Sankara calls on FG to set up vocational training centres for beggars.
Words: Ihegazie hope Chidinma
Senator representing Jigawa North-west Sankara D.Abdullahi has called on the Federal and State Government to set up vocational training centres to provide beggars with alternative means of livelihood thereby making them useful to the society.
Sankara made this call on Thursday in a motion which states the menace of street begging and need to rehabilitate street beggars and was co-sponsored by the Senator representing Lagos central, Tinubu Oluremi Shade and Senator representing Kaduna central, Sani Uba.
Sankara explained that even 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.
He observed that in the past beggars are persons with physical and mental challenges or grossly indigent but 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 less privilege to retain jobless and at times perpetrate crimes in the name of street begging.
In his words, “street begging does not only affect the geographical and social structure of urban areas but also portray the country in a bad image to tourist and foreign visitors.
“Street begging is a worrisome socio-economic challenge, in addition to bring a serious menace and liability on the Nigerian populace as it takes a heavy toll on the lives of teenagers who either act as guide to beggars or even engage in the act themselves and therefore are out of school”.
He therefore called on the Federal Government to formulate policy that would integrate Almajiris into the educational system thereby discouraging them from being used for street begging.