News of 217 street beggars, street boys and vagabonds sent back to their home states by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on April 2, yet again evoked the high level of poverty in the country. It is disturbing that destitution is a known major cause of street begging in the country, among other factors.

The Director, Department of Social Welfare Services, Social Development Secretariat of the FCTA, Alhaji Sani Amar-Rabe, was reported saying they were to be returned “mostly to Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states.” He added that “this time around we have some from Abia, Imo and Delta states,” which meant that such expulsions from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, were not unprecedented.

But the approach is not an effective solution to the problem because the affected beggars could return to the capital and continue street begging.

About a year ago, over 150 beggars, said to be mainly women, children and aged men, were arrested at various locations in the city by the enforcement squad of the Social Development Secretariat.

Amar-Rabe said “they consider the FCT safer and economically viable, especially those from the North West and the North East. So, people from these zones move to Abuja for survival.” He urged FCT residents to stop giving alms to street beggars “because it is encouraging them to continue to remain on the streets and constitute a nuisance to the city.” This perspective is simplistic.

Identified factors that encourage street begging include customs and religion, poverty, indolence, unemployment, physical disability, psychiatric disorder, lack of spouse or family and uncontrolled rural-urban migration.

Beggars drawn to the federal capital, believing it is “flowing with milk and honey” like the biblical Canaan, reflect poor socio-economic conditions in their states.

Notably, Abuja is not the only city in the country facing the problem of street begging, which shows the scale of the issue. For instance, in August 2020, the Kogi State government, in a move to remove street beggars from the state capital, Lokoja, returned more than 70 beggars to five northern states, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi and Zamfara.

Also, in January 2015, the Kano State Hisbah Board announced that it had facilitated the return of 52 street beggars to their state of origin. Its spokesperson explained that “The street beggars were arrested by the Lagos State Government which banned street begging and sent them back to Kano. The Kano State government then directed the board to return some of them to their respective states of origin.”

Arresting beggars is not the same thing as arresting poverty, just as expelling beggars is not the same thing as expelling poverty. This explains why street begging by destitute persons is still a big issue in the country.

According to Amar-Rabe, those sent back to their home states “showed no interest in learning vocational skills. But those who have a good mindset embrace skills acquisition for empowerment.” It is commendable that the FCTA runs a vocational and rehabilitation centre in Kuchikon Bwari, as part of efforts to tackle street begging. This is a useful approach. Other states facing the same problem but lacking such a facility should establish similar centres.

However, there is a need for a holistic approach focused on improving socio-economic conditions in the country. The national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in November 2022 said 133 million Nigerians, over half of the population of Nigeria, were “multidimensional poor,” and “high deprivations” were “apparent nationally in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing.” Three out of five Nigerians live in poverty, according to the report.

Data from MPI and Monetary Poverty Measurement (MPM) calls into question the anti-poverty efforts of the Federal Government, and also raises questions about the seriousness of state and local governments in the fight against poverty.

Ultimately, street begging, which is mainly connected with poor socio-economic conditions, demands governance-driven solutions beyond ritualistic expulsions of street beggars.

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