The geographical region referred to as northern Nigeria covers more than half of the total land area of Nigeria. It is also a region with vast agricultural potentials as a variety of tropical agricultural systems is widely practiced there leading to the mass cultivation of food and cash crops. As a matter of fact, the popular and defunct groundnut pyramid was one of the regular features and symbols of this region during the heydays of agriculture in Nigeria.
This is also a region where a lot of mineral resources such as limestone, bauxite, kaolin, phosphate, tin and columbite are found in substantial commercial quantities.
However a puzzling feature of this region is the menace of child street begging which is pervasive especially in the core northern areas or states of Nigeria. [ie spatial units of administration] Such areas include Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Borno, Katsina, Gombe, Yobe and parts of Nassarawa, Niger and Kaduna.
That a region which is so much endowed potentially and actually is riddled with this social malaise is confounding. These child street beggars mostly between the ages of [3-17] years are a regular feature of most of these areas mentioned. They regularly move about in groups of 5-20 with plates or bowls in hand soliciting for stipends, food, or anything edible from people or passers by. Some commentators have argued that this societal ill has a cultural/religious dimension to it, while others argue that it has more of the political dimension to it. As those who believe in this particular mantra have argued that the present volatile nature and persistent violence in northern Nigeria can be traced to the activities of these child street beggars.
Whichever school of thought one belongs to, it is pertinent to draw the attention of political, traditional/cultural and religious leaders in Northern Nigeria to this untoward social behavior, on the need to put a stop to this practice. It is unfathomable that in this age and time when kids who should be in school or doing something positive with their lives are left to roam about the streets, all in the name of whatever social/cultural/religious or political nuances. As the future of any society can only be guaranteed if it takes adequate care of its youthful population or future generations.
