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They are in all the cities in Nigeria, and the streets where they live, eat, bathe and get recruited into criminal gangs remain their place of abode

He is simply called Sule. Time and circumstances have robbed him of anyone who knew his surname. Sule, clad in a bogus pair of jeans and a yellow T-shirt, spent Sunday night underneath the veranda of a shoe stall in Ipodo market, Ikeja, Lagos. He picked that spot because he knew that, at about midnight, men of the Nigeria Police Force would swoop on those who dare the same activity in more visible areas like Toyin Street and Awolowo Way, all in Ikeja.

Abudu, his friend, prefers sleeping on the paved floor in front of a popular boutique on Toyin Street. He does not mind the police trouble at midnight because he already has a pact with the security guard at the branch of a bank adjoining the boutique to give him refuge on such occasions inside the bank’s premises for a token fee. His bed and blanket are advertising banners plucked from electric poles.

Both Sule and Abudu prefer not to give their surnames. This is a trait common to all the destitute Newswatch spoke to. Pressing them to do so is pointless because they either get abusive or stalk off angrily. In their abode which is the open space in abandoned places where other people would normally shy away from like empty market stalls, paved frontage of shops, underneath bridges and uncompleted buildings, they can be found drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, gambling or sleeping heavily. Some sleep under the bridge including notable and busy ones in Mile 2, Ikeja, Ojuelegba, Oshodi, Stadium, Ketu and many more. Some even sleep inside damaged vehicles, and worse, are those who sleep in dustbins like the pit on Ajoke Street, Kilo, Surulere. This was a popular place for the homeless before it was recently demolished.

But, some are more creative in seeking for a roof over their heads. For instance, another destitute, like Taye, lives inside the main garage at Iyana Ipaja, Lagos. He has a roof made of  a cardboard and plywood over his head  and he wakes up by five o’ clock in the morning to dismantle the makeshift structure daily before the day’s activities start. He does not relish moving elsewhere because staying there means being close to food and hot drinks called paraga in local lingo on sale there “So, I’m here for life. It’s mine. No one can take it from me, not even Fashola” referring to the governor of Lagos State, he said, asking, “Or you are asking me questions because you wan try?”

Some sophisticated ones among them patronise brothels or viewing halls to watch foreign football games.

These are some of the ways the destitute live their life on the streets of major cities in Nigeria. Their days normally start very early. In the case of Sule and Abudu, both of them must be up by 4 a.m. not necessarily because they want to avoid bumping into the shops’ owners but because they must have their baths at the junction where Anike Apena Street intersects with Toyin Street in Ikeja. A broken major pipe provides the water with which they bathe right there by the roadside. On a normal day at the junction, about 20 young men take their baths at the junction.

As they have their bathe, they chat usually about the escapades of the previous night, the fights they got involved in, the situation in the country, or the women they slept with. While awaiting their turns to use the bathrooms, they clean their mouths with chewing stick while a handful do so with toothbrushes. By the time they dress up, they buy ‘shots’ of herbal drinks laced with alcohol called paraga or take ogogoro or local gins to “fortify” them for the day’s work. 

Afterwards, they all troop out for their different engagements for the day. The experienced ones are often bus conductors who normally join their buses at the garage for the day’s job which explains why such destitute sleep at motor parks where their buses take off from every morning. Others are toll collectors for “union” or the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, who wear uniforms and stand at designated bus-stops allocated to them to demand and collect levies from commercial buses or danfo vehicles. Those recruited by the state government for the Lagos beautification exercise also fall under this set.

But, newcomers are often load carriers in the markets, at ports and so on. Those scavengers seen at parties packing left-over foods into polythene bags or picking food from the dustbins to eat sometimes represent younger destitute trying hard to put something in their belly. The rest loiter about, some begging for alms, others looking for work or asking for handouts from their colleagues.

At the end of the day, some of them clean up after work depending on the nature of the job and then loiter around record stores to listen to musical records, a cheap bar or food canteen to eat food, take alcohol, smoke cigarettes or Indian hemp as they recount the highlights of their day. A passer-by hearing their voices without seeing them would be pardoned for mistaking the assembly as a shrine of masquerades, judging by their hoarse or guttural voices which are the fallouts of hard drugs use.

At Agege garage, well-dressed ladies, especially the scantily dressed ones, usually fall victim of their taunts which are often expressed in street lingo known to them only. Olobe is what they call an uncooperative lady, Ashewo is for any female passer-by not necessarily a prostitute they don’t like. “African queen” if they fancy any of the female passers-by, Kebe for a petite person, Acada is for a corporately-dressed individual. Ojo is for police officers.

