Category: Thriller

Our Reporter

Chri Orero started his business as an ecommerce agent early in his life. He started from the basics of selling on ebay until he perfected it. He was also involved in many online communities and groups in order to learn more about the ecommerce industry and how to make millions from it. This worked because after a while, he had learnt a lot and started to teach others how to do the same things he could do through training events, online web calls/classes and 1on 1 personal training. He finally realized that there were other ways to earn income online and saw that amazon would be the future of ecommerce. Using the skills he picked up from eBay, he moved onto Amazon.

Soon after, he and his partners started up EcomzKingz, a business created to help others understand the ways in which they would be making millions online as well as from the comfort of their homes. It has been a success so far because as Chris says, EcomzKingz has generated over 5 billion dollars in sales the first year it was launched. This organization also has launched educational content to help thousands learn how to utilize online selling platforms to create extra streams of income. He is known to practice what he teaches on a daily basis and he has helped build communities of thousands of individuals. All of this was done with no prior experience. He just learnt and perfected what he now knows through the mentors he had.

He teaches his students how to use sites like Amazon and eBay to earn an income without leaving the comfort of their homes.

 

THE story of Ayobami Timileyin Ogundare will evoke emotions, tears and sympathy for his family any day. Bizarre and heart-rending! First, he had attempted jumping into a river but was rescued by members of a vigilance group. A few days later, he hanged himself. That was shortly after his family returned from a thanksgiving service held on his behalf at their church in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Sunday January 5, 2014.

The incident threw the neighbourhood into pandemonium as` residents thronged the scene to ascertain the veracity of the story. On sighting his dangling body, not a few sympathisers caved in to emotions while condemning his misguided action. His remains were subsequently moved to a mortuary by men of the Obantoko Police Station, Abeokuta.

Although, the crestfallen parents of the deceased could not be reached for their comments when our correspondent visited their residence but an elderly man, who refused to disclose his identity, explained that Ayobami’s parents were yet to overcome the tragic loss of their son and would not speak with any journalist.

A highly placed family source, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence, explained how Ayobami plotted his own death.

He said: “Ayobami had left their house in Ilupeju, Asero, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on January 1, 2014 for Lagos without informing his parents. The family had searched for him everywhere but failed to locate his whereabouts. Three days later, he was sighted at Lafenwa walking barely naked. He was said to have returned to Abeokuta from Lagos by rail and pulled off his shirt after he disembarked from the train.

“He was said to have trekked to Arakanga River and attempted to jump into it. To stave off prying eyes, he had loitered around the area and was about jumping into the river when eagle-eye night guards promptly apprehended him. He was taken to the office of the local vigilance group from where he was subsequently returned to his parents the following day.”

The 23-year-old Ayobami, until the tragic incident, was a student of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta. He was said to have been handed over to a pastor of the church where his family worship. The pastor was asked to monitor him and report back to the vigilance group two days later. He however killed himself a day after he was brought home. He was also said to have expressed worry about paying his school fees and the pastor was said to have promised to assist him with some money.

The incident, according to one of Ayobami’s friends, who pleaded anonymity, happened a few hours after his family returned from a service at a branch of a popular pentecostal church in Abeokuta, where a special thanksgiving was held to thank God for saving Ayobami from killing himself. His mother was said to have expressed joy, dancing all the way throughout the service. She was said to have asked everyone around to join her in thanking God for saving her from the misfortune of losing her last child to suicide.

“His mother danced like she has never done at the thanksgiving service which coincided with the first Sunday service of 2014. She was full of joy that her son did not succeed in taking his own life and was calling on everyone in the church to felicitate with her family. Ayobami was not at the thanksgiving service but had stayed back at home on the excuse that he was tired and needed to relax.

Upon his mother’s return from church, he joined his family for lunch and retired back into his room shortly after the meal not knowing that he had hatched another suicide plan. He was found dangling from the ceiling where he hanged himself with one of his belts at about 8pm. Ayobami’s body was taken by men of Obantoko Police Station to the mortuary”, recalled a family friend, who spoke in confidence.

A resident who identified himself simply as Kolawole said: “It was strange that the boy still went ahead to kill himself despite efforts made to dissuade him from self-destruct. The lesson to draw from the tragic incident is that parents should be more circumspect in their interactions with their children. He was such a humble boy but misguided in his actions.”

While describing the incident as “shocking and irritating”, a community leader, who asked not to be named, said: “Only God knows what the youths of today are turning our society into by plunging into abominable acts. This incident is shocking and irritating because there was no reason for the boy (Ayobami) to take his own life. I don’t really think that he was lacking in anything because his parents were believed to have taken good care of him; and that is why his death remains ‘clueless’. Whatever might be his undisclosed reasons for opting for suicide cannot be justified because there are many reasonable options a man could explore in difficult situations. I strongly believe there was more to his death than meets the eye.

Ayobami was described as a promising student who was always concerned with his studies and future.

Confirming the incident in a telephone chat with our correspondent, the spokesman of Ogun Police Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said: “The story is true. The mother of the boy actually reported the incident to the police. No one can say exactly what might have led him to commit suicide because he did not leave any suicide note.

“His mother, however, explained that he hanged himself with a belt shortly after he was reproached for his indiscretions a few days before the incident. His body has since been deposited in a public mortuary, while his parents have not collected it for burial.”

Jos, the beleaguered Plateau State capital, has enjoyed relative peace for close to two years. But the same cannot be said of many other parts of the state, particularly remote villages that are far from the reach of security agencies. Such villages have been facing serious violence in recent times. YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU examines why the state is yet to achieve total peace.

