Senate charges FG to curb street begging, regulate almajiri education
To frontally confront the disturbing menace of street begging in Nigeria, the Senate on Thursday called on the federal government to formulate policies that would integrate almajiri system into the nation’s educational system thereby discouraging them from being used for street begging.
Also, federal and state governments were advised to set up vocational training centres to provide beggars with alternative means of livelihood thereby making them useful to the society.
Senate resolution is sequel to the adoption of the motion moved at plenary by Senator Sankara Abdullahi (Jigawa North – West), who raised concern about the exponential increase in the scourge of street begging and the nuisance it constitutes on the streets of major cities across the country.
He said though street begging is a global urban problem, the situation in Nigeria appears intractable and overwhelming as beggars are now found everywhere, especially at motor parks, religious centres, road junctions, venues of ceremonies and other public places.
The senator observed that in the past, beggars are persons with physical and mental challenges or grossly indigent, adding that in recent times, there appear to be a new trend of beggars in town, popularly known as corporate beggars who take advantage of the sympathy of the society for the less privilege to remain jobless and at times perpetrate crime in the name of street begging.
Read Also: Osinbajo passionate about humanitarian crisis in Borno – Sen. Ndume
Sen. Abdullahi regretted that while the system that produces the almajiri is still very much in existence, its economic support tools have largely been discarded following neglect by government.
He acknowledged that street begging does not only affect the geographical and social structure of urban areas, but also portrays the country in bad light to tourists and foreign visitors, adding that the phenomenon takes a heavy toll on the lives of teenagers who either act as guide to beggars or even engage in the act themselves.
Sen. Abdullahi therefore, advised that federal and state governments to fund rehabilitation centres to train almajiri to stop them from begging while charging government to regulate Islamic training centres by registering them.
In their respective contributions to the motion, Senators Sabi Abdullahi, Emmanuel Bwacha, Rochas Okorocha and Clifford Ishaku all condemned the act of street begging.
While Sen. Bwacha charged the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to evolve a programme of taking street beggars out of the streets of Abuja, Sen. Okorocha called on worship centres to help reduce the menace of street begging.
