Weekly Trust has reported that, about a year into his first tenure, Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto State initiated a monthly allowance for street beggars and destitute in the state. So far it has gulped billions of naira, but five years after, the beggars are still all over the state.
Monthly, the Sokoto State Government pays 45 million naira as allowance to beggars and destitute in the state. So far, 2.160 billion naira has gone that way since the programme began five years ago.
Weekly Trust learnt that a beggar or destitute earns N6,500 monthly with no fewer than 4,600 beggars benefiting. According to our findings, the beneficiaries are all over the 23 local government areas in the state. The main objective of the scheme is to dissuade these beggars and destitue away from begging.
It does not seem so. As at the time of filing this report, beggars are everywhere in the state, as usual soliciting for alms. They go to offices, markets and strategic locations including major roads. On Friday, they stationed themselves at the entrances of mosques, while on Sunday they go to churches. While some of them see it as trade others see it to pass time.
For 68-year-old Malam Mohammadu Amanawa who is a cripple, the N6,500 monthly allowance is too small not to stop them from begging. “I’ve 15 children, two wives; N6,500 cannot be enough for me to meet their needs. I’m an indigene of the state from Dange Shuni local government area. I don’t move round the streets because of my condition, this secretariat is my station. I make more money from the secretariat,” he said.
Another beggar who gave his name as Bawa said he cannot quit begging because of the 6,500 naira of the state government. “We thank the governor for the gesture, but that will not take us off the street because at times I make N1,000 or above daily. And now, you want me to quit because of a monthly stipend of only N6,500. Do you think it is possible for me to quit because of this amount in spite my condition? I am into this ‘business’ because of my condition, nothing more,” he said.
Chairman, Save Sokoto Group (SSG), Alhaji Isa Saidu Achida said the government’s monthly allowance to the beggars was unnecessary. According to him, the huge fund is not justifiable. “I wouldn’t want to say the governor’s expenditure towards the beggars was wasteful because people are benefiting from it but it is unnecessary and irrelevant. If you calculate it, from the inception of his administration to date, he has spent over 2.7 billion naira on them, yet they are still on the streets. Why is that so? Is it only in our communities that you see beggars? Go to the eastern and western parts of the country, you will never see Yoruba or Igbo begging,” he queried.
Achida, a former commissioner in the Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa administration said “the money is not justifiable because it has not taken these people out of the streets. Instead of giving fish to people, teach them how to fish so that when you are no longer there, they can go to the river to fish themselves.”
He, however, advocated for the establishment of vocational centres for beggars and destitutes in the state, saying “they should be made to undergo training and at the end of it be given capital to start the vocation they are trained on.”
Maigwandu Abubakar Baruwa, Secretary, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Sokoto State branch said all the beggars on Sokoto streets now are citizens of Niger, Chad and Ghana. He said they have advised the governor to constitute a task force to go round the streets and public places in order to rid the state of the foreign beggars.
“Our members have since stopped begging because of the state governor’s gesture towards us,. And you know it is un-Islamic to turn down any gift given to you. Those you see moving round the state are not even Nigerians; they are from Chad, Niger and Ghana.
“We are in total support of the governor’s moves to ban street begging, but we have told him during one of our meetings with him to build houses for us, establish skill acquisition centres and constitute task force to arrest those who beg on the streets in the state,” he said.
According to him, about 2,000 members of their association are yet to start benefiting from the gesture and that members of the deaf association in the state are yet to benefit from the gesture. He urged the governor to include them.
Speaking for women destitutes and disabled in the state, Women leader of JONAPWD in Sokoto, Hafsatu Muazu Gandi lend her support to the ban on street begging in the state.
“We the physically challenged women in Sokoto are in total support of the ban of street begging because there is ability in disability. We too can contribute to the development of the state if we are given the necessary skill to do so,” she added.
Defending the allowance, Governor Wamakko said he came up with the policy to ameliorate the suffering of the beggars and the destitutes, adding that plans are on to strengthen the policy with a view of taking them off the street.
“I put them under minimum wage, because I believe they should be respected, taken care of and loved. All the destitutes or beggars in Sokoto State have been under minimum wage for the last four years. We are spending between 44 and 45 million naira monthly for the payment of the allowances of these destitute in the state. Each of the destitute earns 6,500 naira monthly,” he said.
“We have been meeting with their leaders on how to take them off the street. They have agreed to move out of the streets and on our part; we have agreed to review their allowances upward. In addition to these allowances, we are coming up with a skill acquisition programme for them so that they can be productive.”
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