Agony of the cripples

The male cripples sit in small groups in the expansive frontage of the palace, a few of them repairing  bicycles, making sandals and doing other menial trades. A sizeable crowd of their wives gather within a nearby canopy, apparently learning some skills. In a notable contrast, however, over a hundred of their children are in […]

The male cripples sit in small groups in the expansive frontage of the palace, a few of them repairing  bicycles, making sandals and doing other menial trades. A sizeable crowd of their wives gather within a nearby canopy, apparently learning some skills.
In a notable contrast, however, over a hundred of their children are in a few classrooms of the primary school directly facing the palace of the Sarkin Guragun Abuja (FCT Chief of the Cripples).
Majority of the cripples are, however, idling in their barely constructed housing accommodations surrounding the palace.
The Colony of the Disabled at Karmajiji, a satellite town of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is soaked in distress, with majority of the cripples locked up in a rather brutal confusion over how they can survive and get some sense of belonging in the FCT.
They can neither beg nor trade on the streets of the main bowl of Abuja city. If they are caught doing any of these, they will be arrested, and their wares seized. They are in deep dilemma over how they can eke out survival, and continue to live in the Abuja as they have chosen to, like all other able-bodied Nigerians.
The deep effort he exerted with some royal tone of voice and comportment as the FCT Chief of the Disabled, fails to suppress his grief over the distress his subjects have now been plunged into.
Alhaji Sulaiman Muhammed Katsina, who is also the Sarkin Gajiyayyun Abuja (FCT Chief of all the Disabled, comprising the cripples, the lepers and the blind), however, controls his temper well enough to narrate the pathetic situation of his subjects.
“Even before any ban on street begging was imposed, we have been preaching to our subjects against it. We have been encouraging them to learn skills and engage in trading to live as honorable citizens of Nigeria,” the chief recounted, saying, “about four or five years ago, my crippled members would be seen everywhere, in the markets and along the streets, trading; they were in all the Abuja markets, like Wuse and Utako, doing business.
“At that time, we were comfortable like all other citizens and residents of the FCT, so much so that even our able-bodied fellow Nigerians were benefitting from us, because whenever an able-bodied street trader was pursued he would flee to safety behind a crippled trader. Such was how honored and pitied we were. This is not  the case now,” he said

Alhaji Sulaiman noted : “At that time, my trading subjects were allowed to display their wares in  the open market place and on the road pavements. I was able to discourage them from begging, in compliance with the government ban, and they heeded by engaging in trading. They began to live a fine life. Large populations were leaving street begging.
“Not so is the case now. You now regularly hear of the arrest of crippled traders. The traders and their wares are all bundled into the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) vehicles to be locked up in cells, and most of the seized wares lost forever. Many a crippled trader only receives the wares from wealthier traders to sell for the little gain he can survive on, in order to avoid reverting to begging. Such a trader gets into very deep trouble when he is arrested, because he has to pay for the wares he has collected on one hand; and the wares are lost forever, while he, himself, struggles, first and foremost, to get bail, on the other.
“So, now, our situation is so terrible. No begging; no trading,” he stated.   
“The market allocated to us by government at Wuse Zone 3 was completely demolished recently by the government itself. It was allocated to us, the disabled, specifically. Crippled traders were already flooding back there, constructing their shops. You would find in the market cripples making various kinds of footwear and selling various types of commodities. Now the market has been demolished, along with majority of the wares,” Alhaji Sulaiman explained further. 
“My subjects and I are now converge  on the colony, folding our arms and waiting for whatever God has destined to happen to us. Government has said that it doesn’t want to see us begging; and we have been struggling to avoid doing what the government doesn’t want, so that we live as peaceful and law-abiding citizens. Right now, in this colony alone, apart from other satellite towns, I have over 70 trading cripples. When the disabled were trading peacefully, we witnessed a lot of development. Because the market has been demolished, and they would be arrested if caught begging or trading along the roads, they are now idling away, distressed in the colony.
“About 10 years ago, whenever the AEPB or the Social Welfare Department planned any outing for street arrests, I would be notified a day before, to warn all beggars to remain at home for the length of time the outing would last; all I needed do then was just to send a town crier to warn accordingly, and they would all comply,” the  chief recalled, complaining, “nothing of that sort happens now. What happens now is that I would only receive reports that this number of the disabled have   been arrested either begging or trading. I now have to wait for permission to bail out whoever deserves it, leaving the others to remain in anguish,” he narrated.
“Even our skilled wives, who sew clothes, make soap, insecticides and detergents, have stopped doing anything now, because they have nowhere to take the cartons of items for sale; and nobody comes here to buy them. If they take the items to the markets, they will be arrested. Presently, we have cartons of such consumer items which we made ourselves, but we cannot sell them. Sometimes I have to send my chairman of the disabled traders, Ibrahim Sagir, to go and make attempts at bailing out the arrested and retrieving the seized wares. Why can’t legal and legitimate trading protect us from arrest? Why are we anathematized in our own country?
“This is our complaint to the Federal Government. The government should know that we are no more interested in begging. We have stopped it for good, and we wish that we have departed from it forever.
“As the way out, the government should make it easier for us to trade, to help us avoid reverting to begging. If you are not allowed to beg, you should be allowed to trade. If you are not allowed to trade, you will revert to begging as a last resort, because one must survive. We loathe begging, because we want to live honourable lives. For example, on trading we should be exempted from some of the laws enforced on our able-bodied fellow Nigerians. Whenever the arresters see a trading cripple selling some wares on his tricycle, they should remember: ‘we know his reason for doing so,’ and, therefore, allow him to go on,” Alhaji Sulaiman observed.
“I wish to passionately appeal to government to allocate another place to us for a market where I can resettle my trading subjects,” he concluded.
Ibrahim Sagir is the FCT Chairman of the People with Disability Traders Union.
“Begging is an embarrassment; we detest doing it. That is why we converged in Wuse Zone 3 to trade. The eight-year  old market was demolished last Friday (23rd Sept. 2016) by the Development Control Department. Some of  us took loans from banks, others contributed money among themselves. We spent about N6 million to erect about 80 shops in the market. All these were demolished at once. I have been consoling my members to stay calm until we think of the next step to take.
“We have been at home for five days; not begging, not trading, just idling away. While we wait for the next thing to happen to us, we appeal to government to look into our plight and help us settle back to trading, because we loathe reverting to begging,” he said.
“I have 98 women traders all over the FCT, and these comprise seamstresses, weavers, grinding machine owners and makers of liquid soap and detergent, insecticides and germicides,” Rahina Haruna, the Women Leader of the FCT People with Disability, announced.

The seamstress complained: “Many of them have, however, reverted to begging, because they have nowhere to take the items they make for sale, and nobody comes here to buy. They have children to cater for.”
The crippled women leader recalled: “A lady was arrested while begging somewhere in town, and she was thrown, along with her tricycle, into the bus like a sack of grains. It took a lot of efforts before she was released. Whenever my members are caught begging, they are often thrown off their tricycles, and left there to crawl to whatever distance they can before some good Samaritans help them  home, while the tricycles are seized. As I am talking to you now, there are no fewer than 100 seized tricycles belonging to my members rusting away at the premises of the Zone 3 AEPB.”
The Public Relations Officer of the FCT Development Control Department, Mr. James Afu, said the market was built on the Abuja rail line, and the plot of land on which it was built belonged to the FCT Transport Department. He advised the cripples to apply to the FCT Minister for relocation.