The Nation Newspaper

Tag: keeper

  • ‘Let’s be our brothers’ keeper’

    Christians in Osun State should be their brothers’ keepers and live in peace as Jesus Christ preached, a frontline Osun State politician Col. Olayiwola Falabi (rtd) has said.

    In a Christmas message, Falabi said Osum citizens should be grateful to God for His wonderful grace and blessings on their lives and for been able to give a good account of themselves and saluted their resilience in the face of the harsh economic reality, caused mainly “by an unwarranted salary modulation”.

    He prayed for continuation of God’s mercy on them, which has been their strength in years past. He advised the people to be law abiding and live together in harmony.

  • Community honours ex-Falcons keeper, Chiejine, others

    Community honours ex-Falcons keeper, Chiejine, others

    Nigeria’s foremost female goalkeeper, Ann Chiejine, was among the awardees at the Umunahu Community Development Union, Lagos, Awards.

    She was honoured with the Excellent Leadership Award by the community.

    She hails from Umunahu in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State.

    The union chairman, Charles Obiako said the event was to honour illustrious sons and daughters who have made outstanding contributions towards the development of the community and the country.

    Chiejine said she was overwhelmed by the honour.

    “If these awards were to be sold, I don’t think I have reached the level of buying any,” she said.

    The former President of the Union, Mr. Reuben Nnodi, who was also honoured with the Excellent Leadership Award, broke down in tears as he recounted the level of progress some members of the community have made over time.

    Eulogising Nnodi, the immediate past president of the Union, Chief Vitalis Ofoegbu, described him as an outstanding community leader who dedicated his service years to the welfare of his kinsmen.

    Also honoured in the Excellent Leadership category were Eddie Nnadi, Lolo Catherine Azuwuike, Eunice Ukaonu, Violet Nwagbara and Raymond Aharanwa.

  • Their brothers’ keeper

    National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in Taraba State have visited the Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Gullup to render free medical service to the victims of Boko Haram insurgency. PHILIP OKORODUDU (NYSC Jalingo) reports.

    Pullup, a sleepy village on the fringe of Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, lost its serenity, because of the ongoing war against Boko Haram insurgency. The village has a camp of Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs), where victims of insurgency have been facing challenges in accessing basic healthcare.

    To complement the effort of the government in providing healthcare in the camp, the state directorate of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) collaborated with Medical and Health Community Development Service (CDS) group to offer free medical treatment for the IDPs, last Monday.

    NYSC Coordinator, Mr T.K. Freeman, kicked off the event. He  was joined by the Zonal Inspector of the scheme in Jalingo, Mr J. Ukpalichi and Jalingo Local Government Area inspector, Mr Shehu Dogo, among others.

    The beneficiaries are IDPs from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. The camp, which has hundreds of victims, was established last September as one of the three IDPs camps around the state capital.

    The organisers said the free medical mission was informed by increasing unhygienic condition in these camps, noting that there was need protect children in the camps from possible outbreak of communicable diseases.

    Freeman said the NYSC shared in the challenges of the displaced persons, assuring them that the body would not relent in mobilising Corps members to alleviate their plights.

    As NYSC attended to the medical needs of the IDPs, Freeman said plans were underway to attend to the educational needs of the children in the camp. He said education of the children remained critical to the rehabilitation programmes of the government.

    He urged Corps members in other CDS groups to emulate their counterparts in health CDS to lend support in solving the basic needs of the insurgency victims. Freeman hailed members of the health CDS group for the programme, describing it as life-changing.

    President of the CDS group, Williams Adefila, a Medicine and Surgery graduate of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), said the objective of the free health mission was to identify with the IDPs and alleviate their plight by providing palliatives to solve their healthcare needs.

    He said the programme was divided into three phases. The first stage was the collection of bio-data and assessment of blood sugar level and blood pressure. The second stage had the Corps members running test on the IDPs to diagnose ailments, while the last stage involved proscription of drugs based on the ailment discovered.

    Williams said those whose conditions warranted immediate medical attention were referred to specialist hospitals for treatment.

    Some of the IDPs, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, shared various stories of their predicaments. Mr Nkeki Bakar, a native of Chibok in Borno State, said his family members spent more than 11 months in the bush after their house was destroyed by the insurgents.

    Bakar, a father of five children, said life had become unbearable for him fair to him since he left Chibok with his family because of the insurgency. He said handouts for his survival and medical needs were being provided by Good Samaritans. He said Corps members occasionally brought food to them.

    More heart-rending is the story of a 13-year-old Tabitha Musa, an orphan from Askira Local Government Area of Adamawa State, who fled her hometown with her uncle and two siblings. Going back to school, she said, has become difficult for her, because she cannot afford it. She was in Primary 6 before the crisis displaced her family.

    The Secretary of the IDPs, Mr Emmanuel Bulus, a native of Gwoza village in Borno State, said the victims have been surviving on goodwill of the Gullup residents since the camp was established last year. He added that some members of the camp engaged in menial labour to fend for their family.

    He called for government support and kind-hearted Nigerians to come to their aid, saying some IDPs’ health had deteriorated because of malnutrition and diseases.

    A member of the CDS Group and a graduate of Nursing Science of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Tamuna-Belema Dikibo, listed the major health challenges facing the victims in the Gullup camp, saying they lacked personal and environmental hygiene. She said the Corps members advised the IDPs on family planning and need to maintain clean environment.

