Beggars in the ‘hoods of Lagos

Lekan Sote

If you saw the puzzlement of reggae musician Majek Fashek when he found that there were “beggars on the streets of… (America’s) New York city,” you can identify with the development that beggars have moved from the streets of Lagos into its remote neighbourhoods.

Once in a while, some kids, (who are not yet street urchins, by the way), come over to the house to ask for food. Whenever anyone of them who shows up knocking at the door is asked, “What are you looking for?”, he would simply respond, “I’m hungry.” Then, he would add, for effect, “My mummy is not at home.” In many cases, their mummies had sent them.

A father once sent his nine-year-old son to come ask for money. He felt too ashamed to come himself, and figured that his son might get more sympathy. The son did; he went home with cash and some foodstuffs. But the father, who has now died, avoided walking past the house for a few days after that.

The hopeful sketches drawn with quantitative economic indices like Gross Domestic Product, Purchasing Managers’ Index, somewhat bullish stock market activities, and optimistic rhetoric by political leaders, have been erased by high interest and inflation rates, and the devaluation of the naira.

Many Nigerian families are not just on their way to the poor house, they are already there. A rule of thumb says that anyone living on less than $2 a day is below poverty line. Those kids who go to the houses of their neighbours to ask for food and money easily fall into the category of the destitute or urban poor. And their plight is pitiful!

A beggar is a person in utter want, poverty, and deprivation. This is not a condition that an individual, let alone an entire family, should be found. Such conditions spawn street urchins, in the manner of the Artful Dodger of Charles Dickens’ novel, “Oliver Twist,” the candid social commentary of the sordid life of the underbelly of 19th century London.

Street urchins, as you probably know, run rampant in urban centres, and have a reputation for generally running into trouble, such as petty theft, street fights, and early exposure to drugs and sex. The life of a street urchin is hopeless, and he is a willing hand that can easily be used of the devil.

There is a hint of acute shortage of social amenities in the report that most of those who will live in Africa of the latter part of the 21st century will do so in urban centres, where you get to hear of seedy ‘hoods.

Yesterday, July 11, was World Population Day. That was the date, in 1987, that the population of the world hit five billon. The United Nations Development Programme decided it would be beneficial if subsequent anniversaries, beginning from 1990, were dedicated to reminding mankind of the liabilities that come with uncontrolled population growth.

The UNDP is of the opinion that this symbolic act should draw attention to the challenges of a rapidly expanding world population in the face of alarming shortage of food, water, health care, housing, education, and clothing. Experts suggest that a rule of thumb for monitoring the well-being of the world is in the access that mothers, new born babies, and adolescent children have to food and health care.

The major issue that the World Population Day seeks to address is that of family planning, by preaching spacing of pregnancy and childbirth, and the use of contraception. Today, about 225 million married women who will like to avoid unwanted pregnancies have no access to family planning methods.

They have no access to family planning information, contraceptive services, or the support of their spouses. Some religious sects in Nigeria believe that their members are fulfilling some scriptural obligations by having many children.

Whereas the Catholic Church approves of family planning, it disapproves of certain contraceptives, like oral contraception, implant under the skin, and hormone shots. Of course, abortion is a no-no in Catholic circles.

While the Billings Ovulation Method, which monitors female fertility, recommended by the grave Catholic Church is relatively successful, coitus interrupt us, or withdrawal method of contraception, is not.

Incidentally, the World Population Day 2017 coincided with Family Planning Summit, the second meeting of the “Family Planning 2020 Initiative,” which aims to extend access to voluntary family planning to 120 million more families in the world by 2020-just three years hence.

The theme for the 2017 summit, “Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations,” is a plan to reduce poverty of the family and guarantee good health for the mother and child. It emphasises gender equality, empowerment of women, and gives women more control over their bodies.

Literature on family planning and population control has traditionally been directed at policymakers, social institutions like churches and mosques, and traditional opinion leaders. Communication scholars are now redirecting communication for attitudinal and behavioural changes to the women (who need it most) and their husbands. And that is the way it should be.

It appears that these advocacy communications are beginning to make appreciable inroads. Some reports indicate that women in some parts of Nigeria now discretely visit family planning centres even without the knowledge and approval of their husbands. Some husbands still deign to consider child spacing, and reject having to curtail the number of children they would have.

Nigeria’s population hit 182 million in 2015, when the birth rate was 39 births per 1000, and the death rate was 14 per 1000. This makes a natural rate of population increase of 25 (or 39 minus 14). A report indicates that Nigeria’s total fertility rate that was 5.6 per cent in the period 2010-2015 is expected to decline to 3.6 by 2045-2050, to give a projected population of 400 million. This is expected to further reduce to 2.3 per cent, resulting in a population of 752 million in 2095-2100.

The staggering, but expected, increase in Nigeria’s population, despite the deceptive reduction in the total fertility rate, is due to the reality that 64 per cent of people living in Nigeria today are youths, who are gradually maturing into their reproductive, or childbearing, years.

Some futurists suggest that this expected growth will have an “adverse impact on living conditions, health, nutrition, and well-being of mothers, and children.” A very frank 2004 report by the Federal Government amplifies that. “Such population growth will put pressure on the health, education, housing, and public services – water and roads – resulting in declining quality.”

This Federal Government report adds that “per capita food production will decline, resulting in food shortages, unemployment. And insecurity will increase, as well as the level of urbanisation, with (the) resultant increase in urban slums, poverty, and crime.” It further suggests that “For living standards to rise, the rate of economic growth and social development must exceed the rate of population growth.”

This agrees with the argument of Reverend Thomas Malthus that where food grows in ordinal arithmetic progression, and the population increases in multiples or geometric proportion, there will be a resultant scarcity of food, relative to the population.

Those who suggest that classical economics is rational allocation of scarce resources must agree with Malthus’ proposition for urgent population control.

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Beggars in the ‘hoods of Lagos

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