UNLIKE the previous years, Plateau State residents in December last year enjoyed a Yuletide devoid of bomb explosions and attacks by gunmen. But two weeks into the New Year, unknown gunmen decided to distort the peace of the state through series of attacks. In what looked like guerilla attacks, several communities in the state began to witness deadly attacks by people suspected to be armed Fulani. Indeed, some residents described the attackers as Fulani mercenaries from outside the country. A victim, who lost his two grown up sons in one night attack, said: “Those who attacked us are Fulani, but they look strange to us. They are not the usual Fulani we used to know. We can’t understand the way they speak. Some of us understand the Fulani language, but the type the attackers speak is beyond my understanding. They must have come from afar. They must have been hired for the attacks.” Between January and March this year, no fewer than 20 villages in the state have been attacked by suspected Fulani mercenaries. The villages include Fang, Ratas and Gashish in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area; Dompar, Kurmin Dashe, Fili Mavou, Dapna, Fenu, Mavo, Zango, Tofa and Tsamia in Wase Local Government Area; Mangor and Matol in Bokkos Local Government Area; and Dajak and Attakar in Riyom Local Government Area. The Nation investigation revealed that these communities have their internal conflicts and most of the conflicts border on land ownership. But rather than resolve the internal conflicts amicably, a party to the conflict would hire mercenaries to fight for them. The mercenaries carry out the attacks usually in the dead of the night. Most of the aforementioned villages have been attacked more than once in that manner. The number of casualties in the deadly attacks can only be imagined. As a matter of fact, four members of the security agencies have fallen victims to the mercenaries who brutally kill them in cross fire or ambush. “The mercenaries are quite sophiscated in their strategies and tactics, the way they shoot, the time they attack and their ability to manoeuvre. They are like trained rebels from neighboring countries,” remarked an injured mobile police officer who asked not to be named. Yet the most critical fallout of the attacks on these communities is the humanitarian problems they have created. Besides the high death toll, thousands of residents, including women, children and the aged, have been displaced from their homes. Primary and secondary schools in Wase, Langtang North and Langtang South local government areas, as well as police divisional headquarters of the affected local governments, are still hosting thousands of displaced persons. The Chairman Management Committee of Kanam Local Government, Alhaji Abubakar Dashe, said the council was hosting more than 4,000 displaced persons from Wase. Dashe disclosed this while receiving a team of security agencies who had visited the area to see the condition of the displaced persons. He also said that those that were injured in the violent attacks had been admitted at Dengi General Hospital. A young man named Andrew Kunka was allegedly abducted from his farm by some armed Fulani men in Wase. He was declared missing for three days by members of his family. A rescue team sent out to find him only found his lifeless body dumped behind Wase Rock. His body was discovered after four days of thorough search. His wife, Mary, and two daughters are now taking refuge at the residence of Hon. Timothy Golu, the member representing Kanke Constituency in the Plateau State House of Assembly. The two children were seeing repeatedly asking their mother, ‘Where is Daddy?’ Recounting the losses incurred in the crises, the National Chairman of Tarok community in Wase Local Government Area, Mr. Jangul Lohbut, said no fewer than 53 villages had been sacked by the invaders. He also said that more than 74 houses had been razed while the prospect of famine looms large in the affected villages. Lohbut confirmed the high level of destruction when the Commander of the Special Task Force, Gen. Henry Ayoola, the Commissioner of Police, Chris Olakpe, and the Commissioner for Information, Yiljap Abraham, visited for on-the-spot assessment. He said that more than 53 houses had been burnt and the occupants of the houses displaced since the hostility started in January. He added that the people of Zango village were taking refuge in Langtang North and South LGAs. Addressing the displaced persons in Zango, Abraham condemned the attack, saying that Governor Jonah Jang was saddened by the ugly development. He said necessary steps had been taken by the Deputy Governor, Ignatius Longjan, who is also the Chairman of the Board of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). Yiljap assured the displaced persons that government would in a very short time undertake an assessment of those displaced and provide them with items that would be of help to them. No fewer than 200 women and children were alleged to have fled Wase Local Government Area after the community became a target of gunmen who have made several attempts to invade the area. The women were seen carrying their belongings and fleeing to Dengi and Jarmai in Kanam Local Government Area of the state. Shafi’I Sambo, a youth leader in Wase town, explained that “over 200 women and children have fled the community so far. The women started leaving on Friday (last week) after the first attack. Some men in the area could not guarantee the safety of their families. Consequently, they hurriedly made arrangements for them to leave the town.” However, Sambo said the intervention of some community leaders on the issue had calmed the situation. In his words: “Some community leaders have called on members of the community to leave their families in Wase because such movements may cause fear and tension among the people of other communities.” Senator Victor Lar, representing Plateau South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, appealed to members of his communities to sheathe their swords and embrace dialogue for lasting peace to reign in the area. He decried the spate of reprisal attacks that has claimed innocent lives in Wase and Langtang South local government areas, saying that continued attacks would hamper the development of the area. He admonished traditional rulers and community leaders to take proactive steps to settle disputes through mutual understanding and dialogue. He urged them to report the mass movement of suspicious people who might not mean well for the people of both communities to enable government to take adequate steps towards protecting their lives and property. Lar said: “I appeal to spirited individuals to assist us because in times of crises, the most badly affected victims are usually women and children. Houses have been burnt with foodstuff also destroyed. They need relief materials. And I want to assure that government is doing everything possible to ensure that lasting peace is restored. “The security agencies should be up and doing and the traditional rulers should also help government. I am told that mercenaries, who are recruited from outside Nigeria, are involved in these crises. They should report any suspicious movement of many strangers into the communities so that government can take proactive measures,” he said. Speaking on the causes of the violence, Lar said: “It is difficult to compartmentalise the crisis and put it in a straight jacket format. It is not a crisis between the Tarok and Fulani. There is an interesting interplay of related and correlated issues. I am aware of the struggle for the possession of land, whereas some people feel they need political and administrative emancipation which should come in form of creation of districts and chiefdoms,” He further stressed: “Others feel that even the land that they are claiming for the creation of the chiefdom does not belong to them. This is very volatile. The entire crises in the Middle East were on ownership of land. You know that where land is involved, people can go to any length to protect and defend themselves. “Another way of looking at it is the political aspect of it. And if you create a chiefdom, it means you have made an entity independent of the leadership. The paramount rulers who are involved will go to any extent to protect it.” He said the disputed lands have large deposits of critical and essential solid minerals such as diamond and silver, adding that the owners of the land were the ones involved in these resources. That, he said, is one of the reasons that caused the problem. He noted, however, that the crisis was not limited to his senatorial zone. “The entire country is under the scourge of nomadic Fulani who move with their cattle. As a result, disputes arise as they trespass on cattle routes. It is an interesting interplay of various factors that cannot be solved at a time. It is a process.” The senator noted another factor he said had sustained the reprisal attacks. He said: “There is a factor of Fulani cow rustling. People go out to rustle their cows. Sometimes the cows are killed in hundreds and thousands. That is essentially why they have all these crises occurring and re-occurring on each side of the divides. So, the only way we can solve this problem is to create a forum were people can express their grievances and then confessions are made and compensations are paid. Various administrative measures are also taken. This is not something that can be achieved in one day. “I suggested that I would embark on a tour of the affected areas but the security agencies on ground said they could not guarantee my security. We will have to allow high tempers to go down and then adopt a peaceful way of settlement. But I am appealing to both sides to see reason why the violence should stop.”

For residents of three communities built on a heap of garbage in Ajeromi Local Government Area of Lagos State, better known as Dustbin Estate, life is a bitter-sweet experience. SEUN AKIOYE, who spent 24 hours with the residents, reports.

IT was 3pm. About 20 children, all aged less than 10 years, hurdled together in front of the white blackboard hanging on the wall. Standing behind them was 15-year-old Islamiat Akinloye who acted as their teacher. A child would be chosen to lead the recitation of the alphabet while the others chorused along. At the end of a flawless exercise, Islamiat would ask the rest of the children to ‘give a round of applause’.

The room, which the children converted to a classroom, was the living room of a three-bedroom apartment on No. 48, Odofin Akinsanya Street, Awodi-Ora neighbourhood of Ajegunle. The three other rooms also had children of different ages in various stages of academic exercise.

Outside was a horde of television crew. Agnes Chan, a Japanese musician and United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) ambassador, jostled from one classroom to the other; sometimes she joined the children to sing a rhyme or chorus the alphabet. She gave an encouraging smile to one and a patted another on the back.

The children, who have engaged themselves in such studious pursuit, came from Idi Ore, Onijomo and Onibaba communities in Ajeromi Ifelodun Area of Lagos State. But the communities are better known to the outside world as Dustbin Estate. The Dustbin Estate, as it’s called, is a long strip of land stretching all the way to Mile 2 to the north and Ifelodun Local Government Area to the east. A canal now covered with grass and filth separates Dustbin Estate from Ifelodun.

The ground is soft as you thread upon it. As far as the eyes could see, nylon bags litter the landscape many shooting out from the ground like plants. The houses are built of planks in a rectangular form and close to one another, which may spell disaster in case of a fire outbreak. In front of each house are two enclosures built close to the canal- about 50 meters from the rooms- which serves as the bathroom and toilet.

The children of the communities have no use for these, however. Whenever nature calls, they simply stoop in front of the houses, dig up a nylon bag and conclude their business. The unwanted substance is then thrown into the canal. The adults use the toilet and soon a nylon containing bowel discharge is hurled out from the enclosure into the canal. To urinate, the girls do it on the rubbish heaps.

There are about 10,000 residents of the Dustbin Estate. Rural-urban migration and housing shortages have led to more people seeking refuge in the communities in recent years. In turn, these newcomers established themselves, some bought lands and built while others procreated and the population exploded.

Many of the children, who now make up about a quarter of the population, attend the local schools outside of the communities. But illiteracy is rife as many of the children could neither read nor write, despite the education provided by the government and a myriad of private schools springing up in the area. The young adult spend their time establishing themselves as local thugs, smoking marijuana and doing drugs. Life in the Dustbin Estate is nasty, brutish and short. But how did these communities acquire this notoriety and how have they surmounted it? How did the plight of these children attract the attention of UNICEF? How did Dustbin Estate come to be?

In the beginning

Over 30 years ago, a swampy expanse of land belonging to three families of Cardoso, Saint Matthew Daniel and Ojora, began to attract the attention of land seekers. Chief Akeem Akinyo, a community leader and the first to build a house in the swamp, remembered that the whole place was uninhabitable.

“This place was bush with animals running everywhere when I came here in 1985,” Akinyo said. But development was late in coming to the area because as late as 1993, when Chief Olufemi Matthew, who acts as the village head, came to the land, “monkeys and baboons could be seen swinging around.”

The residents devised a most ingenious means of filling up their swampy habitat using refuse. The rubbish came from far and near and after hundreds of thousands of tons, the land became solid and the people began to build plank houses on the refuse dump. But life was hard as in many other ghettos in the metropolis. The people struggled to organise themselves, provide basic amenities and security.

Then in 2008, Tolulope Sangosanya, a Mass Communications graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, came to the community.

“I was led here by my spirit, it doesn’t make sense and I can’t explain it. When I came here, I knew I just had to stay and build this place up,” Tolu, as she is universally called, said, with a defiant look on her face.

At first, the people were hostile; she was overly generous, bringing food and offering to teach out-of-school children, providing desperately needed basic amenities and uplifting the communities.

“It was hostile at the beginning because people don’t trust you when you are overly kind to them; the belief is that you have a motive. You know we are very superstitious; someone doing something for free is alien. When you give them food you have to open it and eat out of it. When I want to take the kids out sometimes, the parents have to follow me just to be sure I am not trying to poison them or sell their kids. I want to do health outreach for kids in the community and some ‘area boys’ are asking me for money to take care of their kids. It’s challenging but then it is fine,” Tolu said with philosophical resignation.

It has been five years since she began her romance with the communities and over those years, she has established the Love On The Streets (LOTS) foundation, which is now located at No 48, Odofin Akisanya Street. Every evening, children from the communities come for after school; soon some of the kids came up with a new name for the community; they called it Dustbin Estate and the name stuck. There are about 150 children in the foundation now with many more parents asking that their wards be taken up.

