Between Poverty and Dignity

Between Poverty and Dignity

Poverty is a terrible social evil that leads to desperation, which forces people to do things beyond the ordinary, or things they would not do under normal circumstances. The malady has led many women into adultery, prostitution, stealing and even armed robbery, while many have had to date wealthy men old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers just to survive. The harsh economic conditions presently prevailing in the country has given teeth to poverty to bite the Nigerian masses, especially women whose husbands are financially handicapped and who have children to cater for. In desperation, many Nigerians have plunged into the world of crime to make ends meet.

But the evil survival strategies of Nigerians especially the womenfolk took a worrisome dimension last week when two women disguised as breast cancer patients to collect money from sympathisers in Minna, the Niger State capital. They were subsequently arrested by the State Police Command. The women, Ngozi John and Chioma Ibe, coated their breasts with certain substances to make them look cancerous and roamed about busy streets with their chests wide open to expose the breasts, begging for alms from passersby. They wandered about the streets with four children between the ages of 8 and 12, three of whom were Ngozi’s kids, while the fourth belonged to her neighbour. They succeeded in making N49, 500 in three days from their dubious business before the police, acting on a tip-off, arrested them.

Answering a reporter’s question, Ngozi said she went into the business to put food on her family’s table as her husband was unable to cater for them, and the restaurant business she was doing had collapsed due to inadequate capital. She said she once worked as a guide to a blind man in Onitsha and made up to N500 a day while the blind man went home with N2, 000. Her job then was to take the man round busy areas of the city after identifying such areas with high prospect of making money. But she lost the job when the wife of the blind man took over the responsibility of guiding him.

Thereafter, Ngozi said life became tough for her and her family and she had no option than to enroll with a syndicate for tutorials on begging under false pretences. She received lectures on begging under the guise of having cancer of the breast from the syndicate, which also taught some others on how to fake different ailments to make money. Students of the syndicate were instructed on the combination of substances to use in faking different ailments, and how to act to make their claims fool-proof while on their begging duty. She said her teacher, while graduating her from the class, advised her to relocate to Minna where she could easily make money.

Chioma, who obviously received tutorials with Ngozi, was also interviewed, and she revealed the substances they used to make the dressing of the breasts look real, which included toothpaste, engine oil, hydrogen peroxide, cotton wool and plaster. She explained that the combination makes the breast appear wrinkled and disfigured. The duo moved to Minna and settled down to business, but luck ran out on them when a passerby somehow suspected they were fake, and tipped off some workers of the hotel in which they lodged, who revealed their activities. The passerby promptly informed the police who kept close tabs on them, and arrested Ngozi first while she was dressing her fake cancerous breast in preparation for the day’s business.

The Niger Police Public Relations Officer, according to the newspaper report, said the two women were arrested for extortion and child trafficking, and they would soon be charged to court.

While one appreciates the desperation that poverty can breed, I believe that one must be able to draw a line between poverty and dignity. No matter how desperate one is, one must not lose one’s sense of worth the way Chioma and Ngozi lost theirs as they paraded their naked breasts on the streets, claiming the breasts were cancerous and begging for alms. The duo were not Nollywood divas acting a script, yet, they saw nothing wrong in going about town half-nude in the name of survival. Even Nollywood actresses would be condemned for acting half-nude. The women’s action absolutely debases womanhood, even though they thought it was better than prostitution and robbery. It’s actually difficult to preserve dignity without a means of livelihood, but there are still better options than going about with open breasts, begging for money and obtaining same from unsuspecting public under false pretences.

For instance, if they must beg for alms, they could have done it without pretending to be cancer patients. Agreed, many givers would not be forthcoming to able-bodied women like them, but they could do it for a very brief period, explaining to the people they approach that they are aiming at raising small capital for petty trading like the sale of pure water or provisions. It doesn’t require much capital to sell pure water or put a table in front of their homes to sell provisions or soft drinks, buying ice-blocks to cool the drinks in the absence of a refrigerator or deep freezer. And after gathering enough resources to start the trading, they would pull out of the demeaning act of begging on the streets. This is a desperate but decent move which the duo would have made, rather than deceiving the people and going about half-nude.

And come to think of it. Was it not money that they used to enroll at that dubious school run by the syndicate that lectured them on begging for alms under false pretences? I’m sure the syndicate would not have given those lectures for free, for it is their own means of livelihood. So, couldn’t the fees that the women paid to learn their shameful business have been used to do some petty trading as analysed above? They could have kept their dignity and still be free women today, while their trading would be sustaining their families. Such petty trading could grow to become a small-scale enterprise if properly managed. It all depends on one’s character and attitude to life. Challenges come but one can determine not to rubbish one’s dignity in the face of such circumstances. It is at the point of that determination that you will be able to figure out dignifying solutions to your problems and not fall into the temptations that present themselves as solutions.

Some women are just lazy by nature, otherwise there are women facing hardships who would not even beg to survive, neither would they commit crime or adultery. Such women would go about looking for menial jobs like cleaning or laundry services for privileged individuals. They identify homes of well-to-do people and offer their services to clean their compounds and wash clothes, etc., on regular basis, and they earn a living from such services.

One unfortunate implication of the dishonest act of begging and obtaining money under false pretences is that it is capable of discouraging well-meaning people from giving to the poor or helping those that are truly afflicted with serious health conditions, because such givers will not be able to trust people who present themselves as sufferers of those conditions anymore.

And then there is the issue of pretending to be cancer patients of all things. It’s amazing that women could wish themselves an ailment as deadly as cancer just to curry sympathy from people and cause them to part with their money. They might not have realised it, but that’s exactly what they were doing. Making themselves cancer patients is tantamount to wishing themselves that evil. They could just end up having that cancer that they were claiming they had. No matter what we are going through in life, we should not use our mouth to confess evil or bring evil upon ourselves.

Having said that, let me also say that government has a hand in all of this. This is what poverty has done to our nation, Nigeria. People are now begging for alms under false pretences, and to the extent that the women did it, exposing their entire breasts and abdomen, while a syndicate is thriving, giving tutorials to Nigerians on how to beg under false pretences. These are all in a desperate bid to survive the economic crunch, and they are all fallouts of bad governance. Our government must rise up to the challenges posed by poverty by providing jobs for the unemployed and helping people to learn trades that will make them self-reliant. The rich in the society, especially wealthy or privileged women, should also come to the aid of their less-privileged counterparts by assisting them to set up petty trades or small-scale enterprises. This would reduce crime rate in the country, preserve the dignity of the womenfolk and save the society the kind of unsightly spectacle as witnessed in Minna.

By Nike Oluwole.

(First published on August 27, 2010)