Musings With Olulana: Homelessness In Nigeria – The Ugliness Within

 

They are all over Nigeria, street living citizens in every major city of Africa's most populous Nation and the world's largest Black one. They range in age from the newly born baby in the arms of a parent or maybe both of them and siblings to the aged, spending their last days braving the elements which will eventually kill them. It would sound impressive to write that the system missed these people but there is no system to talk of in Nigeria through which these unfortunate people could have found cracks to fall through.

 

It is simply because there is no mechanism in place to cater for the less fortunate who do not have a voice – an advocate to plead their cause and shout about the injustice meted out to them that these Nigerians suffer in silence, ignored by a society used to turning its eyes away from distasteful things happening within it. They are lazy and do not want to work is often the elementary response to the question: how come these people are homeless? The riffraff – drug addicted runaway who cannot fit into normal society. While there are certainly people like that out on the streets, there are a few more reasons why Nigeria's homeless are increasing.

 

I will start with one we do not focus much of our attention on. The sheer injustice of not compensating people who live in slum towns that were bulldozed to create room for new development which they will not be allowed to live in turn out hundreds of people, if not thousands every time State Governments turn their focus on areas that can become short term goldmines. In 2013, the Government of Babatunde Fasola tore down hundreds of wooden shackles in Badia East, a slum town that had existed for decades in Lagos State, instantly making an estimated 10,000 of Lagos' poorest homeless.

 

Think about that number for a moment. Ten thousand people! With a family size averaging five to give those of you who have smaller nuclear families akin to the Oyinbo model a better grasp of their reality, that is equivalent to 2000 family sized units homeless! In the summer of 2012, the floating neighborhood of Makoko was cleared by machete wielding men leaving 30,000 or 6,000 family sized units of people homeless! Maroko was a victim years earlier with similar numbers of people who lost everything and many of whom would not be able to stand on their feet again. These examples happened in Lagos. Abuja has its own similar stories and so do other major cities in Nigeria. 

 

People such as these are evicted to allow new housing units they cannot afford be constructed on land they have lived on for a very long time. Some, all their lives. Circumstances which allowed them to congregate and build their cheap dwellings on land they may or may not have owned is a topic for another time. However, when people who have lived in those houses for decades at times are suddenly given a few hours or minutes to move out to nowhere, that is inhumane. Ultimately, a good proportion of these people, children inclusive end up on the streets. That is one segment of those people you see living under bridges and open spaces in your cities.

 

The lure of a better life draws many from the interior – rural villages and towns to the sprawling urban cities. They come unprepared for the higher cost of living and shortage of living accommodation those alluring cities offer. After a few weeks or months of squatting, they must turn to the streets for unavailable shelter or go back to their origins which for many is close to impossible. They are another segment of the homeless dotting the Nigerian landscape. The next time you see people you recognize as living on the streets, consider that they may be products of this situation.

 

Cities are also brutal in their treatment of people who once were able to afford her comforts but have had times change on them. Into the streets they go, hoping it is a temporary reversal, not realizing how unforgiving urban centers can be. Often, this group have jobs that pay them wages or salaries which do not meet their living expenses and so the roof over their heads must go. Imagine someone at your place of work living in the streets? It is not far fetched. Look a bit closer.

 

All these groups of people including the first group of I started with who were turned out of their homes for various reasons and those out in the streets by choice through truancy, these human beings are easy prey for men of the underworld that have a dead conscience so nothing holds back their compulsion in using the homeless for different diabolical purposes. In a society where fetishism still holds a strong place in the value system of many, street dwellers are a very attractive option to evil men and women. Young children who are very vulnerable do not last long out there at all. Their future is full of hardships that no child should go through. This is not fantasy but the daily grind of many.

 

The burden on infrastructure cities possess is increased every time people are turned out into the streets in order to develop new housing estates or urban centers without provision made to relocate them. An internal migration of people merely takes place with an influx of more people from outskirts and further beyond, filling up spaces left in the outer bands of collapsing migration circles towards the city center. In Lagos State, that city center would be areas like Ikoyi, Victoria Island and now Lekki peninsula. This development is leaving in its wake huge numbers of internally displaced persons whom we call homeless people. That is the vortex of increased homelessness.