Despite the filth, the people tried to organise themselves. “We are our brother’s keepers here and we know ourselves. We have also formed a vigilante group which sees to the security of this place,” Olufemi Mattew said. There are a few schools in the Dustbin Estate each struggling with funding. Students pay a stipend to attend, after school services exist too. The founders of such schools do not like Tolu’s charity. They are angry at her free lessons.

But nobody should be deceived that land on the refuse is cheap. “There are only transferred land available now and it costs N6,000,000 per plot. Even a small land is sold for N4, 000,000.,” Akinyo volunteered. Tolu attested to this, she bought a tiny piece of ‘refuse’ for N600, 000.

Children of the ghetto

Chan was referred to LOTS foundation by UNICEF Japan. She came to see how the world body could partner with local organisations to improve the lots of the children.

“It’s hard to fathom, I didn’t expect this place to be that vast. With people living there, I thought the situation is very difficult.” Chan told The Nation, stressing that the UN body is looking for ways to further collaborate.

“We are trying to collaborate with the NGOs in Nigeria, hoping that we can change the situation a little bit better and one of the things I am trying to figure out this year is we are going to have a big conference with African leaders in Tokyo this June and one of the main things is that, they don’t need aids anymore, instead they will rather have investments. We want to explore if that is true but as I see it , I think there is still a lot of spaces for UNICEF and other agencies to continue helping Africa, even in Lagos, which is like the New York of Africa.”

“Imagine the amount of virginal infections these girls are vulnerable to when you have to urinate under such unhygienic situation,” Tolu said with a look of concern. She has assumed almost a cult-like following, as children ran out of their houses to greet her. Parents too stopped pay respect, sometimes offering her a drink then they would complain that their children did not get a particular gift or they were not taken out on a picnic.

Tolu’s life is intertwined with the Dustbin Estate and the children. Emmanuel Idegbe, a 12-year-old sharp-eyed boy, strolled into the foundation. Tolu grabbed him and said: “This is one of my most brilliant children; he has won a scholarship to study at the Carol Favoured College.”

Emmanuel is now in Junior Secondary 2. But he has a disturbing background. His mother and elder sister have issues regarding their mental sanity, while his father is incapacitated by a disease called elephantiasis. But in the evening, his father will drag himself from his bed and resume his position as a night watchman. He earned a stipend from that vocation which was barely enough for himself. Therefore, brilliant Emmanuel had taken refuge at the foundation.

A group called From Friends With Love, which is based in London, heard about the plight of Emmanuel and organised a fundraiser for his education and raised 4,000 pounds towards his secondary education. But his family was not so fortunate; his sick sister was brutally raped by a group of young men who had taken advantage of her mental situation. She was unable to identify the father of her baby.

Emmanuel wants to become a lawyer and he would love the government to provide roads and water for the Dustbin. He sees LOTS as refuge. “I have been coming here for four years when I heard about free education. This is a better place for me, I learn my lessons and with other children, we clean up this place after the lessons. This is a better place for a child.”

More than 150 children agreed with Emmanuel, and quite a number have made the place a permanent home. Bacit Abayomi has a bad left eye. At 10 years, he has a stubborn character, which sometimes overpowers him. In a fit of anger, his mother, who sold hot gin, cigarettes, local brew in the Dustbin had thrown a knife at him; the weapon hit his left eye and diluted it. When one focused on him from afar, the bad eye made him look ugly and undesirable. But Tolu took him and made him stay with her permanently at the foundation. Bacit is a compulsive child, easily angered and very determined not to follow orders. Tolu said she is working on breaking him down, through her personal development classes.

Bacit can neither read nor write; so the foundation has devoted more time to him. Now he is in primary one in one of the local schools. Solomon Are also lives permanently in the foundation. Now in his final year and writing his senior school certificate examination, the only refuge he has found is LOTS.

Another brilliant 17-year-old girl was taken out of school by her father and given out in marriage. This caused Tolu a lot of depression because “she has a lot of potentials to be great.” Now heavily pregnant, she could be seen in the evenings at a road junction throwing jabs at the young men.

Because of the hardship of the Dustbin Estate, the children flocked to LOTS where Tolu has developed a carrot-and-stick approach to their education.

“The people don’t value education and when I had the first party here, a thousand kids showed up but when we open the free classes, only 25 came. So, I developed the reward system where you come to class, you get Caprisone drink. You come to class, you get clothes and you come to class, you are taken out,” Tolu said.

She added: “When you see a 15-year-old that can’t read a three-letter word, you know there is trouble.” She was, however, able to relate to the kids because there was something in her own background that identified with that. “I could not read nor write until I was 10 years old. My grandfather, a retired principal of Government College, Ibadan (GCI), taught me from the beginning. I grew up angry at all those who made fun of me. Now, I understand why God took me through that experience, here I teach 16-year-olds who can’t read.”

Tolu has accomplished most of her activities through the benevolence of individuals who had read about her cause and donated whatever they can.

On April 12, a woman volunteered to prepare food for 200 children. The kids at LOTS look forward to such occasions when they would have abundance to eat and drink. Sometimes, some benevolent souls would provide a bus that would convey kids who had excelled in the regular tests done at the classes to interesting places. The purpose, according to Tolu, is to expose the children, to take their minds off their environment and allow them to dream of better places. “That way, they will not be limited, they can dream to turn their environment to a better place.”

In the night, the office becomes sleeping rooms. Eunice Folashade Joshua, who volunteers with Tolu, supervises the arrangements. She sleeps in the common room and the children sleep in another.

Not all the kids attend LOTS training however; some would rather run errands for the adults in exchange for small coins. Another kid, not more than six years, displaying an entrepreneurial skill, gathered expired glue thrown into the canal. He arranged them in two pieces each on a large tray and sold to his fellow children for a princely sum of N10. The adults looked on, probably in admiration.

‘Life in the Ghetto is sweet’

Chief Akeem Akinyo laid on the bed under a shed in front of his house on Akinyo Street. It was 5pm. A lanky man with tribal marks crossing his cheeks; he spoke with simple elegance. By his side sat another man, half-naked. Two bottles of Aromatic Shinnaps laid on the floor, the third was half-empty. The half-naked man, unlike Akinyo, spoke in a guttural voice. Apparently intoxicated, he boasted about his exploits.

“I am a contractor, a community leader and politician. In this Ajegunle, my word is law, I am well known all over this state and nobody can underrate me,” Akinyo began.

Soon, a kid brought a roll of cannabis in a small saucer and the half-naked man took it. “I hope you don’t mind. This is not marijuana, this is medicine, when you use it, you will see that rheumatism will disappear and you can ‘perform’ well with your wife,” he said.

Akinyo corroborated his claim saying he was healthy because he took such medicines. Soon, a whiff of smoke dissolved into the air and the truth was out. The substance was cannabis.

“A senior police officer came here on a bike to enjoy this place. He said we can smoke and drink but we should not fight. Or have you seen anybody fighting you since you came here?” the half-naked man asked.

“Life in the ghetto is very sweet; we do what we want, even rich men envy us the way we live,” Akinyo said.

‘Don’t call this place dustbin’

In the evening, more people arrived at Akinyo’s house and they stayed until the early morning. There was abundance of alcoholic drinks and hot gins. The people spoke about the wonderful lives they lead.

Akinyo said: “This is no longer dustbin area, you can see many big houses here, there are no thieves, and we live in peace. In all of Ajegunle, this is the most peaceful. Most big people live here, you too have been here since yesterday and you have not heard of any incident.”

Most of the people were particularly irked by the appellation of Dustbin Estate and they want to put a stop to it. “Most people you see working at the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA live here. So, how can you still call this place Dustbin? We want you to help us put a stop to it, our communities have a name,” Rasheed Olayiwola, the Community Development Association (CDA), chairman said.

Madam Downgrade strolled into the gathering close to midnight holding a big cross breed dog called Dollars, which she bought that afternoon for N17, 000. Everyone hailed her arrival and more drinks flowed. Madam Downgrade was averagely built and she operated a dog pepper soup joint in the next street. She had come to see Akinyo because she wanted to open another joint inside the Dustbin Estate. There are other dogs in the neighbourhood which bear queer names like Landlord and Goodluck. They either end up in the soup pot or are sacrifice to Ogun, the god of iron.

Dollars’ life was at jeopardy as he would be killed the next day, his meat served as tasty pepper soup accompanied by cold beer. The men spoke excitedly about how sweet the dog will taste and insisted dog pepper soup is the best medicine for all ailment. “That is why we look young,” they said.

The next morning, Akinyo was still at his customary place under the shelter. His day started at 6am with another round of visits and drinking. A nearby mosque reeled out prayers for community leaders and mentioned his name. In response, he grabbed a bottle and poured some gin, pouring liberation first before drinking the rest.

He too wanted the government to fix the roads and provide water. But he has also revolted against the authority of the community head, denouncing him as an impostor. He found an ally in Olayiwola and some other community leaders. If the village head knows the trouble hovering over his head, he did not show it but insisted he is the head of his people.

Planning for development

Sex is also in abundant at the Dustbin Estate. Because a whole family lives in a small dingy room, children are exposed to sex quite early and incest is common. This has formed the base for the developmental plans of LOTS Foundation.

