Waff Road, in particular, is a very popular street within Kaduna metropolis which harbours the NNDC Mall, the NUJ House Kaduna State chapter and command guest house. It also hosts some popular monuments like Hamdala Hotels, Arewa Hotel Development Company, Planning and Budget Commission, among others.
It is a very popular business area in Kaduna metropolis where the mighty and the lowly mix.
Hadiza Suleiman is one of the beggars visible on the street but her case is unique. The 32-year-old mother of four spent virtually most of her day on a hot pavement on Waff Road begging alms to sustain herself and family.
Hadiza who said she is an indigene of Jigawa State revealed that her family members were advised to flee the town because of seemingly uncontrollable activities of bandits. So, she struggled to get to Kaduna with her children with nowhere to stay and nothing tangible to do.
According to her, she managed to get to Kaduna with the assistance of well wishers and managed to get a space at the beggars’ cluster along Kano Road.
Every morning, Hadiza goes to Waff Road to beg for money from good-spirited individuals to sustain herself and the children.
The case of Hadiza was so pathetic at the time our correspondent visited as she was busy giving her 2-year-old son a haircut with a razor as she said she could not afford to take them to a saloon.
Asked if she was not feeling the scourge of the sun, she said the sun was more bearable than the difficulties she suffered in Jigawa and the persistent fear of the unknown.
“The sun is bearable than the hardship I faced in Jigawa State because of the activities of the bandits,” she stated.
When asked about her husband, she said the last time she got information about her husband was that he is still alive but his whereabouts are not known.
Hadiza said she sometimes leave Waff Road at 8:30 or 9pm to go back to the beggars’ cluster on Kano Road.
On what she expects from the government and other kindhearted Nigerians, Hadiza said she needs food to feed her four children which is their urgent need and how to fund their education.
“My major problem now is food. I also want to start up an akara business if I’m able to raise money because begging is not a job,” she added.
She said she often leave Kano Road as early as 6:30am and trek the distance of about three kilometres to Waff Road on a daily basis.
She appealed to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to come to her aid.
“I was not a beggar but when bandits invaded my village in Jigawa, I escaped with my four children and I manged to find my self in Kaduna. I started begging because I was looking for means to cater for my four children. I also want my children to go to school but right now, they are not going to school because it has not been easy on us,” she said.
The case of another beggar, Amina Mohammed, is not any different from that of Hadiza. The 37-year-old said she has a daughter of about 10 years. She is also from Jigawa State.
“I’m from Jigawa State. Bandits killed my husband in my presence and threw his body in a well,” she revealed.
She said that she fled from her village in Jigawa because she didn’t want to keep seeing the well where her husband’s corpse was deposited.
Her case is so pathetic that she doesn’t want to recall the incident that took her to the streets as a beggar for survival.
“A woman engaged me out of sympathy to be sweeping her shop opposite where I sleep at the beggars’ cluster and my wages is a meal for myself and my daughter every night.
“As a widow in the streets, it has not been easy for me. Looking for what to eat and to feed my daughter has not been an easy task.
“I want to be resident here in Kaduna; I don’t want to go back to Jigawa State because I don’t want to be pushed into frustration or depression because of the way my husband was killed in Jigawa,” she narrated.
It is no longer news that banditry has sent many into unpalatable conditions which is not their making, and cases of Hadiza and Amina are two among several others. Therefore, in the present circumstance, the government needs to urgently look at the victims of insurgency/ banditry who are scattered in the city who are forced into acts of begging and others.
Government should also live to its primary responsibility of securing lives and property of the citizens so that the victims of bandit attacks can return to their homes and continue their normal lives.
Good-pirited individuals should also assist the less privileged and provide them with the needed support to give them a sense of belonging particularly those whose predicaments are not their making.
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