Wike’s War on Beggars: A Familiar Struggle with Complex Realities

Wike’s War on Beggars: A Familiar Struggle with Complex Realities. Each time a new minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) declares war on beggars in Abuja, Aminata Sow Fall’s famous novel The Beggars’ Strike comes to mind. The story revolves around a government determined to rid the streets of beggars to boost tourism, only for the same government official to realize that beggars hold more power than assumed. The same dynamic seems to repeat with each FCT minister, the latest being Nyesom Wike, who has declared his own “war” against the rising presence of beggars in the capital city.

On Tuesday, Wike lamented that Abuja was turning “into a beggar city” and announced a crackdown on street beggars. Like his predecessors, Wike’s declaration raises the question: What new strategy does he bring to the table that his forerunners didn’t? Wike is certainly not the first public official to view beggars as a nuisance that must be eliminated, and he will likely not be the last.

In Nigeria, begging is embedded deeply in the fabric of society. From the streets to airports to uniformed officials at checkpoints, begging is commonplace. People don’t just ask for favors—they beg, and it’s a behavior that permeates all levels of society, including its leaders. Nigerian leaders often find themselves traveling abroad to beg for loans, foreign aid, and investment, showcasing the irony of a culture that frowns upon street beggars while indulging in high-level forms of begging.

The presence of street beggars, however, stirs visceral discomfort, particularly among politicians. For Wike, their visibility is “embarrassing,” especially to foreign guests who might interpret their presence as evidence of Nigeria’s deep-rooted socio-economic problems. Yet, the real issue lies not in the sight of beggars but in the underlying causes—poverty, displacement, bad governance, and social inequality—that force people into begging. Street beggars are a stubborn reminder of Nigeria’s unaddressed problems.

Previous FCT ministers, like Wike, have attempted to rid Abuja of beggars with limited success. His immediate predecessor, Muhammad Bello, tried sending beggars back to their home states, while Senator Bala Mohammed went so far as to arrest beggars and street hawkers. Before them, Adamu Aliero and Nasir El-Rufai also made attempts to clean up the city. Yet, beggars continue to return, and Wike’s war is unlikely to fare any better if it fails to address the root causes.

Wike may soon discover that beggars, both able-bodied and disabled, come from circumstances of terrorism, banditry, and displacement. Many of them have turned to begging as a survival tactic, leveraging their physical conditions or personal hardships to elicit pity and charity from passersby. The deeper Nigeria sinks into multi-dimensional poverty, the more beggars will flood into Abuja.

What Wike may also underestimate is the role begging plays in Nigeria’s moral and religious economy. In an Islamic society where charity and almsgiving are religious obligations, beggars hold an essential function. Without the poor to give alms to, the rich cannot fulfill their religious duties. This dynamic was highlighted in The Beggars’ Strike, where the wealthy were left morally and religiously adrift when the beggars went on strike. Wike’s war on beggars may face resistance from a culture that sees begging not only as a nuisance but also as a necessary part of the social fabric.

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Moreover, beggars in Abuja, far from being powerless, are a critical part of the political landscape. During elections, they wield the same voting power as the wealthiest elites. Their presence is tolerated because, come election season, they are mobilized to vote for the very politicians who ignore them the rest of the year. If Wike and his political peers are too harsh in their crackdown, they may find themselves on the receiving end of a beggars’ strike in 2027, a revolt that could cost them dearly at the ballot box.

In the end, Wike’s war on beggars will likely achieve only temporary results. While he may succeed in momentarily driving them from the streets, they will return, as they always do. The reality is that as long as poverty, inequality, and displacement remain unaddressed, the beggars will keep coming back. And until Wike and his peers recognize that begging is more than just a social nuisance but a symptom of deeper problems, their wars will continue to fail

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