… Left AEPB job because of unpaid salary
By Magnus Eze
for 42-year-old Sani Ibrahim, who hails from Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State, nothing is impossible. Although he is physically challenged, having suffered polio at childhood, which claimed one of his legs and also denied him education, he still believs he will make a success of his life.
Not one ready to bow to any form of disability, Ibrahim maintains that there is ability in disability.
Today, he lives under the flyover near Grand Square, Central Business District, Abuja, from where he traverses the city centre with his hand-powered tricycle to preach the message of love, peace and unity.
It is usual to see the young man, decked in the green and white national colours, riding his tricycle, which has various patriotic messages boldly inscribed on it, at important events in Abuja: “Sometimes, security personnel would not want me to enter venues but I always tell them that I’ve not come to beg but to let people hear my message of peace,” he told Daily Sun.
Ibrahim, a self-proclaimed peace ambassador said he started the peace and unity campaign in Kano in 2007 during the administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. He believes that that: “Peace is life and it’s the life of humanity. There is no country anywhere in the world that has developed without peace. For instance, in places like Maiduguri, where there are killings everywhere, there can’t be development. That’s why I have chosen to be an agent and ambassador of peace.
“I started this in 2007 when I saw the crises happening in places like Jos, Kaduna, Kano and others. Many of the youths of today don’t know the meaning of peace; they think that everything is war or force. For me, Nigerians must support peace because peace is life; no peace, no life. No justice, no peace!”
However, for the peace campaigner, it has been one problem after another for him since he began his assignment “When I started in Kano, they arrested me and put me in prison because I spoke against injustice. When I was granted bail, they arrested me again and bundled me to a psychiatric home all because I was speaking against injustice. That was why I ran to Abuja in 2008.”
He told our correspondent of how he fled from his traducers in Kano; got to Kaduna before struggling with his ‘bicycle’ to get to Abuja.
Fighting against street begging
In the nation’s capital, Ibrahim found himself leading the advocacy against street begging because according to him, it is not only dehumanising but that a beggar is permanently dependent: “In the north where I am from, people believe that you are only good for begging if physically challenged, so they won’t give you the opportunity to have education; which is not good at all. But many physically challenged persons are talented. We need education because many of us don’t want to beg on the streets; begging is not dignifying and it retards development. A beggar will continue to be dependent; that’s why I don’t like it and I am committed to creating awareness for physically challenged people to leave the streets. They should leave the streets and learn skills so that their lives could be better.”
He urged every physically challenged person to find way of doing something meaningful for himself since nobody will change their physical conditions.
Although it has not been rosy, Ibrahim agreed that his campaign has attracted the attention of some well-meaning persons and organisations.
For instance, during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, he received the award of Transformation Ambassador by the Office of the Special Assistant to President on Youth and Students Matters under Comrade Jude Imagwe.
In the same vein, the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) in 2012 appointed him to campaign against street begging and he was posted to the National Mosque: “but I had to leave the job after six months because they owed me two months’ salary. My salary was N18,000 and I didn’t want to be collecting money from anybody we caught. That is indiscipline. So, I went and told the director, Mr. Isah Shuaibu that I didn’t know how I would be working; talking to physically challenged persons to leave the streets without salary for two months and he told me that it is government system; that if I don’t like it I could leave.”
Even though some persons would have seen the AEPB uniform as a meal ticket, since offenders caught would settle them, but Ibrahim did not see it so, he returned the uniform to the agency.
He was however, eventually paid the two months’ salary.
The Kano-born social crusader said that he was able to influence many beggars while working for the environmental task force at the National Mosque “That time, before the task force will get to the mosque, I would have gone there very early in the morning. I will talk to people; persuade them. They listened to me because they knew I will not be able to arrest them.”
He recalled that one of the people who changed and stopped begging is today a Gardner to one big man in Abuja and has remained grateful to him for helping change his life.
After the environmental job packed up, Ibrahim said that he continued struggling to survive until December 10, 2013 when the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) gave him employment to help him in his school, “They were paying me N20,000 per month until when President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn-in on May 29, 2015. That was the day they stopped paying me but when I called them for my salary; they told me that I shouldn’t bother, that they will call me any time they were ready.”
According to him, that was how the RTEAN lifeline came to an end. The implication is that his adult education programme also stopped because the scholarship given to him by Comrade Imagwe became ineffective while the RTEAN salary was not forthcoming too.
Ibrahim’s ambition is to finish his educational programme and also acquire skills in graphics design and printing with which he would be self-reliant.
Relatedly, the Chartered Institute of Financial and Investment Analysts in Nigeria on November 26 last year also recognised his laudable contributions and honoured him with an award for Exemplary Dedication to the nation.
On why he is leading a one man campaign, Ibrahim, who is fondly called ‘One man squad’ said: “I am doing this alone not under the platform of the physically challenged because some associations are formed these days for the personal gains of those behind them, so I don’t want anybody to be making money with my name without any serious plans for me.”