Nigerian Immigrants in Abuja
Given the spate of insecurity terrorising various parts of Nigeria especially the North East where Boko Haram is domiciled, the locals are left with no other option than to run for safety towards a place they think to be the most secure in the country — Abuja, the nation’s capital. On getting to Abuja in troves, these internally displaced people are often relocated to designated portions of the capital in camps that are often distant from the main city of Abuja.
Finally, in what they thought to be a safe haven away from any violence, they are faced with yet another danger to their lives: starvation. In the nation’s capital Abuja these internally displaced people who are often destitute and grossly neglected by the government lack any source of livelihood capable of feeding them and their families. With the urgent need to survive and put food on the table, a lot of these internally displaced people are driven to loiter and beg in the streets of Abuja.
Given this growing army of beggars in the streets of Abuja and the sensitive security situation in the country, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA counterintuitively made it an agenda to evacuate beggars and destitute roaming the streets of Abuja for constituting nuisance and disturbing the peace in the city. Going from shopping malls, supermarkets, Mosques and highbrow areas of the city, these beggars are rounded up by the agents of the FCTA for flouting its laws against begging.
The captured beggars are to be documented before they are repatriated back to their states of origin which they departed in search of safety and a good life. The approach of the Nigerian government to this brewing issue has been nothing short of dehumanising and base, to say the least. On its part, the government ignores the fact that these internally displaced persons begging on the streets are a direct outcome of its many failures and incompetence. If the government had not failed to provide security for these internally displaced persons, they would have had no cause to leave their various homes for Abuja.
Again, if the government had provided these internally displaced persons in Abuja with humanitarian aid or some form of livelihood, they would not have had cause to go on the streets of Abuja to beg for survival. Instead of alleviating the conditions of these beggars by providing them with alternatives to begging, the government chose to antagonise them for loitering and littering its beautiful capital city.
Evacuating these beggars and destitute away from the capital back to homes where they faced violence does not solve their issue. At best, this anti-immigration policy by the government only sweeps the problems under the rug. These people being forced back home to violence are still poor and at a higher risk of dying or even contributing to the growing issue of insecurity in the country. The government relocating these beggars back to their various states of origin sends the message that Nigeria is closing the borders of its capital city to its poorest and most vulnerable.
