The curious life of cripples
By Jossy Idam and JOSFYN UBA
Saturday,
February 17,
2006
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•Wheel
bound
•Photo: Sun News Publishing
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With his malformed legs hung on shoulders, Tunde lies on
his hunch or chest on a piece of card paper at Ojota bus stop. He prefers sprawling
near a popular motor cycle park and a newspaper vendors stand.
Wearing only black shorts, Tunde displays his wane, skinny
back. A crumpled figure like this on a pavement chanting “I beg, I beg,
I beg…” easily elicits sympathy. The heart of passersby melt as most
of them stop, turn around and drop money for him. Watchful eye
In a couple of hours, he
is usually strewn around with wards of squeezed naira notes. When the money mounts,
Muyiwa, his friend comes, counts them to Tunde’s hearing and pockets them.
This way, both of them easily reconcile the daily amount in the evening. Muyiwa
is not just Tunde’s cashier, he doubles as his body guard. He keeps a watchful
eye on him and ensures no one takes advantage of him. Though both shunned being
photographed, in an interview with Saturday Sun, Muyiwa recalled instances when
some hoodlums came to steal Tunde’s money in the guise of “looking
for change”. “Na so dem dey, do. Dem go come and tell Tunde to help
them change five hundred, two or one thousand naira, then dem go collect the whole
money and run away. but I no de allow dem. I fight dem”, he said. Hearteless
To
fend off thieves and attackers, Muyiwa keeps a close watchful distance from Tunde.
He is now known within the area as Tunde’s mother hen. According to him,
hoodlums in the past had violently attacked and forcefully taken Tunde’s
money. He told Saturday Sun that the hoodlums usually wait until evening when
people are darting around to find their way home. Masked by the bustle of evening
rush hour, the heartless fellows often carry out lightening raid on Tunde. “One
even kick Tunde for head. Maybe, he wan kill–am”, he recalls. Mutual
affair
The relationship between Tunde and Muyiwa is mutual. Daily, Muyiwa hoists
him on his back and treks half kilometre from Olushosun village, Oregun to Ojota
Bus Stop. He stays around him, protects and attends to his other personal needs.
Tunde is human-he needs to eat and respond to the call of nature. If, for instance,
Tunde wants to go to toilet, Muyiwa usually carry him on his back to a pay-as-you--–use
mobile toilet near the pedestrian bridge at Ojota expressway.
In return, Tunde
gives him a fraction of his daily take. They are not relations. They grew up in
the same neighbourhood and have been friends from childhood. Muyiwa, 29 told Saturday
Sun he used to be a factory worker but “when my work finish for de factory,
I begin to carry Tunde”. According to him, his friend, Tunde used to contend
himself with begging around their village until he suggested to broaden Tunde’s
base.
Asked if he and Tunde make enough money for their upkeep, he shrugged
his shoulders, smiled and said: “People de kind. As dem pass and give us
money, dat is good. We dey manage”. Not so lucky
Another cripple
at Oshodi, a hub of traffic and business activities in Lagos is not as lucky as
Tunde.
The first child in a family of five, Jamiu feels obliged to contribute
in the training in school of his younger ones.
Now 30, he had longed to go
to school but he dropped out in primary four when other children bullied and taunted
him because of his physical condition.
He lives at Mafoluku, a suburb close
to Oshodi. In the morning, he finds his way to Oshodi. In the past, he has had
“managers” that bring him to Oshodi where he begs for alms. But three
of them have at different times absconded with his money.
“They will
be collecting money from you on the spot. They say they will keep it for you,
and before you know it, they run away with plenty of your money”, he said. Taking
charge
Worried by this sad experience, he has now decided to take care of himself
and his monetary affairs. As a survival device, he has befriended a Danfo bus
driver who picks him up every morning at his bus stop and brings him back at night.
Knocked down by polio at the age of three, Jamiu crawls with a pair of red bathroom
slippers slip into his hands. His mother is a vegetable seller along the railway
track in Oshodi. She comes to Jamiu thrice in a day and relives him of the burden
of carrying a lot of cash in a place teeming with Area Boys. Saving
for GSM handsets
Jamiu disclosed to Saturday Sun that he is saving to buy two GSM
handset-one for himself, the other for his mother. He intends using it to call
her whenever he has a ready cash to be collected for safe-keeping. Hard
nuts
Not all crippled beggars are harmless. Some of them are in league with
men of the underworld. Reports have it that some of them in the past were involved
in gun-running and narcotics.
As the stories go, some of them have been arrested
for concealing guns for armed bandits and the selling of marijuana, cocaine, crack
and other harmful substances.
Milling around intersections and check points,
some of them exclusively told Saturday Sun they atimes help members of the police
force and other security agents to hide and keep their illegal tolls and spurious
extortion from the public.
Short circuit
To circumvent
“middle men” in their life, some of them have deviced a special survival
strategy. Musa and four of his colleagues operate in group. The quintet–
all crippled from birth by polio move around on skate boards. At CMS Bus Stop,
Lagos, Musa and company roller skate on the road and pester passersby for alms.
Proud of their strong upper bodies, Musa and company atimes play stunts. They
hold onto the tailboard of vehicles and zip past with glee.
