‘We pray for Yoruba people, they feed, clothe, shelter us’

After the loss of her husband and her small business in Kano, Halima decided to travel to Ibadan, Oyo State capital to beg in order to provide for her and the children.

The woman, who simply identified herself as Halima, told Saturday Tribune during the week that she decided to start begging in Ibadan after she had used both the capital and profit of her small business to cater for herself and children.

She added that most of the women who came to beg in Ibadan were widowed and had no one to take care of them therefore; they had to find other means to cater for themselves and their children. She said people in the north saw them as valueless because they had nothing.

“I came here because we do not have anything.  My husband died and left me with children in a rented house without certainty of getting food to feed them let alone pay rent. If you do not have close relatives, nobody would pay attention to you, even faeces would be more valuable than you are.

“Some relatives would stay close only if they would benefit something from you but once there’s nothing to benefit they would withdraw and leave you alone. After being left with children to care for and rent to pay, one must come out to look for a means to handle all these responsibilities and provide shelter for them.

“For some women you see around, their husbands died leaving them with children without an idea of how to provide for them food. For some, they have never had children and relatives have refused to care for them and old age has come upon them so they can’t fend for themselves. These kinds of women do not have another option than to come here to beg,” she said.

She said four out of her five children alive are solely dependent on her for everything because her in-laws had not supported her since after her husband’s demise.

“Before I came here, I was selling groundnut oil and kuli kuli but we ate everything. Because of how difficult things are I ended up spending both the capital and the profit just to care for my children and I was left with nothing. And some in-laws if your husband did not have anything before he died nobody would support you with the children, you’d just be left alone to cater for them and it is always a lot.

“I had seven children but I lost two of them, only one of them is married and I am fully responsible for the four remaining. I left them in the care of a lady, when they run out of food I ask them to go to a nearby shop and get food stuffs on credit and whenever I go home I’d pay back.

“The money sometimes become plenty but its food and they must eat and you know they live in a rented apartment everyone is on his own no one would help them,” Halima told Saturday Tribune.

Halima said neighbours mocked them when they noticed they had not cooked in days. She said they were suffering in the north that was why they came to beg in the west.

She added that they were thankful to the Yoruba people who were their host for all the help they rendered to them and prayed for God’s blessings over them.

“Sometimes neighbours would even laugh at you when they noticed you have not cooked for some time so these are some of the reasons you see us here. Anyone that migrates from his or her state did not do so for fun or enjoyment, we are suffering.

“We are suffering a lot in the North, food has become so expensive and no one to help or support us. We are just left to the mercies of God to survive and it wasn’t like that before.

“Back here, even with the hardship, the only thing we can say to Yoruba people is God bless them because they feed and clothe us. We can only pray for God to provide for them more because they are helping us a lot and have sympathy for us.

“They give us food, clothes, shelter and money but it’s not like that in Kano. I can tell you that even in this hardship, living in Kano and Ibadan are not the same, we get help here,” she said.

She expressed desire to bring her children along if she had better house to keep them in Ibadan however, she travels to Kano every 40 days to see her children.

“If I had a house I would have brought them here with me but I can’t. They have said they want to come here but I said no, let me be the one to go and look for food for them. I don’t stay long here, I go back home after every 40 days.

“We travel with those big trucks, if we have plenty load we pay much but if we do not have any load we pay less. The truck drivers are good to us; they have sympathy and always help beggars (almajirai).

“My children are still young; they are 16, 13, 12 and then the youngest one. They are not in conventional school because I can’t afford it, but they go to Islamic school. We are only thinking about how to eat, whatever money we have goes to feeding so we can’t afford to put them in school.”

She said death changed everything for her and exposed her to her current situation.

“Poverty is our problem that is what is going on with people; if people had money, nobody would come out here to beg.  And death is the cause, it changes everything. Whether things are going on smoothly or not in the marriage, nobody would know but the moment death takes either of you, everything becomes open to the public.

“Now here, we pay N1,500 as rent for six months, if you come here you must look for where to stay or you stay under the bridge. It’s better to come here and beg than to become a debtor, a thief or start sleeping around and bring shame on your children.

“There are women that sleep around and beg too, but how would God bless what you’re looking for and how would that be a blessing to you?” she inquired.