 

The solution to this problem starts with caring about people who sleep on the street a few meter away from where we lay out heads down and not because they want to be there but they are forced to live in cardboard boxes and sheet metal if lucky. A government which can afford to build cheap housing estates dedicated to taking Nigeria's homeless off the street will get that done, taking into account the need to make sure the development of future slums is avoided. The practice of moving in with brute force to evict people the Government has had a long standing battle over compensation for kicking them off land it is salivating over should stop. A lack of natural human affection is at the foundation of these selfish decisions.

 

I recently read about a Chinese millionaire who went back to the slum he grew up in, tore it down section by section, built beautiful houses to replace the ones razed down and turned that slum into a beautiful housing estate populated by the same people who lived there before. He gave back to society that way. I t was not a for-profit venture but a way to improve the lives of people who remind him of where he used to be. If Government will not rise up to its responsibility of providing adequate shelter for its citizens, Nigerians need to understand that members of these governments need to be voted out. While that is being done, ordinary citizens who have been given much should give back. Even if it is a long term investment project.

 

Homelessness is a world wide phenomenon. A few years ago, I watched a documentary on the Street Children of Portland Oregon and it was heart wrenching. Two weeks ago I saw a short one on Accra's Street People who are like everybody else during the day but live on the streets at night. That one too was heartbreaking. The consciousness of the average Nigerian needs to be started awake with one about the people who live in the streets of Nigeria. Nollywood, this is a noble project you can engage in.

 

The following information is about homelessness in other parts of the world. Read them for perspective.

 

https://www.quora.com/Why-arent-there-any-homeless-people-in-Switzerland-Or-no-one-is-begging-on-streets

 

You are essentially asking two different questions, because being homeless does not necessarily causes begging on the streets and vice versa.

 

1) Homelessness: There are no homeless in Switzerland Because it's illegal in Switzerland to be homeless, that is to say, it is illegal to sleep in public places* therefore the state will provide you the housing you need **… It is also a biological improbability to remain homeless during winter! 

 

* You have to notice the "public place" term. For example, you'll find students at EPFL who couldn't find housing in time, camping and living in tents on the campus(!), though all of them will be able to find something by the end of October.

 

** The state will provide you housing under any circumstances (and that's the reason that the U.S. doesn't provide such a thing: no tax payer is liberal enough to have a system that pays for other people's homelessness indefinitely; also one has to consider the differences of the immigration rates of the two country: immigrating to Switzerland, on your own, and trying to become a Swiss is almost impossible as opposed to that in the U.S. which is very very possible) but there are some catches. For example, if you're seeking asylum, you'll also be given a "place" to live: A WWII military bunker in Alps after consenting that you won't be near shopping malls, children's play ground etc. thanks to Swiss nationalists.

 

2) Begging on the streets: You're wrong. There are people begging on the streets. But since we are talking about humans and not smart dolphins, we have to assume they can do the probability and conclude since they have a place to live and a given city in Switzerland is always small, it would be statistically more beneficial to beg for money in crowded and/or affluent neighborhoods than that in poor and/or quiet neighborhoods.

 

That's why you won't find anyone to beg near CERN, but it is extremely likely that you find someone begging near Gare Cornavin.

 

Homelessness occurs when people or households are unable to acquire and/or maintain housing they can afford.

 

From the website of The National Alliance To End Homelessness (USA)

 

The Big Picture

 

While circumstances can vary, the main reason people experience homelessness is because they cannot find housing they can afford. It is the scarcity of affordable housing in the United States, particularly in more urban areas where homelessness is more prevalent, that is behind their inability to acquire or maintain housing.

 

By the numbers:

 

In January 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.Of that number, 216,197 are people in families, and362,163 are individuals. About 15 percent of the homeless population – 84,291 – are considered "chronically homeless” individuals, and about 9 percent of homeless people- 49,933 – are veterans.

 

These numbers come from point-in-time counts, which are conducted, community by community, on a single night in January every other year. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires communities to submit this data every other year in order to qualify for federal homeless assistance funds. Many communities conduct counts more regularly.

 

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