THE MENACE OF CHILD BEGGING IN KATSINA STATE:

OUR RESPONSIBILITY

By
Aliyu M. Katsina.
amkatsina@gmail.com

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

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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.

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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.

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We can do more than this. Indeed, we ought to. The intellectuals amongst us should start looking at
this problem as a CRISIS demanding comprehensive solution. They should start brainstorming on
how best to develop an alternative curriculum for religious education without at the same time hurting
the sensitivities of the society. In this direction, the government must take interest. Not that I am
surprise by the government’s failure to take even slight interest in this issue. Those of us with even a
rudimentary understanding of the bandits and vagabonds who arrogate to themselves the roles of
policymaking and implementation in this country will not in the least be surprise. We are talking
about gang of criminals, pretenders, cheats and usurpers whose only concern is which cow to milk
first. We should be glad that we are at least alive to review their failings. Those classical Social
Contract theorists, and indeed any philosopher that ever wrote on the state, knows that Nigeria
represents a worst and most urgent need for revisiting this contract once again. Our leaders review
roads, refineries and such other lucrative contracts, for God sake why not Social Contract. The only
contract that seeks to give meaning and dignity to human person. There is equally the need for
exploring the possibilities of integrating the traditional system of education with the formal system.
While conceding to the myriad of problems we are likely going to face in this respect, this should not
be an excuse to deter us from experimenting. Pilot schools can be established where the newly
integrated system can be implemented, tested, monitored and evaluated.

We can equally establish vocational and skill acquisition centers for those wandering helpless souls.
This should be a place for skills acquisition and small scale self-reliant jobs training. For the better
endowed amongst us, this should be a starting point. Taking so much from the society without giving
a little is not fair. Nevertheless, for the less endowed we can do a great deal too. Let us together
continue to cry, shout, plead, talk, and draw the attention of those with the means and ways until they
decide to heed us, and together we shall have a better, safer, saner society “where prosperity should
be measured not by the presence of the rich, but by the absence of the poor.” Who ever originally said
the above line, knew his stuff all right. And to the islamic religious scholars, we need to be bold and
tell them this: Islamic religion does not encourage begging! So stop promoting it.

Above all, we do not have to shout for change in the way and manner national wealth is presently
being distributed in this country. Inequality is the greatest cause of all social evils in this country.
This issue is without doubt, a sentimental one. Therefore, I shall content my heart with the knowledge
that when push come to shove, violence inevitably will engulf all. All I am saying is simply reechoing
the words of Aristotle, who said “inferiors revolts so that they may be equals”. Under no

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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.