HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

On my way to the office today, I crossed the road using the pedestrian bridge at barracks bus stop on western avenue in Lagos. I could see commuters crossing the expressway without remorse for their ephemeral soul. It is estimated that 3,000 people die yearly

crossing the ever busy expressways in Nigeria yet pedestrians refuse to learn and they keep crossing thereby jeopardising their life and safety. (That figure is not genuine and as we all know in Nigeria, data is something we seldom generate or keep) I personally lost a 77 year old Pastor (yeah right, he was old enough to know crossing is wrong and a clergyman for that matter, should have been preaching against it; that bad) he stays on my street; in fact, the street is named after him, one Mr. Ayo Elegbede.

However, that is not what I wanted to write about and as writers, our muses need to be properly channeled when writing because we tend to digress. (I do that lot shay?)

So I climbed this pedestrian bridge and obviously I was in a super rush mood (as usual), I sighted what is and has always been of big concern to me; Beggars Begging. I am of the opinion that whatever race or age you come from, the sights and stories of poor people who will beg for a living will always be with us.

From the ridiculous to the emotionally charged reasons and to those who would experience it for just a while to climb back into the noveur riche class, beggars will always beg; be it in the first or third or fifth world country. Reminds me of the book I read, The Marriage Plot, written by Jeffery Eugenides, it fictionalizes two characters Mike and Mitchell;

“As they were walking, a beggar came up, holding his hand out and crying, "Baksheesh! Baksheesh!"Mike kept on going but Mitchell stopped. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out twenty paise and placed it in the beggar's dirty hand. Mike said, "I used to give to beggars when I first came here. But then I realized, it's hopeless. It never stops."

It seems a hopeless situation to want to end the whole wide worlds' woes, the thought in itself is exhausting because it's never ending.

The funny part of this article is that I have not gotten to the real reason I am writing it (surprised? Blame my muse *coversface*)

So I saw this beggar woman on the bridge; it is bad enough but the unbearable part is seeing a toddler less than 2 years of age beside her brazing the cold and bearing the painful reward of sin she didn’t commit (if a sin was committed to warrant the poverty cum begging in the first place). How does it happen that a woman will carry a child barely older than a year old on the hazardous street of a metropolitan city just so as to evoke pity? I can't just wrap my head around it.

Is this country in such a state of ignominy that social workers and government officials can as well look over such a crime against an innocent child and act as if all is well. And if government will not do its responsibility, the citizens too are now as hardened in the heart and soul and body and spirit as a stone that over 10,000 commuters will walk pass that woman begging with a child below 2 years of age and do NOTHING about it today alone.

It's sickening, it nauseous to my stomach and it's not humane in whatever way we see it. I learnt that sometimes this kids are borrowed and prices are paid when returned. I also have seen twins and triplet beautifully dressed and made up on the bridge of Lekki phase one peninsula. I know Lagos State have laws against child abuse, it is however not enough to have laws documented to be left in the books, just as the government invest a lot into traffic laws and enforcement because they generate a lot of money, they should also make the laws on child abuse stricter than that of Traffic Laws.

No child deserve to be in that harsh, torrid and dangerous scenes I saw them today; it is unwarranted, unlawful  and humanly degrading to the growing morale of the child.