“People see dustbin here but I see housing estate. If we get skilled individuals to provide their services free, we can build housing for these people according to their income and family size, in that case, incest will reduce,” Tolu said.

She has also bought some acres of land in Owode, Ogun State, where she plans to start large-scale farming, which would provide food for the foundation. Part of her plans are a soup kitchen, a charity shop, where all the goods will sell for N200, and a free Montessori school. Already, she has a small building inside the Dustbin Estate, which will be used for these purposes.

“I am seeing world class facilities here, I see a world class recreation center, a school, hospital. I am convinced about my dreams for this place. One of the kids here would rule this nation, I have biblical promises from God and I am convinced about it,” she said with obstinate finality.

But before then, she has to live with the grim prospects of the present, of the filth and pregnant teenagers. Not all of her children would turn out good and her dreams will still require enormous resources. She must be prepared for more heartbreaks.

They are visible in most big markets across Lagos. Clutching the tools of their trade- a large tray, a pair of rain booths and a piece of cloth- the women of varying ages and sizes eke their livings carrying loads for people who buy goods in large quantities.

At the popular Mile 12 Market in Lagos, the women, popularly known as Alabo, are unmistakable. Comprising women of different ages, but mostly older women, the Alabo at the market have different tales behind their decisions to make their living carrying loads at the market.

While their tales differ in most cases, the common denominator is poverty. For them, it is more honourable to engage in such seemingly demeaning jobs than begging on the streets or resorting to stealing.

With a rare ability to spot a potential customer from the distance, an Alabo would approach the customer with a promise to assist him or her to ferry the goods to where the customer may have parked his or her car.

How much is charged is determined by the size of the load, distance and most times, the magnanimity of the customer to pay ‘good’ money. Interestingly, a large number of the women, who in most cases are the breadwinner of their individual families, come from as far as Oyo and Osun States to ‘hustle’ in Lagos.

But while they prefer to carry loads at the market to begging or stealing, most of them, if not all, don’t disclose their kind of job to their families back home. The little their family members know of them is that they are in Lagos to ‘hustle’.

A source at the market who spoke with The Nation said: “These women don’t disclose their job to their families back home. All they disclose is that they are coming to Lagos to hustle. But the truth is that the women are very hardworking. And when they travel home during any festival, you could mistake them for very successful business women in Lagos.”

On this day, amidst the hustling, buying and selling at the Mile 12 market, Madam Asake stood at an isolated spot watching her mates struggle for business. Even if she loved to join in the struggle, her strength would not allow her. For her, such scenario has become the regular feature of her life as a load carrier.

Her story of total plunge from state of relative grace to grass started long ago as a young woman. According to her, she was born into an averagely well-to-do family in Saki area of Oyo State. But today, she lives a miserable and despondent life. The challenges of life and all the comfort she previously enjoyed have combined to push her to the point of a reclusive life. At the age of 68, she should ordinarily have disengaged from hard labour and retired into less strenuous activities to continue to make both ends meet.

Unfortunately, it is at this critical age that she is deeply involved in the neck-breaking job of load carrying at Mile 12 market in Lagos State. With her wrinkled body and fragile look, she competes with able bodied men to get customers. And most often, she loses out because many believe that asking her to carry heavy loads is tantamount to planning to commit murder. For all her toils in a whole day, she hardly smiles home with more than N300 out of which she buys pain relieving drugs and balm to massage her body.

Tears rolled her eyes uncontrollably as if her eye balls were punctured when our correspondents cornered her for a chat. Initially, she shunned all entreaties to speak about her life. But after much persuasion, she caved in and narrated the heart-rending story of how at old age she continues to beg to carry load to make both ends meet.

“You are trying to open an old wound by asking me to tell you the story of how I became a load carrier,” began Madam Asake.

She said: “I was born into a fairly well-to-do home in Saki area of Oyo State. My father developed a strange illness that made the family sell off virtually all we had to save his life, but at the end of it all he did not survive. After his death, our family members rose against us and gave my mother serious problems. Some of my father’s remaining properties were forcibly taken from us. I later dropped out of school and went into business. As time went on, my business grew very well and I thought the best thing I could do was to get married.

“My husband was also a trader. He was very caring and reliable. He filled the vacuum created by my father’s death such that my mother often described him as God-sent. The only challenge we had was that we had no issue throughout the years the marriage lasted.

“Problem started when he too developed a strange illness. We spent all the money we had but at the end of the day, he died. His business had closed down before his death, while mine was not booming as it used to be. After some years of being alone, my mum advised that I should try and re-marry. I agreed and got engaged to another man.

“Few weeks to the time we would formalise our marriage, people advised him to run away from me if he didn’t want to die prematurely. While I was joyfully looking up to the day of our union, he stopped talking about it and would not even come to my house again. That was how the second marital life journey crashed like a pack of cards. The shame and stigma caused untold pains for my mum. She later died of heart attack. My business suffered a serious setback in the course of taking care of my mum.

“I subsequently ran to a neighbouring community close to the Nigerian border with Benin Republic where I got married to another man. This man was grossly irresponsible. He drank alcohol like a fish would drink water. He beat me almost every day and ended up ruining my business. I eventually ran away from his house empty handed to hustle here in Lagos.

“Life has been very cruel to me. I am only living because it is not good for one to commit suicide. I have been here for many years without going home. I can’t even think of going home because of the stigma that is hanging on me. I make so little everyday because customers don’t like giving me heavy loads to carry. Most of them fear that I may collapse and die if they give me heavy loads to carry. It is only few people that take pity on me that allow me to carry their goods for them. I hardly make N500 in a day. My regular income per day is N300 out of which I buy pain relieving drugs and balm to massage my body.”

25-year-old Joke appears to be the youngest of the load carriers. Clutching her large tray with the left hand, she dashed forward, hoping to seal a deal. But her expression suddenly changed the moment she realised that target was not a prospective customer but inquisitive men who wanted to ask her some questions.

As she turned to go, she changed her mind and said: “You want to ask me some questions? okay let me hear you.” She soon revealed that her desire for a better future forced her to take the near-humiliating path of a load carrier.

The Iseyin, Oyo State-born woman confessed that she dropped her pride in order to ensure a more robust future for herself and her family. She told The Nation that she came to Lagos to hustle for money to start her tailoring business.

According to her, she was compelled to come to Lagos when she could not raise money to buy her tools after she had completed her apprentice in fashion designing in Oyo State about three years ago. She said she has no reason to be ashamed of what she is doing because all she wants is money. After realising the amount of money she wants, she said she would return to Iseyin to start her fashion designing business.

Joke is determined to make enough money that would enable her to purchase a sewing machine and other tools of her trade before she goes back home. She added that she would be quitting the job in a couple of weeks because she had acquired most of the things she needs to start off her dream job.

She said: “I came to Lagos to hustle for money to start my fashion designing business. I went for apprenticeship in fashion designing after I dropped out of school. After completing my apprenticeship, my father could not provide me with the capital to buy sewing machines and other tools that I need to start my own business let alone give me money to rent a shop. My financial challenges were compounded when I was impregnated by a young man who does not have the means to take care of me and my baby.

“I was left with no other decision than to come to Lagos to hustle for money, first to survive, and second to raise money to buy the tools I need to start my fashion business. I have no particular reason to be ashamed doing this job because nobody knows me here. My people back at home don’t know what I am doing here in Lagos. They only know that I am living and working in Lagos. Nothing would ever tell them that I am a load carrier in Lagos because when I am going home, I will buy many things that will make them proud of my achievement. They may even think that I am a big business woman in Lagos.

“So far, I have bought some of the tools that I need to start my business. By the time I finish buying all of them, I will try and get other things that would make me stand out when I get back home. I make about N1, 000 on a daily basis.”

Yemi’s story is not too different from that of Joke. Although she looks a bit older than her age, she too confessed that she was forced into the trade by biting poverty. Osun State-born Yemi said she came to hustle in Lagos in order to do away with the label of a ‘village girl’ placed on her by some of her friends who left their village many years before her to live and work in Lagos. Prior to the time she came to Lagos, she narrated that her friends who came to Lagos before her always oppressed and looked down on her as a village girl.

“I came to Lagos to hustle because my friends who came to Lagos before me always oppressed me each time they returned to the village. After they left our home town in Osun State, they started behaving like super stars. They looked down on the rest of us who were still in the village. I was forced to come here to prevent further oppression and contempt from them.

“Some of them were surprised when they saw me here in Lagos. When I came here, I was shocked to see that most of the so-called ‘big girls’ at home were either carrying loads at markets or hawking bread and herbal concoctions here in Lagos. It is only a few of them who are engaged in real trading. We have thereafter become equals. The people at home do not know what we are doing. It is a top secret among us. We look dirty here making money, but when we go home to enjoy it, nobody knows the secret.

“We have challenges like every other woman. And since nobody is ready to help you, the lot then falls on you to help yourself or you may be ruined for life. We live inside shops and most of the men in the market often come around to harass us sexually. It is not that they force us to sleep with them, but because they know that we have nowhere else to go, every Tom, Dick and Harry comes around to woo us.”

