ALMS OFFERING BEING ABUSED (PAGE 29)

STORY: Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale

OFFERING alms to the needy is not compulsory. It is done out of generosity or sympathy to help ameliorate the suffering of the underprivileged in society.
However, some unscrupulous individuals are abusing this moral responsibility of philanthropists. They consider it as a full-time vocation in order to make money. As a result, a lot more people are now resorting to begging as the easiest way to amass wealth.
Indeed, the Tamale metropolis is now inundated with beggars. They are becoming a nuisance to motorists at junctions and traffic lights.
They virtually take over those areas, knocking at car doors and windscreens for attention. They are made up of all manner of people. The blind, the physically challenged, elderly and strong, young men and women.
Their modus operandi includes the use of children and the wearing of worn-out apparel to solicit people’s sympathy.
Sometimes, they become aggressive in their overzealousness to the extent that they even risk their lives and those of their young guides, especially when the green light is displayed on the street lights, signifying motorists to move on.
Majority of the beggars are concentrated at the Central Business District near the Central Market, popularly called Beggars (Barimaansi) Line.
Their location is thus accessible to people who need to give them alms. The alms are usually in the form of money, cow milk, cowries and other such materials as requested by Mallams and soothsayers who are consulted for various reasons by those offering the alms.
According to one of the executive members of the Beggars Association in the metropolis, Afah Mahama Alhassan, ‘‘we had to relocate to the junctions and traffic lights to reach out to more people who cannot locate us’’.
He, however, acknowledged that the practice was not the best, but that ‘‘we also need to survive and take care of our families, since some of us are bread winners in the family’’.
Afah Alhassan, who is blind and 55 years old, did not understand why some of them who had made so much money from their ‘trade’ should quit the job of begging, since he claimed there was no other work for them to do.
Enquiries by the Daily Graphic revealed that some of the beggars had built their own houses, acquired taxis, trucks and are into some economic ventures through their ‘trade’ over the years.
A 29-year-old cripple, Ramatu Fuseini, who is a seamstress, expressed grave concern over the menace of begging and urged her colleagues not to use their unfortunate situation to solicit sympathy from people.
‘‘If you are blind or physically challenged, it does not mean you are stupid or incapable of earning a decent living for yourself and family,’’ she stated.
Commenting on the issue, the Tamale Metropolitan Co-ordinating Director, Alhaji Mohammed Adam Baba, said TAMA was mapping out strategies to contain the situation.
He said the assembly would soon come out with appropriate measures to relocate the beggars to a central point.
In the interim, Alhaji Baba said the young boys and girls who served as guides to the beggars were being taken care of under a programme to enable them go to school or learn a trade.
The age-old practice of begging has come to stay with us. It, therefore, behoves the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and all stakeholders to come together to find a lasting solution to the menace of begging, which poses problems on the roads and to the beggars themselves.