Aisha Aminu, from Gwarzo Local Government Area of Kano State, moved to Ibadan seven months ago after her husband couldn’t afford to feed her and their seven children again.
She told Saturday Tribune during the week that the hardship forced her to start begging with her children in Ibadan after her husband sustained some injuries and could no longer walk or cater for them.
The mother of seven revealed that though her husband did not want her to travel to the South West and beg, her children gather empty bottles to sell while they were out to beg at their begging spot in the Oke-Ado area of Ibadan.
“I came here because we had nothing at home. There is poverty and food costs so much, I don’t know if we are moving forward or backwards. I have seven children, I have five with me here while the other two are at home with my mother. We come out here every day to beg while the children pick empty bottles for us to sell and that is how we feed.
“My husband did not want me to come here but I had no other choice, he said he can’t do anything for us so I had to find other means for us to survive. He can’t do anything for now because he is not feeling fine. He had an injury on his leg which we believed was a spiritual attack.
“He can’t do anything for now, it’s his brothers that are taking care of him and I know that if he was healthy and had the means to take care of us, he would not allow us come here,” she said.
Aisha said they struggled to survive each day and only lived on what God gave them through people as they begged. She added that she planned to return home because “I prefer to be in my husband’s house than being here.”
“We are here now struggling every day. Like today, we got just N400 since morning and we just bought amala with it. I don’t move around to beg, I am always sitting here so it is what God blesses us with that we survive on. Whenever I leave this place I go straight to my house.
“And here in Ibadan we are tenants. We pay N500 every month as rent and it is from what we make here that we settle the rent, but right now, I am thinking of going back home. Honestly if God helps me, I don’t want to come back. Fate brought me here and I am not enjoying it at all.
“What brought us here basically was to look for food and if God provides me little and I go back I will not come back again. I prefer to be in my husband’s house to being here. Anybody you see begging here is not happy about it,” she said.
She revealed that she intended to start a small business when she returned to her home and hopes to feed her family from the proceeds of the business.
“I am praying that whatever I have saved from here would buy us food and I can also start a small business and we would keep feeding on from the business. If I had a business at home I wouldn’t have come here, we would have been feeding from the business because I know God would provide for us through that but I am here,” she told Saturday Tribune.
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