Eventually, they turn the vulgar language on to themselves leading to arguments and eventually, a fight with some cheering, others watching and apportioning blame but rarely trying to stop the fighters. That is the origin of body scars on their cheek, jawline, foreheads and eyelids. At times, knives are used to settle scores. If the injuries are minor, the accompanying blood is often rinsed off with sachet or “pure” water and perhaps closed with an elastoplast plaster. But if it is serious, they are often rushed to the hospital with the inflictor of the wound ordered to pay the medical bills by the head of the garage. As a punishment from his colleagues, such an offender is often suspended from working in the garage for some time.

 Though incongruous, the effects of such fights are profound. It represents the rite of passage into cadres of seniority in a particular location for homeless people. The scars tell their history of notoriety. So gradually, like in elimination fights of boxing tournaments which eventually produces champions, such fights progressively produce the head of the homeless in a garage, market, bridge or uncompleted building.

Despite living a disordered life, there is a hierarchy and rules governing each garage, market, bridge and uncompleted buildings where destitutes live. The leader is often the final arbiter during crises and is responsible for maintaining order in the area under his control. No homeless person can simply saunter into any of such places to lay his head without resistance, even beating, from those who were there before him for that would amount to encroaching on their territory. At times, their leaders collect “rent” from the destitute in their domain.

In an uncompleted building off Kilo Street, Surulere, Lagos, “Marshall,” a short, almost square-shaped muscular man with a big, bulbous nose, is the head of his domain comprising  “employed” men and women. After he had a brush with the law two years ago when an armed robber was found among his “tenants,” he now takes adequate precaution to check his “tenants” out at places where they claim they work to prevent a recurrence. The men are often bus conductors and toll collectors while the women are mainly girls from different parts of the country who are into prostitution. The 13 tenants in the one-storey building pay him N150 daily. With that, “Marshall” has been able to roof sections of the building with cheap wood and buy mosquito nets which he rents at N50 per night to residents. When Newswatch   asked for  the identity of the owner of the building, and on noticing Newswatch’s  further enquiries on another day from nearby food hawkers, he repeated earlier threat saying, “Silly and stubborn woman, you had better mind your business or else.”

Some of the homeless people even have female companions who are also destitute. However, such love affairs make a mockery of relationships because they are commonly associated with battery, rape and humiliation. Somewhere near Fola Agoro Street in Shomolu, Lagos, some homeless youths including women converge to pass their nights daily. In the early morning, they discuss their escapades of the previous night and their plans for the new day amidst puffs of marijuana. They discuss everything under the sun, including premiership matches played the previous night. “(Didier) Drogba made us miss that match,” one said. “Do you know he is a Nigerian?” another said, adding, “Honestly, his real name is Aderogba. I was told his family is still in Ogbomoso in Nigeria here. Olohun n gbo!! (I swear to God),” he insisted when his mates scoffed the idea.

Soon, Ade, one of them, started complaining to his friend that Mary, his girlfriend, another homeless like them, went out again the previous night to prostitute. Mary, with a suspicious cold sore around her mouth, denied the allegation and insisted she only stayed out till late because she was busy working at a restaurant near Shomolu market. “Till midnight?” Ade asked as he slapped her. A fight ensued. Nobody intervened; passers-by quickened their steps to leave the scene  while their mates looked on disinterestedly.

When Ade lifted a bench to hit Mary, their initial lethargy gave way to action as they quickly separated them. Mary screamed as Ade tried to smoothen his torn shirt. The time was 6. 12 a.m.  

Such incidents would normally make some people return to their homes. However, many of them choose to stay on the streets because it is a lesser evil to contend with than the fate awaiting them back home. This is because some of the destitute are haunted by socio-economic and psychological trauma. Mary, for example, does not want to go back home. She left home because she was consistently raped by her brother-in-law anytime her sister, a petty trader in Lagos, goes out. Returning to where her mother lives in a remote village in Ebonyi State is unimaginable. “There’s nothing for me there either,” she said. So, there is no place to go.

Ade, her companion, is also more psychologically unstable because he ran away at a tender age from a Lagos orphanage because he was bored with the monotonous routine there. He first slept around Yaba until “Major,” another homeless man who took a liking in him, arranged for his movement to the decrepit and now-demolished Hotel Bobby along Ikorodu Road, Lagos. After its destruction, he moved to Shomolu, his present location.

