He answers Abdulmalik or Malik for short. He’s from Warji Local Government Area of Bauchi State. A somewhat new arrival in the bustling town of Warri, Abdulmalik exudes infectious smiles and vivacity. He appears agile and full of life despite his being limited to a fairly new wheelchair he rides around the streets of Warri and Effurun to solicit alms.
Saturday Tribune came across Abdulmalik during the week. With his sharp, sonorous voice, he charmed the atmosphere with a frantic request for alms. “Help your boy,” he screamed while wheeling pass Ginuwa Junction Warri-Sapele Road in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
Prompted by his brief stature, seeming juvenile age and ear-piercing vocals while plying his begging trade, Saturday Tribune accosted him for a chat just be the roadside.
“Abdulmalik is my name. I’m from Bauchi State. Warji Local Government Area. I’m 15 years old. My parents are in Bauchi,” he agonisingly enthused in mixed Hausa and highly distorted pidgin. Some improvised sign language had to be deployed to pick his words that he couldn’t express.
Curious to get him talk more about himself, our correspondent swiftly looked round, with Malik’s full support, for an interpreter in one of his northern folks hawking tubers of yam in a wheelbarrow. Usman, the yam hawker, who doubles as a security guard at a mobile network provider, obliged with his barely passable pidgin English, too. But he was way better than Malik.
Then the chat continued as to why, at his age, he’s living at the mercy of goodwill from the public.
“I came to Warri not long ago to find money to return to school. My parents are very poor. So, I left them to come to Warri to hustle to take care of them now and in future,” the neatly dressed boy narrated.
Abdulmalik insisted that his topmost ambition was to return to school. He said poverty made him drop out of junior secondary school, but he won’t mind returning to school to be positioned for future prospects..
“I’ve been to Government Day Secondary in Bauchi. You know if I go to school and graduate, I’ll be better than this. My situation will improve. I’ll be better placed. With my school certificate, I can get any job better than what I’m doing now,” he asserted.
Accomplishing the onerous task is his main goal. But in the meantime, Abdulmalik has to survive, same go to his parents and siblings. He has two siblings – a boy and a girl – whose situation, he hinted, aren’t palatable, economically.
“I have an elder brother and younger sister. None is doing anything reasonable. That’s why I came here for begging. I love to go to school. But I must eat first. My family must live first,” Abdulmalik who exuded some intelligence and smartness noted.
He believed if financial help could come his way, accomplishing the task of returning to school would be possible. “I want government to help me to return to school as well as take care of my parents who are really suffering,” he pleaded.
“I like education. If I’m taught something I’ll know it. I can read and write.
“I left school when I couldn’t afford my school fees again. I have no family members to help me.
“The school is a village school. Hoodlums come to steal and vandalise school chairs and desks.
“I don’t like begging, but I have no choice now. Begging is not a business or job. So, I don’t like it. But I have to do it to survive. My parents are really suffering in Bauchi.
“There’s no wealthy family members to help us. It’s Allah and us alone. No help anywhere.
“Besides, it’s everybody to himself, God for us all over there. Helpers don’t abound there. Aren’t I too young to be begging for money around at my age on a wheelchair?,” he emphasised.
Now to his physical limitations, Abdulmalik is crippled. The legs are obviously dry and tiny as he rests them on the wheelchair. According to him, he wasn’t born a cripple; he got them dysfunctional when he fell off a cliff.
Hear him: “I wasn’t born the way I am now. I fell off the cliff and my legs were condemned. I can’t remember the year, but that’s how I was reduced to a wheelchair. It took God’s grace to survive the accident and be alive today.”
While making efforts to eke a living under the current cold and dusty weather of harmattan, Abdulmalik’s abode is in Hausa Quarters – the slum that harbours folks from the north. “I sleep in one person’s sitting room with four others,” he disclosed.
It is speculated that Abdulmalik belongs to a cartel of beggars who are employed and used to make money and remit proceeds to their masters in hotel rooms. They are said to enjoy protection and other supports from the masters who also determine what goes into their pockets. This could, however, not be confirmed as of the time of filing this report.
As for the hardship in the country, the young beggar believes no matter the neglect and wickedness of the current political leaders, Nigerians will survive.
“They can’t kill us. We will not die. Yes, we’re hungry; yes things are bad. Why are we here in Warri if our leaders in the North hadn’t destroyed the north?
“Only the rich and powerful survive there. Why should I drop out of school as a cripple? It’s everybody to himself, Allah for us all.
“Rather than waste away in Bauchi, I found my way down here where I learnt was flowing with milk and honey. Business is good here. And let me not deceive you sir, people are kind here.
“They give irrespective of our tribal differences. Delta people are good people. Can’t you see how business men from the north are prospering here?,” Abdulmalik went pontificating.
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