Issues as Kano evacuates hawkers, beggars

Kano State government on Friday began the evacuation of hawkers and beggars roaming the streets, a decision coming on the heels of the return of almajirai to major streets in the northern part of the country after last year’s evacuation at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The exercise, which began with the arrest of over 500 beggars, including women and children, within the state metropolis is, however, not without the issues previous efforts in the state had to contend with.

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This is because while the state Commissioner for Women Affair, Dr. Zahra’u Muhammad Umar, had said stakeholders including community and religious leaders as well as the traditional institutions in the five emirates of the state had met to brainstorm on the best approach of ridding the streets of the nuisance, the Council of Ulama in the state insists the state government is not serious about the exercise.

‘Government not serious’

Speaking with Daily Trust, Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil, chairman of the council said the Ulama maintain their stand on the almajiri issue, insisting that the state government “is not serious about the ban and is only trying to appease its masters abroad or it is expecting some fund from UNICEF or WHO.”

He said the government cannot achieve its plan on street begging because it has not followed the right channel of addressing the issue.

Khalil said before street begging can be banned, the necessary measures towards curtailing the practice should be taken.

He said: “Our opinion is on three to five issues: Firstly, if we look at the history of banning street begging since the time of Sir Ahmadu Bello, it was opposed by the Ulama because they saw it as a way of keeping people away from Qur’anic or religious studies.

“Even the government that says it has barred begging is not serious about it. It will ban it and after a while, it will return. Just like the Hausa saying that ‘The king’s instruction lasts only seven days.

“The right steps to follow in banning street begging include firstly, the Qur’anic clerics involved have to be identified. There are street beggars who are Qur’anic students, there are beggars who are sent by their parents from the rural areas to come and be begging in the urban areas, and there is also begging by physically challenged individuals.”

He added that the different forms of street begging should be identified and each addressed accordingly, by the authorities.

“Also, the Hisbah at times arrests beggars but they just keep them and cannot even feed them. More so, you cannot stop begging in the state without joining hands with neighbouring states.

“If you don’t join hands with neighbouring states, for example in the General Hospital in Kano, you have people from Katsina, Bauchi, Niger, Gombe, or Zaria or even Jos. You budget for just Kano State in the hospital whereas about five states benefit from the hospital. You do not consider them, and they have not been considered by their states, so no budget has been made for them.

“Also, you may recall the case of a man who sent three of his children to the city to beg because he wanted to put his new wife in the room they were occupying. You can see that these kids are not almajirai or Qur’anic pupils.

“Therefore, you need statistics on the real situation; know the total number of the Qur’anic teachers, the total number of the Quranic schools and their pupils, and know exactly who the real almajirai.

“You will now know their needs, understand their problems and then proffer the right solutions. You can decide to cater for them or send them back to their homes.

“But they have not conducted any of these. They have not consulted people like us that have made effort on the issue to tap from our experiences. Government needs to get our reports; those of Ndatsu in the past and those of the times of Sir Ahmadu Bello to arrive at a workable solution.

“To us at the Council of Ulama, government cannot do it and is not serious about it. They are just doing it to appease their masters abroad, or get their money or some kind of noise making. Or they might have been accused of something from somewhere for which they simply organised a ceremony and that is all. That is our opinion.”

Also speaking, the Commander General of Hisbah Board, Ustaz Harun Muhammad Ibn Sina, condemned how girls were sent to hawk on the streets and sometimes resorted to street begging, noting that the trend has become a menace in the society as most of the girls resorted to immoral acts.

“These girls that come from our villages in the name of hawking end up engaging in immoral acts in the city. As the Hisbah mandate is to keep the society according to the Shari’a, we cannot fold our arms and watch this happening,” he stated.

A resident, Malam Ali Mu’az, said while the move is a welcome development, government should consider the rehabilitation of women beggars as most of them are displaced persons.

“Most of the women begging with children on the streets are displaced persons who come from neighbouring states. As they are homeless they sleep under the bridges and uncompleted buildings. This gives those that are not God-fearing the chance to be sleeping with them,” he said.

Some of the beggars and hawkers interviewed by Daily Trust said they will abide by the government’s directives if it gives them better options than begging and hawking.

A hawker, Hamisu Ali, who sells recharge cards at Dan Agundi Junction said that he is ready to abandon hawking if government gave him a better job.

Place us on monthly allowance or we remain in the streets — Beggars

A beggar, who simply gave his name as Malam Ado, said if the government is serious about banning street begging, it should start paying beggars monthly allowance as was done by the past administration.

“The past government put us in its payroll. We were paid a monthly allowance of N5,000 each then. If the government does this for us, then it has the right to ban street begging,” Ado said.

Abdurrashid Bala, an Almajiri, called on government to change its decision as they can continue with their studies in the city without begging.

Faiza Ado, a groundnut hawker, said most of the girls hawked to source for money to buy items to take to their husband’s houses including furniture and kitchen utensils (kayan daki) and called on government to assist them.

“You know in the village our parents cannot afford to provide the needful so we hawk to get the money to buy (kayan daki).

“Since the state government wants to stop hawking, we are appealing to it to include us in its mass wedding programme to also benefit from it,” she said.

Our approach is systematic — Government

Daily Trust talked to the Executive Secretary, Kano State Qur’anic and Islamiyya Management Board, Gwani Yahuza Danzarga, who said the government has taken a bold step in tackling the Almajiri issue by building and equipping more than 15 new Tsangaya model schools to accommodate them to make the policy work.

He added that the issue of Almajiri in the state is not one that could be addressed overnight, noting that it would be systematic.

“We are taking things one after the other. We are now applying sensitization for the almajiri parents to take full responsibility of their children’s studies. And the teachers/alaramma are to make sure they admit the exact number of almajirai their schools can accommodate.

“For the wealthy individual, on the other hand, we are calling on them to support these schools with everything they can afford.”

On the repatriation of almajirai, Danzarga called on the governors of the Northern states to emulate Kano State government by establishing tsangaya model schools and supporting them with funds to properly address the almajiri issue.

Daily Trust reports that there is now a thin line between street hawking and street begging in Kano metropolis as most of the hawkers often resorted to begging when they are not making sales or when they see prospective helpers.

“Buy so that I can have money for food or just give me the money so I can eat even if you don’t need it (the product),” are some of the words road users have become accustomed to from the street hawkers-cum-beggars.