October 24, (THEWILL) – Every morning on the streets of Abuja, an increasing number of women and children rise from their makeshift “beds” to start a daily hustle of mostly begging or for the more fortunate, petty trading. Homelessness is a global social problem caused by a myriad of reasons such as insurgency, bad choices, financial difficulties and breakdown of family structure. The Borgen Project report estimates that 24.4million people are homeless in Nigeria, which means they have no permanent or stable accommodation. They include people living on the streets, in temporary shelters or with friends and family.
Tracing the lives of three mothers currently facing this predicament, this three-part series exposes the underbelly of homelessness in Abuja and looks at some of the causes, outcomes and potential solutions as it affects these vulnerable groups; women and children.
Martha’s Story
They sat on the kerb, waiting for the philanthropist’s aide to come out as he did on most days to share money to them. Some days they receive a substantial sum (up to N20,000), depending on the number of beggars present on that day, while on other days it could be as small as N1,000 for each person which would only take care of the daily feeding.
Martha sat on the grass with several other women. The women sat on one side of the road while the men sat on the other side. Like Martha, several of the women had small babies and very young children. Some had spent the night there whilst others arrived early in the morning to wait for the daily distribution of alms. Today Martha is hopeful that it will be a good day and she will receive enough funds to send to her children back home. Her thoughts are preoccupied with worries about her eldest daughter as she sits and waits with the others.
Tall and dark, Martha is quite beautiful, despite the pain in her eyes that tell the story of the hardship she has suffered and the facial scarring that is a mark of her tribe. In another world she would have been considered a raving beauty and could even have been a model. Her experience is etched on her features, but with her resilience she looks like she could yet conquer the world, if not personally then through her children who she fights like a tiger to support.
Born in 1984 in Agatu village in Benue State, Martha lost her parents at a very tender age. Her grandmother raised her and her siblings after their parents passed, but she was keen to relinquish this responsibility very quickly as she had several other mouths to feed. So, at the age of 12, she married Martha off to an elderly farmer who already had a wife and five children.
Martha’s husband was not very industrious and indeed, preferred to let his wives do the farming and trading while he stayed at home to watch the homestead. Eventually the children started coming and with the arrival of each child, the demands increased as they needed clothes to wear, food to eat and school fees had to be paid. He was unable to meet these demands so Martha started trading in addition to the farming work she was already doing.
The first wife was also quite hard-working and had her own farm. Three of her five children died of an unknown illness over the years, but she was determined to provide education for the surviving two. It was clear to her, as it also eventually dawned on Martha, that their husband could not be relied upon to provide for the upkeep of the family. Martha wisely followed in the footsteps of the first wife and together they tended their farms and traded to maintain the family. Martha made up for the family’s lost children by producing five children over a period of 15 years and the whole family lived happily in the same compound.
Then one day, tragedy struck in their quiet farming village. Fulani herdsmen raided and burnt down their village. Everyone fled to neighbouring villages. In the weeks that followed, the neighbouring villages were also razed and the family kept moving until they found a place in Otukpo Local Government Area.
Having lost his farms, home and all his property, Martha’s husband decided to seek greener pastures somewhere in “Yorubaland”. Travelling and settling with two wives and seven children was more of a challenge than he was ready to take on, so he packed his first wife and their two children and left Martha and her five children to fend for themselves. This was a double tragedy for Martha who was still trying to come to terms with the loss of her home, family life and successful business. To compound it all she was pregnant with their sixth child and had no friends or relatives to turn to. She was not particularly daunted by the fact that she would have to sustain the family since she had already been responsible for providing for the children, but starting from scratch with no home was a huge challenge.
As there was nowhere else to go, they moved into an uncompleted building with no windows and no doors. When the rain falls, they cover the holes for the windows and doors with plastic bags. The building is occupied by several families and every month new displaced people move into the surrounding area and buildings. However, there were no jobs in Otukpo and they had no relatives to help them as all the people Martha knew back home were also displaced.
With no means of livelihood and no qualifications to get a job, Martha decided to leave Otukpo and go to Abuja to find her fortune. The eldest child, a girl, is now 17 years old and takes care of her four siblings.
Martha has given birth to a sixth child, a baby boy, who is with her now in Abuja. Unfortunately, shortly after Martha arrived in Abuja, the whole country went on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic and she survived on food packs delivered to the poor by kind donors. During that period, she was unable to send money to her children and they survived only through the kindness of neighbours who shared their food with them.
Almost two years since her arrival in Abuja, Martha has been unable to find work as she has a young baby. She begs on the streets and visits the house of the philanthropist in Maitama popularly known as ‘Arthur 1,000’. I met her camped out with other beggars in front of his house waiting for his aide to distribute alms. Unfortunately, these small daily handouts are not enough to send money home for the children’s school fees. Martha fought back tears as she told me that her children would be unable to join other children, who were starting school this week. Her eldest daughter was due to go into SS1, having passed her Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination, but it is unlikely that she would be able to finish her studies now. Learning a trade could be an option, but even that would cost money, which Martha does not have at the moment.
When the philanthropist travels, the distribution of alms will cease temporarily until his return which is communicated through a ‘bush telegraph” involving neighbouring maiguards, attendant mobile policemen and roving beggars. During these periods, Martha goes to Gishiri to spend time with a friend who has built her own place there and lives with her grown up son. Speaking about the friend’s success, Martha’s voice is filled with a mixture of envy and pride.
This very successful friend who has built her own home, a “batcha” (small one room hut built of zinc or wood), is her inspiration. Her friend was selling bananas in front of Hmedix Pharmacy in Wuse 2 before the task force shut her down and confiscated her wares, putting her out of business. So, now she is also forced to beg for alms to raise enough money to start another business, but, at least, she has a roof over her head and is able to provide shelter to Martha for a few days each time until the philanthropist returns.
However, Martha is ever hopeful. “If I can find someone to help me” she said as she choked up again, “I just need N48,000 to get accommodation for my children. All of us can live in one room and then another N200,000 to start a business.”
As she said this, she looked a little unsure. Perhaps that sounded like too much money and may not quite be possible, so she quickly added, “Well it doesn’t have to be that much. This is fish season so I can go to Benue and buy dried fish to sell. I will make plenty money to bring my children to Abuja to start school.”
Her voice faded away as she got to the end of that sentence and this time, as she thought of her children stuck in the uncompleted building in Otukpo she let the tears fall freely.
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