    In his remark, Ukpalichi said rendering of selfless service to the IDPs was in line with the NYSC objectives. He thanked the officials of the camp for their cooperation.

  • Be your beggars’ keeper

    Beggars are expected to beg, aren’t they?  Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai should by now understand that a government ban on street begging cannot make sense to beggars. Following the July 7 terrorism-related morning bomb blast in Zaria that killed no fewer than 25 people, the governor’s spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said in a statement: ”All beggars and hawkers are to stay off the streets until further notice. Any beggar or hawker found on the streets will be arrested until these measures are relaxed.” Aruwan justified the order: “The government is a responsible government and conscious of its constitutional role to protect citizens and to ensure law and order for common good. The state government will not fold its arms and allow citizens to be killed via terror acts and breakdown of law and order, hence the decision.”

    The affected beggars must have wondered: What has begging got to do with terrorism? It is noteworthy that the bombing was said to have been carried out by an unidentified female suicide bomber who had a baby strapped to her back. A few days after the government’s announcement, a group of beggars demonstrated against the ban. It was a thought-provoking drama as beggars took their protest to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) state secretariat in Kaduna. Interestingly, they interpreted the ban as an attempt by the government to implicate beggars in the activities of terrorists against the state. A report quoted a beggar who spoke on behalf of the protesters, Abdullahi Jugunu: “Apart from feeling insulted, we will be seeking legal redress against the government, first for defamation of character.” Jugunu sounded like a man who knew what he was talking about. Did he? In addition, the beggars argued that the government’s warning amounted to a violation of their right to life, suggesting that begging is an unchallengeable right, as far as they are concerned.

    Against this backdrop of dissension, it was unsurprising that beggars disobeyed the government’s order. A report said: “A visit to major road junctions in the state showed non- compliance with the order.” Beggars reportedly showed up for business “along Isa Kaita Road, Ahmadu Bello Way and the popular Kawo Motor Park.” One of the beggars at Kawo junction was quoted as saying: “I do not care about what they say. All I know is I have to find something to eat and this is the only business I can do, begging.” This particular beggar   provided a basic philosophy of begging that will always defy control because it is founded on a lack of basic needs.

    It is striking that after the punch and counter-punch, El-Rufai struck a deal with beggars when he visited the Kano Road beggars’ colony and the Kaduna State Rehabilitation Centre. There are two observable complications that may eventually cripple the agreement. The first is connected with El-Rufai’s promise to build a training centre close to the Kano Road beggars’ colony to empower beggars with skills that would enable them to dump street begging. It is unclear when El-Rufai would swing into action. However, it is clear that the beggars won’t be out of action while they wait for the governor to keep his word.  It is instructive to note the clarity of Mallam Abdullahi Samaila, who spoke for the beggars. He was quoted as saying: “It is not that we derive pleasure in begging for alms. However, we will get out of the streets once the governor fulfills his promises.” In other words, the burden of actualisation rests on El-Rufai.

    The other difficulty exposes a public policy impotency and incongruity. The remarkably ironic picture of a rehabilitation centre in urgent need of rehabilitation confronted El-Rufai when he visited the state-run rehabilitation centre in Kakuri.  The governor also promised to rehabilitate this centre soon as part of his efforts to get beggars off the streets. The existence of the Kakuri centre is a pointer to the scale of street begging in the state and the scope of governmental intervention. But more importantly, the condition of the centre indicated that it had been treated cosmetically by previous administrations. It is obvious that the situation will problematise the enforcement of the begging ban. Pending the rehabilitation of the centre, beggars are likely to seek rehabilitation on the streets.

    In the context, El-Rufai sounded delusional as he tried to sound focused. He rejected the argument that beggars have a right to beg. “There is no going back on the ban on street begging,” he told beggars. But experience has shown that banning begging is easier said than done.

    It is convenient for El-Rufai, who has spent only about two months in office out of a four-year term, to cite security concerns as justification for his anti-begging posture, especially the fear that beggars could be employed to carry out terroristic acts by Boko Haram militants. However, considering that his move against beggars was prompted by the Zaria bombing, it is a weighty point against his administrative vision. From the look of things, El-Rufai was unprepared for the beggars’ burden and didn’t have any prior agenda for beggars.

    Lamentably, it is this kind of ad hoc approach that has sustained street begging not only in Kaduna State. It is demonstrably true that street beggars are hardly ever factored into development programmes in the country, whether at the federal level or at the state level. Those in the corridors of power need to understand that general poverty-alleviation schemes are inadequate for the peculiar poverty of beggars. The reality is that beggars deserve a beggar-targeted plan of remedial action.

    A study relevant to Nigeria classified beggars into six categories: “the physically deformed and disabled otherwise incapacitated; the physically deformed and handicapped but with relatively less disability such as those with single amputations or partial blindness; those who claim to be medically ill or appear to be so; those who claim illness but do not look so; those with prominent symptoms of psychiatric disability; and the elderly.”

    Add to this picture the informed observation by researchers that “lack of political will and religious institutions encourage begging”, the result is a phenomenon that requires phenomenal attention and socio-economic action from the political authorities particularly.  The best begging control measures must be holistic, which El-Rufai and his ilk do not seem to appreciate.