is actually pretty illegal, both locally and internationally. You may ask, “why is it illegal? They didn’t choose to be this way". Maybe, if you see the reason why, you can understand.

The Cause

Northern children studying the Quran under the Almajarai school system. Source: antislavery.org

The primary cause of the child begging situation in Nigeria is as a result of the 'Almajarai’, a Qur’anic public school system designed in the Northern part of Nigeria for children from poor families to access education and increase life opportunities. They could go about this through farming and other small jobs, and receive alms to support their school in return. There was nothing like begging on the streets.

But, ever since the 1980s, there has been an overwhelming demand on the system to restructure and westernize their education system, due to it being largely unfunded and unregulated — the worst combo for an organization. This led to exploitation, expecting the students to fund the masters instead through child begging and manual labour. Both student and teacher on the streets are exposed to physical, psychological and sexual violence by strangers, and even Qur’anic Masters themselves. Unfortunately, they don’t want to stop because their superiors knew that nobody can resist a child, just like the way I couldn’t resist that little girl. They knew that preying on people’s weak spots was all they needed to make some quick cash, using children like ATM machines. This, has been their “hustle", since the 1980s.

The Solution

Nigerian street children, uniting together for a group picture. Source: un.org

After all being said and done, what next? If your next step is to remove the kids from the streets, where would you put them? Pretty sure we wouldn’t like to have six year old kids or even younger in jail or juvenile detention.

There is no easy way to solve child begging, but we could help to put these kids into modern, western schools, suitable for Western development. We could provide them with food and shelter. We could also help to report the so called Qur’anic masters to the police for proper legal steps to be taken. Most importantly, intercession to the lawmakers to reenforce law enforcement on child begging should be on full scale. Let these people know that certain actions deserve certain consequences.

Everyday these kids are on the street, their physical, mental and psychological health is in danger of being destroyed. And slowly but surely, some of these major health criteria are becoming irreparable. We may not know them, and they may not know us. But we are all human, and I am sure as humans, we know the right thing to do. The right thing we MUST do.

Content for this article was inspired from the report at antislavery. org