For Silifat Olalekan, coming to Lagos to hustle is beyond going home to flaunt her ‘wealth’. Silifat, a grandmother, told our correspondents that she was forced into carrying loads to pay her children’s school fees after losing her husband and business.

For her, life’s essence is what you make of it irrespective of whatever difficulties. She was once a happy and prosperous business woman in her home town in Oyo State. But she lost her business and life became tough for her. But rather than sit down and sulk, the mother of five said she took the decision to relocate to Lagos to start a new life.

She said: “I came all the way from Iseyin to hustle in Lagos. I never imagined that I would ever do this kind of job because I was doing a good business before. I was involved in the business of travelling to different communities to buy food and sell foodstuffs. My journey into the business of carrying load started after I lost my husband. Shortly after his death, the burden of taking care of our children fell solely on me. This led to the total collapse of my business. When I could not provide for my children again, I ran down here in Lagos to eke out a living for me and my kids.

“I go back home every three months to give money to my children for the payment of their school fees and other needs. I make about N1,000 on a daily basis. I live in lock up shops with my colleagues. About five or seven of us live in a room. Each of us pays between N500 and N1,000 every month as rent. It is quite challenging, but we are used to the situation. What matters is the money we want to make and not the stress. But I would appreciate if the government could come to my help. No matter how much I make from this job, it can never be compared to personal business. The insults and the pains are enormous and not good for people of my age and others that are far older than us. When I see such older people, I pity them and pray not to remain in this hard labour at their age.’’

Ajayi Ojo has a similar story. She explained that she came into the business when all avenues of earning a living closed down. She said: “It is not anybody’s wish to be doing this kind of business. I am above 50 years and at this age, it is not healthy for me to be doing this kind of hard labour.

“I make about N500 when there is business. When there is no business, I could make less than that. As I am talking to you now, I have not made any money and it is getting late. I was into business before I came into the job of carrying load. My business collapsed after some hoodlums carried my goods and money away. I would quickly go back to my business if anybody can give me reasonable capital.”

Interestingly, load carriers at the Mile 12 market are registered by the market association as a way of curbing the activities of crooks who under the guise of working as load carriers run away with the customers’ goods.

Speaking on behalf of the Chairman of the Foodstuffs Market Association, Alhaji Haruna Mohammed, the financial secretary of the Association, Shehu Usman, told The Nation that the association started registering every load carrier in the market to curb the activities of hoodlums who run away with people’s goods in the guise of carrying goods for them.

He said: “We began to register and give numbered tags to every load carrier in the market to prevent the hoodlums from further stealing people’s goods under the guise of assisting them to carry their goods for an agreed fee. The males wear bibs for easy identification, while the women only wear numbered tags. We arrested many of such people in the past and handed them over to the police because we don’t want anything that would tarnish our image.

“Every customer is informed by the traders in the market to take the number of the load carrier helping him to carry goods. If a case of theft arises, we would use the number to trace the load carrier. But I can tell you that we have not recorded such since we came up with this. If anybody who does not have our tag comes here to work as a load carrier, he or she would not be allowed to work.’’

The Nigerian Civil War may have ended about 32 years ago, but the ghost of the three-year-old conflict resurfaced, strangely in October, following the release of a book, There was a country: A personal history of Biafra, written by renowned novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe.

In what was conceived as Achebe’s personal recollection of what went down during the war, turned out, ironically, a re-opening of old wounds.

While the conflict which formed the raw material for Achebe’s memoir was between Nigeria and the Igbo, the alleged genocide controversy as captured by the world celebrated story teller in his latest work ended up pitching not just a few of the disciples of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the alleged perpetrators of genocide, but also some participants in the war from other zones of the country.

The controversy stoked by Achebe which became a feeding frenzy for the media may not have been about whether there was a war or there was a country, it was so much about a war story, either well told, half told, told with jaundice or better still, should have been left untold. And like a bolt out of the blue, arose a groundswell of emotions and sentiments, with some laden with either loyal or ethnic hue. Before long, the argument began to oscillate between the parochial and the primordial.

By the time the controversy was finally interred, it had taken another genocidal dimension of a media war and ethnic pyrotechnic.

The controversial book which had yet to make its grand entry into Nigeria at the time, and which many had not availed themselves of its content stirred the hornet’s nest with excerpts in the The Guardian of London.

While none of the warring parties in the controversial book was in dissonance about Achebe’s gift of artistry in painting pictures of some the events of the war, and his uncanny ability to still recollect the roles of actors in the conflict, despite his ebbing age, a little portion in the book reproduced below, seemingly stratified its expectant readers.

“The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals like Chief Obafemi Awolowo among others who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.

“It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations.

“However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose – the Nigeria-Biafra War – his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams.

“In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation – eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”

Despite that Nigeria was at the time of the genocide saga battling with the unprecedented onslaught of floods ravaging the country, some Nigerians took time off their flooded and submerged homes to engage in some intellectual acrobatics.

While some argued that the author of the world celebrated Things fall Apart merely helped to refresh memory and reactivate discourse on the bloody civil war, others differed, arguing why Achebe would not allow a sleeping dog lie, but choose to reopen an already healed wound.

But while this wound was healed for others, but for Achebe, it was one still festering terminally and needing not only to be treated but permanently cured.

And for having fired the first salvo, neither Achebe nor his fans could determine the direction this new ‘genocide war’ was going to take. By the time it assumed a fever pitch, it went viral and multi-frontier.

The media war which saw the South West and South East furiously unified against each other, also helped to unify, albeit briefly, some of the ‘lost disciples’ of the late Awolowo, even as the controversy equally seemed to make the Igbo to be in accord with each other.

For instance, those long regarded as apostates and who had seemingly gone ahead to either renounce ‘Awoism’ or progressivism as an ideology and pitched tent with the retrogressive, suddenly found common ally in those they had deserted.

And for some Igbo who thought they could never find reason to agree, There was a country… unexpectedly became a temporary unifying casus belli to agree that there was a country and there was genocide.

And the battle line was drawn. Yoruba versus Igbo. Intellectuals, politicians, the media, none sat on the fence. It was a war of supports versus condemnations. Virtual commentators from the two divides deployed sumptuous invectives in defence of their ‘hero’. Even the philistines who would not hear of arts were not so phlegmatic this time. They joined the fray in their unbelief. Some were armed while some were not so armed in carrying out the Achebe/Awolowo ‘war’, with the former brandishing transcript of Awolowo’s interview in 1983 in response to the issues raised by Achebe.

In the interview, the late UPN leader during a campaign for the 1983 presidential election, admitted the policy, but denied it targeted civilians.

He said the policy targeted the fighting personnel, as a way to end the three-year-old conflict, as food supplies dispatched for civilians use in Biafra, were cornered by the soldiers.

In what appeared to be a fight to the finish, supporters of Awolowo and Achebe left no stone unturned and fought gallantly.

Secretary-General, Afenifere, Segun Arogbofa, had fired Achebe: “He has the right to live anywhere he likes but to start denigrating one of Nigeria’s founders and builders like the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo is not only unfortunate but a great abomination especially when he knows that the man is dead and cannot defend himself.”

However, as if responding to Arogbofa, immediate past president of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dozie Ikedife, fired his own potshot: “The facts are naked, but only that truth is bitter. The Igbo would not start another war but for Nigeria to move forward, she must acknowledge injustice done to Ndigbo during the war.”

Similarly, former National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chekwas Okorie, spoke in defense of Achebe: “It is a general knowledge that the civil war has only ended in the battle field but it has not in reality. Go to the South East and you will pity the Igbo. All the roads are impassable and there is no federal presence. The policies of federal character and educational disadvantage are created to deter the progress of the Igbo people.”

Ebenezar Babatope, a former minister and a protege of Awolowo, had said in a statement: “While Achebe is free to write on any topic that suits his fancy, he has no right whatsoever to irresponsibly murder history by his recklessly attacking a great leader like Papa Awolowo.”

For Yinka Odumakin, a member of the Save Nigeria Group, “It is unfortunate that a great man of letters of Achebe’s status has descended to the arena of Biafran propagandists who are always ready to sacrifice the truth to achieve emotional blackmail. He has betrayed his intellectual calling by joining in the circulation of low quality rumour against Awo. I had looked forward to reading the book, but now I doubt if I would pick up a copy even if dropped at my gate.”

former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, said by writing the book and “making some of these baseless and nonsensical assertions, Achebe was simply indulging in the greatest mendacity of Nigerian modern history and his crude distortion of the facts has no basis in reality or rationality. We must not mistake fiction and storytelling for historical fact. The two are completely different. The truth is that Professor Chinua Achebe owes the Awolowo family and the Yoruba people a big apology for his tale of pure fantasy.

He continued: “This subtle attempt to denigrate the Yoruba and their past leaders, to place a question mark on their noble and selfless role in the war and to belittle their efforts and sacrifice to keep Nigeria together as one will always be vigorously resisted by those of us that have the good fortune of still being alive and who are aware of the facts.”