The skateboard
enable them to get around with ease. With it, they tag along with vehicles and
heckle passersby for alms. “Using board is good. With it, you fit go anywhere
like normal person without wahala”, Musa said. Strange ailment
Ibrahim began
as a child in his home state, Taraba. His ordeal began when he was about six years
old.He told Saturday Sun that he was not born a cripple “I was born like
any other kid in the family. I was walking already, could run errands for my mother
but I suddenly developed a strange ailment”.
The crippled young man,
9th child from a polygamous family of 5 wives and 21 children recalled with bitterness,
how long he suffered from the strange illness before he became crippled.
“
Like I said, I was already old enough when my ordeal began. I was taken from one
place to another by my mother for sometime. And since we were many children in
the home, I had to fend for myself like every one else in the family”. Asked
if the death of his mother influenced his making living as a beggar, he responded:
“Not
at all, I have to take care of myself. My mother was still alive when I left Taraba
State for Lagos. I was not crippled in the first three years of the sickness.
I was sick for about nine years after which I couldn’t walk anymore and
for all those long years, my mother could take care of me. I had already started
begging for alms as Almajiri before I was struck down by that illness”. Coming
to Lagos
His cousin, Umaru brought him to Lagos by train. At first, his cousin
began carrying him to streets and motor parks to beg for alms.
“Why”
Saturday Sun inquired, he said “when he found out that he realised more
money from what he makes in carrying around, he decided to take it up permanently”.
When
it became obvious that Ibrahim made more money than Umaru by sitting in one place
an begging, he stopped his conductor job an joined him “I am lucky because
I realise enough to feed”. Modus operandi
Umaru brings Ibrahim
from Ikotun, a Lagos suburb on a wheel barrow as early as 5 am everyday and drops
him off at Cele Bus stop. While Ibrahim is left there all day, Umaru maintains
a far distance doing his own runs but also keeps a watchful eye on him. The cripple,
who kept praising Allah for his good luck in the course of the interview was however,
to reveal the extent of his luck. Saturday Sun investigations also revealed that
because Ibrahim sleeps at a dark spot around the Cele-bus stop, he had become
a veritable ally for robbers and other bad boys in their operation.
He
confessed to Saturday Sun that “I have friends who always keep their “things”
with me here. They are my good friends. They give me so much money and gifts.
I always help them to take their ‘things’ to many places and they
pay me”. Those things, according to the crippled Ibrahim includes small
guns, dollars, international passports, and even cocaine. Ibrahim who takes cocaine
sometimes said, he was later to find out the value of cocaine when “my good
friend offered me a small quantity. I love it and it makes mevery strong”,
he disclosed.
Kamoru and Issah set out from Mararaba area of Abuja in search
of the proverbial Golden Fleece in Lagos. Kamoru, is a cripple while his friend,
Issah is not. They are friends and are beggars. They live at Pen Cinema, Agege
and go to Oshodi to look for their daily bread.
Kamoru who cannot stand on
his feet is always being carried around by his friend, Issah. Kamoru from Bornu
State told Saturday Sun that he was born deformed into a polygamous family of
16, and that he is the third child of his mother six children.
Kamoru shares
what he makes everyday with his friend, Issah. According to him, “We make
enough for us to feed and we are happy”. Issah, is married with three children.
While he lives at Agege, his wife and kids are at Sango, Ota where they live as
destitutes.
According to him he visits them regularly to give them whatever
he has. Kamoru who also visits his blind mother and younger brother told Saturday
Sun that he takes food and money to them at Kano street, Ebute Metta on a regular
basis.
Both friends told Saturday Sun that they share on equal basis whatever
proceeds they realise everyday after feeding. Deserted
Morufat, 19,
leads her blind mother around. She serves as her guide and protector on the busy
streets of Lagos where her mother begs. They are a regular sight at the Jakande
end of the Ikotun, Isolo road.
Her mother, a middle aged woman camouflages
with a thick dark pair of glasses. She is blind on both eyes. Morufat told Saturday
Sun that her mother, a mother of five, with Morufat as her first narrated how
she suddenly went blind from a mere slight itching of the eyes a few years ago.
According
to her “I was just struggling like other women with my petty trading while
my husband, a brick layer was contributing his own bit for our upkeep. From the
slight eye problem”. Morufat said her poor family spent all they had searching
for medical solution from one hospital, churches and herbal homes to no avail.
“When
I eventually became totally blind” the blind beggar said, “my husband
couldn’t cope again. He eloped with another woman and left me and my six
kids. And my only hope of survival was to go begging. Since that was the only
option for me and my children, I had to braved it”.
However, she told
Saturday Sun that “naturally, no one wants to beg because it is very demeaning
and self-degrading, especially for me who had self worth as a mother, struggling
to feed my family and as a living being. I feel really bad going through the hazardous
roads begging for alms but what else can I do”, she lamented.
Morufat,
said that she dropped out of school to help her blind mother. She would have loved
to go back to school but that is a rather tall dream because “when will
mother be alright again and be able to see again that I can leave her and be on
my own”.
However, both mother and daughter say they go home “with
whatever God gives us and we are happy. I thank God that I am even alive uptill
today”, the poor woman said. |
