Umar Ahmed was once a successful businessman trading in footwear on the streets of Abuja. Then he had to find his way to Warri, Delta State after his business folded up.
Speaking at the popular Igbudu Market in Warri South Local Government Area, Umar said that one of the major reasons his business folded up was the lack of patronage which was as a result of discrimination people living with disabilities face in the north.
He introduced himself as a 48-year-old father of six children and husband of two women who had to come to Warri in a bid to raise money to take care of his children’s school fees by begging for alms.
Having taught in an Islamic school before, Umar knew the importance of education, and that was why, despite begging for alms to survive, one of his greatest motivations for begging was to raise money for his children’s school fees and to start his footwear business again.
He told Saturday Tribune that he opted for alms begging to pay the school fees of his six children who are in private schools because government schools are known for not teaching and he won’t want his children to end up like him.
Hear him: “My name is Umar Ahmed from Suleja Local Government Area, Niger State. I have six children and two wives.
“I wasn’t born like this. I was walking with my two legs till I got to the age of 10. One day, I slept in the afternoon and woke up paralyzed and I have been like this since then.
“I am 48 years old now. When the incident happened, my parents took me everywhere to make sure I could walk again, but unfortunately, I couldn’t walk. My parents are still alive, and I have nine siblings.
“With my predicament, I had to hustle to take care of myself. I was selling footwear in Abuja before I ran out of capital.
“It was when I had no money to continue the business that I started begging, but begging in the North is unprofitable.
“Before I started begging, I was teaching in an Arabic school, and I was being paid N10,000.
“I had to stop because the money was not enough to take care of my family at all. After I stopped the teaching job, one of my siblings lent me N50,000 to start the footwear business. The business did not last because of low patronage.
“I came to Warri to hustle to look for money to take care of my family and pay my children’s school fees.
“Three of my children are in primary school and the other three are in secondary school. I didn’t want to enroll my children in public schools because they don’t teach well in those government-owned schools so I had to put them in private schools. I pay N15,000 per term for each of them.
“If my children are not educated, they will end up like me, doing odd jobs to survive and that is what I don’t want. I want my children to be well educated so that they can become great people in society.
“I like the people of Delta State because they are benevolent. Sometimes, I make up to N5,000 daily, and from this, I save and send home to my family to feed.
“One of my long-term goals is to make money to start my footwear business here again. I have observed that people of Warri are soft-hearted, and they like helping the poor. They like patronizing the poor; I have seen this so many times.
“What I want to say to the government is to make life easy for Nigerians, especially people like us who depend on the benevolence of other Nigerians to survive.
“These days, even N5,000 is not enough to do anything tangible because of the high cost of foodstuffs and other necessities.
“The government should do something about it before people start collapsing on the streets because of hunger.”
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