Chinwoke Mbadinuju, former governor of Anambra State, lent his voice in support of his kinsman: “I have not read the book. I don’t want to speculate. During the civil war, I was studying in the United States of America. However, I have absolute confidence in Prof Chinua Achebe. He is an acclaimed international scholar and figure; whatever he says about the civil war should be taken seriously.”

For Dr. A.B.C. Nwosu, former Minister of Health, “This was predictable. Achebe, true to his character, will be unfazed by the insults and abuses, but will welcome criticisms. A writer of his stature should be used to all these.

‘’In my view, the controversy including the orgy of abuse is desirable because it brings out into the public domain, bottled-up and vile ethnic prejudices. In my view also, it is preferable for such prejudices to be aired rather for them to remain and fester in the innermost recesses of ethnic minds, to be secretly whispered around from door to door, neighbour to neighbour and passed on from generation to generation. Closet ethnicism to me is very dangerous and militates against nation-building.

‘’There are many who believe that certain things are best not said at this time. I disagree. It is best for these things to be said so that brethren and compatriots will be aware of what others truly think of them. Therefore, let the criticisms, insults and even abuse continue to come out into the open so we can better understand ourselves as individuals, and as micro-nations within the macro-nation Nigeria.”

Throwing his hat into the ring, Odia Ofeimun, a diehard Awoist, roared: “All that rubbish of children with ribs and swollen stomachs and the rest of it, what did you expect in a war?”

Refusing to allow Achebe cast aspersions on her father’s memory, daughter of the late Yoruba leader and former to The Netherlands, Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, also took up the gauntlet against Awolowo’s accuser: “One is still trying to come to terms with the sense of disappointment about the person who wrote what is now a brewing controversy in the country. While a formal statement responding to the offensive comments of the writer is being prepared by the family, all I can say for now is that I feel so disappointed.”

Achebe wrote what were purely his personal reflections on the civil war, his own account of the war as a chronicler, but interestingly, it turned out to elicit robust debates and controversy, leading to the distillation of emotion on both sides of the divides.

Was Achebe worse for what he wrote? Not exactly, because he engineered a debate. Was the controversy necessary? Absolutely because it was healthy as it helped to let off steam. But in the final analysis, There was a country: A personal history of Biafra was the biggest beneficiary as the controversy only helped to popularise the book.

Unwanted and denied of love by their mothers. That is the fate of abandoned babies who ordinarily would have little hope of survival but government, motherless babies’ homes and orphanages have come to their rescue, writes NNEKA NWANERI.

In the wee hours of a September morning last year in Makoko, a community in Yaba, Lagos, two wild pigs made what was a regular visit to a dumpsite by a canal, searching for what to eat. But what they found that morning was not leftovers thrown away, decaying food remnants or dead animals which the flowing water had brought from afar. What the pigs found were twin babies whose mother had abandoned by the canal moments earlier.

Oblivious of what the crying babies were, the pigs began devouring them. Eyewitnesses who recounted the shocking story said by the time it was daylight and they got there, only the carcasses of the babies were left. The pig’s body was covered in blood. There was shock and rage when it dawned on onlookers who trooped to the scene that morning that the pig had eaten abandoned babies alive.

The question on their lips was: What mother on earth could have exposed two innocent babies to such cruel death? Was she insane? What was the world turning into?

In June, this year, somewhere in Onitsha, Anambra State on a Sunday, a foetus was found by a dumpsite, covered with ants which were feeding on it. It was a gory, heart-rending sight. Sources said it was aborted by a woman jilted by her fiancé who had absconded with another lover.

Child abandonment seems to have become are a daily occurrence. Dropping points include garbage dump sites, cemeteries, uncompleted buildings, mosques, churches and at the entrance of roads near orphanages. The Lagos State government alone has in the last one year rescued 497 abandoned babies from various streets. Their pictures made some front pages. They were being fed at an orphanage. The food was evidently nutritious and well prepared. The environment was decent and dignified. The children looked healthy and content. These babies had no choice as regards their being brought into the world. But those responsible for the birth of these helpless infants abandoned them to an uncertain fate.

They were unwanted, denied of love and ordinarily would have little hope of survival in an environment like ours already beset by several life-threatening challenges. But amidst the glut of depressing news about current existential realities in Nigeria, it is heart-warming that the children were rescued and given love and care. Analysts said it is an example of respect for the value of human life and dignity that should be emulated by others in both the public and private spheres of our society.

Causes of abandonment

Experts say one reason for the increase in this phenomenon is obviously the protracted economic crisis in the country and the attendant widespread poverty. The pervasive level of unemployment in particular has negative implications for positive family values, exacerbating the incidence of single mothers, unwanted pregnancies, high divorce rates, teenage delinquency, prostitution as well as alcohol and drug abuse that result, among other causes, in abandoned babies.

This is a sad commentary on the weakening of the moral fabric necessary for a wholesome and healthy society.

It is instructive that within the same period, Lagos recorded 383 cases of rape with 11 suspects prosecuted and convicted. There is most likely a link between the high incidence of rape and that of abandoned babies since rape victims may be simply too poor or ashamed to keep babies born in such circumstances.

The promiscuity of young girls has not been such a topic of discourse as it has been in recent times. These young ones get pregnant out of wedlock for reasons not far-fetched. Then, they opt for the easy way out – abortion or when they choose to have the baby, they abandon them to their fate.

Other factors identified as being responsible for children being abandoned include illiteracy caused by lack of basic education; fear of being stigmatised in the community as well as lack of sex education by the parents and guardians of young girls.

Speaking on the incidence of abandoned children, Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Youths and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru, said with the significant number of rescued babies in one year, the rate at which mothers dump their new born babies has increased.

United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), in a report published this year, said up to a million orphans are abandoned each year, the majority being healthy girls. It added that parents who remarry have been known to abandon their children so they can have new ones with their new spouses.

Life in an orphanage/adoption procedure

Motherless Babies’ Homes are established to care for babies whose mothers have died during childbirth with no relative to care for them, and for abandoned babies. Many of such persons have grown into responsible adults, and many have gone on to pursue post-secondary education in various institutions of higher learning, gotten married and have their own families.

Most of the homes care for motherless newborns and then place children with their extended families. The state government takes care of fostering and adoption procedures for the abandoned children.

The Managing Trustee of Heritage Homes, Anthony Lagos, Mrs. Eme Akenzua, spoke on the rising incidence of child abandonment.

 She said: “Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one’s offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling.

“Poverty is often a root cause of child abandonment. Persons in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to abandon him/her. Political conditions, such as difficulty in adoption proceedings, may also contribute to child abandonment, as can the lack of institutions, such as orphanages, to take in children whom their parents cannot support.

“Orphanages provide desperate mothers a safe option that will inevitably give the child a better life by decreasing abortion, preventing infanticide, and stopping other forms of more reckless abandonment—such as leaving children on doorsteps or killing them and dumping them in garbage bins.

“Some even abandon their children at the hospitals after birth because they cannot afford to take care of them when they are eventually discharged.  I once heard of a child that was eaten up by the canal side by pigs. Some of these children are dumped in their foetus form.”

Akenzua said for an abandoned child to be accepted into the home, details of the person bringing the abandoned child or an informants would be taken. Heritage Homes will inform the Ministry of Youth, Sports & Social Development immediately. The Home will then visit the site of abandonment, if possible, in company of the ministry’s officials.

The child could be taken to the Juvenile Welfare Centre (JWC) Alakara or Adeniji Adele Police Stations, which can issue an acceptable extract. A photograph will be taken before an extract is issued. The extract authorises the Home to keep the child with the consent of the state government through the ministry.

The photograph of the police handing over the child formerly to the social worker must be taken. No Home is expected to take any child without an extract from the JWC and authorised by the ministry. The next step is to take the child to the hospital for medical attention to ascertain its health status.

The ministry could also call the Home to come for an abandoned child at the ministry/hospital. In such cases, the ministry will give a letter/link up with police at the JWC to give police extract which authorises the Home to take care of the child at the orphanage.

The day-to-day living at an orphanage is not different from the daily routine of an average child. School time for those of school age is 7:00am. Those at the Home will have snacks by 10am (Milk/caprisone and snacks). There is story time and other activities to develop them mentally too.

Speaking on the adoption process, Akenzua said the first step is to go to the ministry, apply, fill the required forms and pay a token to government. There will be screening, which includes home visit by social workers, all of which is done in the interest of the child and prospective adopters. Having fulfilled all requirements at the state level, letters of approval will be given and a list of registered orphanages in Lagos State will be attached.

The next stage is to take the approval letter to the registered orphanages. Each orphanage has different requirements but there are no fees attached. The adopter may be required to go through an administrative process, provide information on the child required, age, sex, adopter’s contact, passport photograph, among others.

 When a child is identified, the orphanage will do a letter to inform the ministry and the child’s file will be forwarded for consideration. A letter of authority to collect will be given to the Home.

