We have several reasons why we like Ibadan. First, we feel protected in Ibadan, it is peaceful and the people of Ibadan give alms to beggars more than any other location. They provide us food, clothes, accommodation and they do not allow any misunderstanding come between us. Whenever there is any misunderstanding, they quickly mediate between us and the other parties.”
Muhammadu Zamfara, a beggar on the Ojoo Bridge in Ibadan, Oyo State, told Saturday Tribune during the week. He revealed that they leave the North for Ibadan because rich people in the North discriminate against them.
He said activities of bandits had negatively impacted the lives of the poor in the North and this has caused many of them to go in search of peace and better life in other states.
“We, the poor, are the ones bearing the brunt of the activities of bandits. They kidnap our family members, burn our houses and demand ransom from us. We prefer to come to Ibadan because we have peace of mind and Yoruba people are quick to help us.
“Again, in the whole of Oyo State, Ibadan is the most peaceful and safest place when it comes to security. That is why you see men and women trooping into Ibadan to beg for alms. Basically, we leave the North because our people don’t care about us; they discriminate against the poor and they hate us.
“If we go to the rich for help over anything, they chase us away. We enjoy this place more than the North. When anyone wants to leave the North from Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Zamfara, Sokoto or Katsina, the first place that comes to the minds of the majority of us is Ibadan or any other part of Oyo State. If you take a census of beggars, you will find a large number of us here in Ibadan,” Zamfara said.
He told Saturday Tribune that he was a house owner and business man in Abuja before his business crashed and his house was demolished which forced him to relocate his family back to Zamfara State while he moved to Ibadan.
“I came here from Abuja. I was a businessman there before I left. I suffered some dislocation on my right arm about 30 years ago, but I had a boy that was helping me. I was selling blankets, carpets, praying mats and bedspreads. My business was worth about N700,000. I have a wife and eight children. I had a house in an area called Kado village in Abuja and my family members were there with me.
“During [Oliusegun] Obasanjo’s tenure, [Nasir] El-rufai demolished our houses and so I had to move my family to Zamfara, where I come from. I continued my business there but when insecurity heightened, my sales dropped and I had used the capital for my family’s upkeep. That was how my business ended,” he said.
Zamfara’s plan was not to come and beg for alms in Ibadan but upon his arrival, everything changed because the person he came to meet had some challenges with his business and he had to start begging to make ends meet.
“I decided to come here to meet one of my brothers that had a business here. He sells carrots at the Eleyele Market and he was among the major distributors of carrots in Ibadan. Though he asked me to come, he was in debts. He was over N1O million in debts. It did not make sense for me to stay with him since he was in debt and could not help me.
“I started moving around to beg in order to have something to send to my family. Then I found my brothers begging here on the Ojoo Bridge and I decided to sit with them to continue begging since I couldn’t use my right hand,” he said.
The father of eight told Saturday Tribune that he had not visited his family in about one year because it had been difficult to save enough money for transport.
“If I had a business, I would not sit here. If I had N200,000, I would have set up a sustainable business. It is about a year now since I last went home to see my family; I can’t afford the cost of transportation.
“The little I make from begging, I send to them and by the time I begin saving to travel home again, they would call to complain about feeding and I would have to send what I have saved up. Sometimes I even ask people back home to lend me some money until I am able to reimburse them from my savings.”
“That was how I found myself begging but I don’t see it as a trade or a job, I am just incapacitated. If I could work, I would have looked for a job but because I do everything with my left hand, I bath with one hand, eat and do every other thing with one hand so I can’t work. I can lift anything up to a kilo with my right hand.”
Zamafara narrated how he lost his right hand through an accident on Katsina Road 30 years ago.
“I lost my hand through an accident. I was a driver then. It was on Katsina Road. The propeller failed and then the car somersaulted, flung me out but somehow dragged me along on my right hand.
“At the hospital, they couldn’t treat the fracture because the skin on the hand had totally peeled off and the wound needed to heal before anything about the fractured bones could be done. By the time the wound healed, the fractured bones could not be treated anymore and the hand stayed that way,” he said.
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