Special Report: Kwara Residents Express Worry Over Influx Of Child Beggars

As Poverty increased, the number of beggars skyrocketed due to growing insecurity across the country, Kwara State has become a hub for avenue begging most particularly from teenagers who are assumed to be in school learning.

Ilorin Metropolis has been polluted with underage children begging around the street, with the reports gathered by Afrika Eyes, showing that no proactive measures have been put in place to quit underage begging in the state.

According to the United Nations Children Funds (UNICEF), the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is 18.5 million which is a whole lot higher compared to the 2021 estimate put at 10.5 million.

Pupils

A study by UNICEF shows that Nigeria has an estimated 18.5 million out-of-school children, the highest in the world. About 60 per cent of the country’s out-of-school young people are in the northern part of Nigeria.

Statistics from the study confirmed that some of the states in the northern part of the country were adversely affected by kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, and early marriage, therefore the accelerated wide variety of out-of-school kids in the zone.

Child Beggars

Most of the major source of insecurity is due to the negligence and incapacitation of some parents to enrol their wards.

However, Some residents of the Ilorin metropolis have expressed concern over the inflow of child beggars into the Kwara State and its impact on insecurity, most especially in the state capital, places like the Post office, Challenge and Geri-alimi

Mallam Tajudeen Babatunde

Mr Babatunde is an okada rider who expressed his dissatisfaction with how the wide variety of underage beggars improved in Ilorin.

He said, there is nothing good about the youth roaming the road while their counterpart is in school learning. It’s unsafe for these teens to be shifting around.

Look at the northern part of Nigeria, those who started the banditry and terrorism are small teens that were recruited due to the fact that they had nothing to do, they had been seen roaming about the street begging for cash and the recruiters saw them as an asset.

Mallam Tajudeen Babatunde

“These teenagers were both kidnapped or wooed with money, and later skilled to launch assaults across the country, because the government failed to rescue them from the street.

He stated that the children embrace the little token given to them due to the fact the youngsters don’t know left from right.

He further explained that most of the beggars have been encouraged to turn out to be a terrorist because of the little token they have been uncovered to.

Mr. Babatunde said insecurity has ended up being a risk to our society, according to him, “an idle individual is a devil’s workshop” he reiterated the truth that the authorities have a lot of duties to take care of.

He advised the Kwara state government to constitute a task force that will be monitoring the children that are roaming around the street begging for money.

“Government  have to go round the state and pick any child seen begging if viable arrest their mother or father and make sure that the children get free education so that our society will be safe towards insecurity.”

“These beggars have caused a lot of issues for us right here at the post office and challenge, many of them have been hit with the aid of tricycles and okada begging people for cash barring taking cognizant of any vehicle coming their way.

Mrs. Kafilat AbdulRahman

Mrs. Kafilat a dealer at the submit workplace narrated her ordeal about the kids that have commercialized into begging.

Mrs. Kafilat AbdulRahman

She, however, referred to as on the Government to please come to their aid and ship the youth who are begging lower back to school or returned to their more than a few states.

Ayuba Abdullahi

A Hausa man who is additionally a trader at the post office recounted his ride on how insecurity has precise the northern phase of the country.

He said many farmers were chased out of their communities because of insecurity while some innocent people have been killed.

Ayuba Abdullahi

According to him, “many of the kids of the victims who lost their lives have turned to beggars, while some are lazy they deliberately grew and turned themselves to a beggar due to the fact they don’t prefer to work.

He implores the authorities to look into the situation, rescue the young people from the road, and offer them free education.

He calls on the parents of some beggars whose state of affairs is manageable ought to deem it healthy and enroll their wards in public schools.

“I enrolled my children in school, and these days I’m proud that they are in faculty learning.”