As
a city, Abuja lacks a lot of things. The most glaring perhaps and most felt is
a proper put together transportation system, but look further beyond the cracks
or rather further into them and you’ll realize Abuja also has some very big
social issues. The most famous (and most exploited by the media) is
prostitution, but nearly all prostitution cases in the city involve adults, if
not all. One group that often gets forgotten about are the little kids you see
around from time to time begging and attempting to wash your windshield in the
midst of traffic much to your dismay. Now not all of these children are
homeless per se, but it’s safe to assume nearly all of them are far from their
parents and probably live with one Mallam or Guardian who probably takes most
of their alms money as compensation for housing them in the big city.
Technically speaking, these kids can
and should be considered juveniles (or delinquents, since we’re talking about
people who haven’t committed serious crimes). For starters they aren’t where
the typical child should be, which is at school, but neither are half the
hawkers in Nigeria you say. I know, but let’s concentrate on those we know
aren’t coming from their family home in one of the city’s neighbouring
satellite towns to sell pure water or whatever and return to the comfort of a
house. I am referring to those who literally don’t have anyone in the city, but
some elderly gentleman to care for
them. Before we ask the stereotypical, “What is the F.C.T doing about this?”
question, let’s consider the cultural/moral dilemma of our society.
For starters, on average, Nigerians
consider homeless people to be those who are generally certified by society (by
the public, not health institutions) as mad and who search through dustbins for
food and not necessarily those who sleep under bridges, those are called Area
boys and drug addicts, not the homeless under the Nigerian term. Hence, it
becomes hard to convince the general public that these children should be considered
juveniles and sometimes homeless, when after all we all assume they live with
an apparent caretaker and seemingly haven’t broken any law. Also some of these
children are sent to these homes with
the full consent of their parents with the excuse or rather, the reason being
to study the Quran as if the world ran out of Quranic tutors that we now have
to take a pilgrimage to learn it. So you mean to tell me in Kano with all its
history of learning, there are no Quranic tutors that we now have to send kids
to places like Minna with only a fraction of Kano’s learning history? So you
now see, we do not only have a century old cultural dilemma, we have one that is
occasionally dressed in religion and you can understand how asking the F.C.T to
act on this issue is easier said than done. But we also can’t just do nothing.
Instead of the bus load of men they
send to catch women old enough to decide whether they should be on the street
or not, how about diverting some of that force and energy into at least, first
finding out where must of these boys are housed and in what conditions they are
living in. Before someone from the F.C.D.A responds to this, let me say I
understand that the sight of anyone from authority will naturally scare these
kids to not reveal anything that may eventually help in their future
well-being. So the scare tactic has to take a backseat. Last I checked it
technically isn’t illegal for the government to snoop around, providing of
course its outcome is for the good of the public… and also the public doesn’t
know.
Second, can the F.C.T provide a
boarding house for these kids if they are discovered to have no actual home?
Other questions arise such as how well these boarding houses will be managed by
the F.C.T. I know for sure from a friend of mine, who frequents orphanages that
the F.C.T has some of the most cared for orphan homes, but these are mostly
private-run. You’d expect of course something run by the government to go
smoothly, but we all know this isn’t the case.
Whatever the outcome, Abuja has a lot
of issues and perhaps none more pressing than the social ones.