Before the child is released, the adopter may visit the child for bonding. A release letter authorising the Home to hand over the child would be sent to the orphanage through a ministry’s social worker.

The child will be handed to state social worker and adopter at the orphanage. Three months later, if placement is well monitored and there is no problem, a court of law will legalise the placement.

On challenges, Akenzua said: “There may be a long list of adopters but not enough children to go round. They may get frustrated, but in Heritage Homes, we may not be able to satisfy everybody, but we treat our adopters well.

“Another challenge is that we are not allowed to monitor any placement once a child is handed over. The state takes over but we would have loved to be involved in placement monitoring.”

Experience from another home

Mrs Dele George, who manages Little Saints Orphanage, Ilupeju, Lagos, said babies were still being abandoned, although the situation is not as bad as it was between 1994 and 1996. Little Saints Orphanage was the first non-government organisation to be registered by the Lagos State government as an orphanage.

According to her, there is a slight drop in the rate of child abandonment. When she began, the abandonment of children was extremely high. She said the home was getting nothing less than five babies in a month. In the first year alone, she had over 70 babies.

George said: “The abandonment of children is a menace we still have to tackle in Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole. It is worrisome that when these mothers abandon these children, they abandon them to die. They leave them in places where they cannot be found like in bags in dustbins.

“Most times, these children are left by their mothers, hoping they will be burnt alive so they cannot be traced to them. So it is heart-breaking that some of these children never get found and eventually die.

“Nigerians are encouraged that when they find an abandoned baby, it isn’t just enough to leave that baby there and go to call the police or an orphanage. They should gather together to rescue the baby and take the baby straight to the police station. It is what God expects them to.

“They can form a community and take the baby to the police station, who in turn takes the baby to the nearest juvenile centre. The juvenile centre will call the social welfare that paces the baby in an orphanage.

“It is true that everyone is afraid of being accused of something they have not done because they are suspected to have stolen the children. In the mouth of two witnesses, a word is established. No individual can rescue the child but rally round about four to five people who are compassionate. Whatever has to be done should be done to ensure that that baby does not die.

“It should also be noted that we partner with the State Ministry of Youths and Social Development. They are the ones responsible for placing babies in orphanages so the police station and the ministry are the sure bets to ensure that the babies get to the orphanage.”

Speaking on the day-to-day life in her orphanage, George said: “The children are being looked after. All orphanages now do not just focus on rehabilitation but also on reformation. Many are not abandoned as children but as toddlers. The oldest we have gotten so far is 14 years.

 ”As soon as they come into the orphanage, they are taken for medical check-up to ensure that they have no form of ailment that needs to be tackled immediately or any contagious disease that might spread to the other children.

“Their health has been ascertained; they are then put in the orphanage and some of their other brothers and sisters immediately become friendly to help them settle down. Necessary things they need like bed, clothes and shoes are provided for them. It is like going into a hostel in a school. A week later, a school is sorted out for them, weather nursery, primary or secondary. Then, the reformation begins.”

Speaking on the adoption procedure, George said: “It is done through the Ministry of Youths and Social Development. The first thing to do is for the adopter to visit the ministry and it will tell them all the documents they need to bring so long as they are tax payers in the state.

“When it is returned and sorted out, the ministry will call them for an interview after which it will give them a provisional letter of approval for them to go to any orphanage of their choice to adopt a baby.

“When they get to the orphanage, based on availability, a baby will be allocated to them and they will go back to the ministry to finalise the legalisation of the adoption and that baby becomes theirs forever.”

She said adoption has helped several childless couples find the joy of parenthood. “These babies bring succour to childless couples. My greatest fulfilment has come from adoption. Every child wants a family he/she can call his/her own. We do our best to look after these children.

“When the parents come, the child is willing to embrace them like their own family. They feel like they belong and have roots somewhere. They know they have taken roots in their homes. The family too has great fulfilment because children, as the bible says, are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is its reward.”

She also spoke on the challenges facing her home. “Finance has always been a challenge because the more you do, the more you find that you have to do. We occupy the position of any parent who doesn’t want to see children stagnant but to progress. Every time, we have vision and dreams for the children. They require money to fulfill them, so we are always trying to source for money.

“We have 120 children in the orphanage and they are all in school. Last year, we gave out 10 children and we have given out 500 since inception. With such responsibility, we have to start working. We also face the challenge of manpower and social workers to help.”

The incidence of abandoned babies can be reduced through public enlightenment targeting women with unplanned pregnancy. Right now, there is a forum for these women to go to and get help, whether in the ministry or in any orphanage.

The government’s role

Badru explained how the state’s adoption and fostering service works.

He said: “Suitable persons by legal means acquire parental claim over certain categories of children with/without blood relationship. It could either be local, international or relative adoption; while fostering is the placement of children in need of care or protection in the hands of fit persons by means of a fostering order,” he explained.

“This office also registers and monitors the activities of orphanage homes and related non-governmental organisations (NGOs). From June 2011 to date, 753 applications were received from prospective adopters out of which 709 were local and 24 international.

“Prospective adopters were screened in order to determine their suitability for adopting children, while 82 children were released for adoption and 85 were legalised through juvenile courts. 308 letters of approval were granted,” he stated.

The special adviser added that his office currently liaises with countries such as Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada in respect of international adoption, saying that international adoption gave succour to children with medical challenges.

“The mode of getting these categories of persons into the centres is by referrals from members of the public and rescue operations carried out by the Office of Youths and Social Development.

“During the period under review, 2,022 beggars/destitute persons /mentally challenged were rescued and taken to the Rehabilitation and Training Centre, Majidun, Ikorodu, where the state government has made provisions for facilities to help in turning the lives of the destitute persons/beggars around.”

Way forward

Experts say it is important that states keep adequate records of such social trends, as Lagos did, to aid effective policy formulation and implementation.

Governments at all levels, they added, must be at the vanguard of efforts to address the root causes of this problem through mass job creation, poverty alleviation, public education and enlightenment as well as better security to tackle social and moral delinquency.

Equally critical, as noted by Dr. Badru, is the creation by the state of the requisite legal framework for suitable persons to legally adopt children in need of permanent home in a loving environment.

Applications from prospective adopters should be encouraged to enable abandoned children lead normal lives and achieve their potential.

Analysts say government cannot be left alone to deal with this problem. The contributions of parents, religious bodies, traditional rulers, community leaders, civil society groups, educational institutions and prominent role models, among others, are equally essential in redressing the moral deficits that allow the culture of rape and abandoned babies to flourish.

Akenzua said: “Parents must be alive to their responsibilities. Mothers should be close to them and train them. When you abandon your role as parents, children will be misled.”

Badru said prosecution of sexual offenders will be intensified. According to him, no fewer than 383 cases of rape were recorded, while 11 suspects were prosecuted and convicted in the last one year. The cases included one where a father, who impregnated his daughter, was prosecuted and later convicted. He added that 4,387 new family welfare cases were also treated.

He expressed the government’s readiness to check the trend, urging anyone with complaints to call relevant state agencies.

The setting is reminiscent of the medieval period. The residents are contended with a simple lifestyle that would most likely make earth’s early settlers envy.

For them, life is devoid of paved walk ways, motor cars, motorcycles or tarred roads. Or their medical needs, they have to ‘travel’ to the mainland. Also, you won’t find marked streets.

Welcome to Makoko, a slum located on the Lagos lagoon, populated by people of various tribes and non-Nigerians.

For these people, living has not so much changed from what it used to be centuries ago, though they are a stone throw from the affluence of city life on the mainland.

The story of Makoko reminds you of the book, “Tales of two Cities’, by Charles Dickens, when juxtaposed with its more affluent neighbours on the mainland.

But despite the seeming ‘backwardness’ in Makoko, residents, like Matthew and several others, would give anything to remain in their homestead than relocate to the affluence of city life. For them, ‘Makoko is home. We don’t know any other place than this place.’

Their stance is coming on the heels of the recent attempt by the Lagos State Government to bring sanity to the settlement by curtailing the steady encroachment into the lagoon.

But it ended in a fiasco when a member of the community was accidentally shot by a policeman.

Speaking with The Nation, Matthew said he was not unaware of the effort of the state government to make life better for the people of the state. He, however, pleaded with Governor Babatunde Fashola to “please understand our plight. Let him instead help us by providing those things that will make us live like human beings.”

Interestingly, life on the water in Makoko will make any mainlander go green with envy. It is real fun to see children, as little as six-year old paddling canoes without the usual fright that would have naturally attended such excercise by a first timer.

Also, while most of the residents are fluent speakers of Yoruba and English languages, a large portion of the population are also versed in French language, making the community a meeting point of two international languages.

Faced with the unique and ‘unenviable’ nature of their environment, the people have risen up, conquering all the challenges confronting them.

Sure, these will interest you. While the children on the mainland go to school in buses fitted with air conditioners, children in Makoko go to school in beautifully carved canoes, popularly called ‘school bus’ in the area.

