CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Begging in the streets of Nigeria is one of the perennial activities and perhaps occupations of the highly vulnerable, poverty-ridden individuals in the society, particularly in the developing countries. As revealed in the studies of different scholars, begging is not peculiar to developing countries; it is a universal phenomenon (Ado, 1997) and a global urban problem. While a considerable number of cities were identified in the US and Mexico as having a significant level of begging activity (Smith, 2005; Fabrega, 1971), cities in China, especially Shanghai, have been described as homes of different categories of beggars (including the poor, the disabled, the homeless and professional beggars), which are described as “liumin” (floating people) or “youmin” (wandering people) (Hanchao, Lu, 1999). In India, begging is seen as a pride as beggars are seen posing as someone famous and very popular. The situation is not so different in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, where beggars are seen at junctions all over the major cities in the country. In cities of Britain and similar industrialized countries overtime, begging has become highly noticeable (Jordan, 1999). Those of Mexico, as reported by Fabriga (1971), cited in Adedibu (1989) are not left out in this negative scenario. The situation in Nigerian cities as observed everyday is perhaps regrettably worse with different categories of beggars found at motorparks, religious centres, markets, road junctions, venues of ceremonies, among other public places begging for various form of assistance ranging from food to money amongst others (Ojo, 2005).
The geometrically growing incidence and influx of beggars in major cities and towns in Nigeria as well as human carriage, kidnapping, indecent assault and a host of antisocial behaviour has assumed an alarming dimension. For instance, female beggars taking shelter under the bridges, parks and uncompleted buildings and unfortunately depend on serial male partners who exploit them sexually (Wikipedia free Encyclopedia, (2007). Street begging and homelessness are often regarded as anti-social behaviour issues by diverse stakeholder, including the media, politicians, traders, law enforcement officers and agencies, welfare and social service providers amongst others are general public and people who beg (Lynch, 2005), To this end, a survey report indicated that beggars were victims of diverse forms of abuse, neglect and abandonment (GN/UNICEF, 1990). According to Lynch (2005), an average of ten people are likely to beg on a daily basis. Carrous (cited in Qudiz, 2005:46) noted that an estimated 850 million people are hungry while 2 billion suffer from chronic mineral or protein deficiencies. In view of this, it was projected that between now and the year 2030, there will be food-related tensions, with the most vulnerable countries being Near and Middle East, the Maghreb, the Nile Valley, West African and sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria inclusive (Qudiz, 2005). In confirmation, Wolf (2005) reported that people, who beg, do so in order to meet the basic necessities of life; in addition, Qudiz (2005) revealed that 88% of respondents indicated adequate nutritional needs as their major reasons for begging as compared with need for accommodation (53%), alcohol-dependency (41%), health care (29%) and drug dependency (24%). He observed that none of the respondents begged because it was lucrative or easy money; the inference drawn from all these studies and many suggests that poverty is the main factor associated with street begging. All these and many more lend full support to evaluate the causes and consequences of street begging in Nigerian.