The life of a destitute is not easy. Those who opt for it regret the decision because ordinary folks shun them because of their strange habits. Ade, a bus conductor, saved enough money to rent a room but his neighbours sent him away because of his peculiar lifestyle. He comes in and goes out at odd hours, smokes marijuana, keeps friends with same lifestyles. Eventually, his co-tenants reported him to the landlord who, on further checks, discovered he lied about his background and so evicted him.

Ade’s predicament is an example of the problems of stigmatisation that the destitute face attempting to reintegrate into the society. They find it nearly impossible to get accommodation because they rarely have credible people who can stand as surety for them. Besides, their old habits like smoking, going out at odd hours and associating with shady elements often prove impossible to break. The attitude often irritate neighbours.

So, even if Ade has such opportunity again, he would reject it because he feels alienated and rejected by “normal” people who snub him because of his friends and background. He believes the system does not encourage people like him to relate with other people. Out on the streets, he finds companionship in other homeless youth who share the same fate with him.

Would he live on the streets forever? Staring forlornly ahead, he said, “I no (don’t) know oo. I don’t know about the future but for now, the street is my home. It’s impossible for me to live in rented homes without being stigmatised, so…,” he shrugs, “maybe.”

Discrimination against those who live on the street often leads to resentment and a desire to vent their anger on  the society and its members. Many criminals are born this way. Most times, the men take to armed robbery while the women resort to prostitution.

Such prostitutes are the tacky ones mainly found along Ayilara Street in Surulere, or in popular brothels like Stadium, Shadow and Empire hotels in Mushin and many more.

Some of these harlots also dabble into armed robbery by acting as survey agents for armed robbers. Eventually, many of them get entangled in romantic relationships with some of the armed robbers.

Such relationships like that of Ade and Mary, are fraught with dangers. They encourage sexually transmitted diseases to spread because they are promiscuous.

And after being infected, they endanger society further by spreading it to their other mates.

Some even swell the ranks of the homeless further by having babies while living on the streets.

This scenario is not limited to Lagos alone. In other cities around the country like Abuja, Kano, Benin, Port Harcourt and Ibadan, there are destitutes living in similar make shift shelters like the ones in Lagos. In Abuja, the homeless abound in such places like Jabi Motor Park, Nyanya Garage and Kubwa Motor Park while in Benin, they often congregate around Ring Road. In Ibadan, the areas around Bodija and Iwo Road are their choice places of assembly.

Do they celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Children’s day, Sallah, Eid-el-Maulud and other festivities? Many of them rarely remember their birthdays. Out of the destitutes Newswatch spoke with, only Abudu and Mary remember  their birthdays. They celebrate by drinking gin heavily. Public holidays are not really work-free days for them and they hardly celebrate or relax.

The rehabilitation and reintegration of these people back into society is already keeping some state governments and non-governmental organisations busy. The Human Resource and Empowerment Initiative, headed by Ado Mohammed, released some alarming statistics recently. In Kano State, he said  about 50 percent of its 10 million populations are women who do not work while the remaining 35 percent are men who are mainly pensioners, students, infants and physically-challenged persons who on account of their respective limitations, do not also work. The remaining 50 percent who are active are unable to cope with the challenges of sheltering and shouldering the problems of all the other members of the society.

So, the agency planned on conducting a census of the youth in Kano for the purpose of enabling the group plan a meaningful future for the youths. It also plans to create a labour unit to equip them with essential employable skills so they can become drivers, stewards, cooks, gardeners, labourers, porters, watchmen and security personnel.

Some state governments, especially Lagos, are also making efforts to reduce the figure of the homeless in their domain. Recently, the Lagos State government decided to send the destitute back to their states of origin. Dolapo Badru, the special adviser to the governor on youth and social development, said about 3,044 of the homeless arrested in raids have been sent home in the last one year. Of the lot, Badru said Sokoto State had the highest number, of 196, arrested on Lagos streets, followed by Oyo State with 83; Kano State  75, Osun 67, Ekiti 21, and Ondo State - seven. Some foreigners were also affected in the exercise.  Niger Republic 12, Chad Republic, two, and Côte d’Ivoire, one.

The state’s rehabilitation centre at Owutu, Ikorodu, houses some destitutes who are picked off from the streets. The mentally-unstable ones among them are given adequate medical attention while the present crop of 38 able-bodied among them suspected to be criminals have been handed over to the state task force for prosecution.