And for them, the cold breeze that hovers over the area is better than all the air conditioners in the world put together. While their peers take lectures in neatly built concrete classrooms, Makoko pupils take lectures in a one-storey plank building erected on a little piece of land on the mosquito-infested waters.

And if you are wondering if it is ever possible for the women itinerant traders to hawk food and other wares on the foul-smelling water like their counterparts on the mainland do, you will be shocked to see the women and young girls display their wares in well-cut canoes, and moving from one end of the community to the other. For them, whatever is obtainable on land is also obtainable on the water. And to their credit, there is no every need that is not hawked on the water.

Checks also revealed that sales of alcohol on the lagoon is one of the most thriving businesses in the area as most of the men who spent a better part of their day on the high sea return home to relax by the waterside to warm their bodies with different brands of gin.

A group of young men, who refused to be photographed, explained that the men are very hard working fishermen who would go to the high seas in the middle of the night just to eke out a living.

“The only reason you see us at this time is because we are trying to relax after returning from the high sea. Most of us are fishermen, and we return in the morning to rest for the day. So it is natural that we drive away the cold with the ‘hot’ drink. The drink helps us to fight the cold,” they chorused.

The water was a beehive of activities when The Nation visited. Like a festival boat regatta, it was interesting to see momentary traffic hold-ups, like the daily hold-ups on Lagos roads, on regular intervals because of the innumerable canoes plying the water.

Also, of interest was the terminus at the bank of the river. Just the same way commuter buses line up at the bus stops while waiting for passengers, the canoes also made a spectacle as they lined up at the bank, waiting for passengers to be ferried to their homes.

Business activities on the bank were at their peak on this day. Women of different shapes and sizes display live fish in huge bowls filled with water. A few distance away, another set displayed either dried or roast fish, with tantalising appeals to prospective customers.

However, hygiene in the community leaves much to be desired. Right from when you board the canoe at the bank, you are confronted by pockets of refuse littering the face of the water, human faeces of various sizes, shapes and colours float around you, threatening to pop into the canoe.

Irrespective of the health hazards, the residents remain unruffled. Rather, they see life in the putrid water as better than living on land since they have no difficulty getting all manners of fish at no costs from the waters. Movement of the residents, especially pupils and female hawkers from one part of the community to another is only by canoe.

You are appalled, even stirred to throw up when you see a little school boy dip his hands into the dark smelling water, rubbed the two hands and cleaned his sweat-filled face, which livened up with a broad smile as if he had won a jackpot.

The educational need of the children is catered for by the only primary school in the community. The school, Whanyinna Nursery and Primary School, was established by a white man.

According to the traditional chief of the community, Emmanuel Semide, a stocky young man, the establishment of Whanyinna Nursery and Primary School was established by a Baptist missionary who came to the area on missionary journey.

The chief said that the missionary has been responsible for the running of the school since he established it.

“Whanyinna Nursery and Primary school was established in this area by a Baptist Church missionary who came to visit me some years ago. When he came, he sought our permission to establish the school and we gladly accepted. After establishing it, he supplies all the children with what they would ordinarily need in school.

“By so doing, there is no need for the children not to go to school because everything is free. The missionary doesn’t stay in the country all the time, and whenever he comes around, either alone or with his wife or partners, he stays in my house.”

For the missionary’s contribution to the community, the traditional chief decided to convert to his church. “I used to attend Celestial church of Christ, but since he stays with me whenever he is around, I started attending his church.”

Kodjo, a broad shouldered young man, sees nothing wrong with living on water. For him, there is little or no difference between life on the water and life on the mainland.

“There is hardly anything you people enjoy that we don’t enjoy here. We have places where we watch football and other social events, just the same way those who live on land enjoy them.

“As far as we are concerned there is nothing wrong with using this water because it ordinarily serves as a play ground for most of us. When it rains, we always dive into it to swim. It is in this water that we all learnt how to swim and to do other things. The youngest child in this community knows how to swim very well because we all acquire the skills naturally in this water.

Kodjo is, however, not happy with the treatment the residents of the community receive from ‘outside people’. According to him, the community is only visited by politicians during elections.

“You need to see the number of people who troop out of this place to vote during elections. It is at during this period that politicians come here to campaign. But they forget us the moment elections are over.”

“Apart from that, I cannot throw the books away because I don’t have other note books to replace them. It is our school that gives us books and other things we need to use for learning. We don’t pay school fees too. If I should throw the books away, I would have nothing to write in the class until they give us new books.

“I was not going to school before they established our school (Whanyinna Nursery and Primary) because my parents could not afford to pay my school fees. My parents are poor and are primarily concerned about how to provide food for us. I started following my father to catch and sell fish since I was five years old. I still go out to fish in the evening after closing from school,” he said.

11-year old Elizabeth attends school on the mainland. But she hawks her wares on canoes every day after returning from school. Unfortunately, Liza, as she fondly calls herself, is cash-strapped and needs money to assist her family.

“I am in secondary school. My school is not here, it is in Oyingbo. But I hawk after school every day to help my family. My mother sells bread on canoe, and my father is a fisherman.”

Liza says girls in the community are not as wayward as those on the mainland.

“You see, most of us here are very hardworking. After school, we help our parents in whatever way we could. You hardly see a young girl here fall into wrong hands because we all know ourselves. It is only in town that you find young girls do bad things, not here.

“The canoe belongs to my father. He uses it for fishing and gives it to me to hawk after returning from work. I make good profit everyday from the sales. Hawking on the water is fun because it is not as strenuous as hawking on land. They trek several kilometers to hawk their wares but here, we only move about leisurely in canoes to prospective clients’ houses.

“While the people hawking on land are subject to all manners of harassment and arrests, we go about our businesses here without let or hindrance, though we pay some token to the council. The smell from the water is not a strange thing to us. We are used to it but it may be offensive to you because you are a visitor. If you stay here for a month, you would not perceive any smell from the water anymore,” she said.

She, however, lamented the high cost of education, which she said is making life tough for her and her family. “I am not happy. I wish that my school is like Whanyinna Nursery and Primary school where the pupils do not pay school fees and are given all they need to use in the school. My prayer is that God would help my parents to see me through secondary school education.

“I am not the only one in this condition. We are so many. It is almost impossible for you to see anybody that finishes secondary school and goes ahead to the university in this place. Majority don’t get to go to secondary school after their primary education while the few that manage to go to secondary school dropout along the line. If you look around, you would see that many teenagers in this place have become mothers prematurely,” she concluded.

For Peter, the water is a blessing to the people. He said that it has provided some of the women that would have been jobless with an opportunity to earn a living.

“This water is a blessing to us in this community. Were it not for the water that made most of us to be gainfully employed as fishermen, what would we have been doing to take care of our families, especially now that unemployment is on the increase in the country?

“When our wives hawk and get some income, they use it to support whatever we get from our fishing business. When the children return from school and hawk, they use it to support the family too. Some of the women you see hustling here are either widows or single mothers. If they do not do what they are doing, how would they survive?”

Peter is also unhappy with the “wrong” perception by people from outside the community. According to him, the assertion that poverty is entrenched in the community is wrong.

“It appears we are the poorest to many people out there, but I do know that we are better than many people that are living on land. No matter how hard things become here, we would be able to catch fish to eat and sell. But some people out there are not that blessed. The moment things go awry for them, their lives would be shattered. They go begging before they can eat. But here, life is good. No matter how poor you are, it will never get to the point of going hungry,” he said.

For Mama Ajei, a food vendor, hawking in canoe has been a very rewarding venture. She said that she has been involved in the business for a long time and has not for once regretted it.

She dismissed fears that the stench from the lagoon may pose a serious threat to the health of the people.

“I have been a food vendor in this community for over six years. It is fun and very rewarding to use canoe to hawk. When many people see us from afar, they are tempted to believe that we would never get anything to buy until we get to the land, but that is not so. We have everything we want here because we can use the canoes to carry goods from the land and hawk from one part of this community to the other. Our people don’t have to even buy anything from other places because we sell at cheaper prices than they could get in other places. For me, I enjoy what I am doing because the people enjoy my food. I always rent the canoe and at the end of the day pay the owner.

“I don’t believe that the smell from the water can affect the people buying my food. I don’t use this water to cook, so how would it contaminate the food? If you are worried that I hawk food on this water, have you ever been worried about the fish you eat?

“Again, if you are complaining that we are either eating or hawking food on water, have you ever complained about those selling and eating food beside refuse dumps? We are used to this environment and there is nothing that would happen to us.

“Our forefathers started living here long before we were born and did not suffer outbreak of diseases. We have also lived here since we were born without experiencing any epidemic. I am not supporting filth. I have always fought those that dump refuse and defecate in the water because they spoil it for those of us that earn our living from it,” she said.

Chief Semide maintained that the residents are committed to making the water ways clean and safe for everybody.

“We are always trying our best to keep the water clean and would continue to put in our best to making sure that it is not messed up. Hawking on water is not a crime because it saves the residents the stress of traveling to other parts of the community to buy things. While we can see to it that every child goes to school, we cannot stop them from hawking after school hours since we would not put food on the table for them or their families,” he said.