How Abuja’s homeless people live

By Awaal Gata

population is now above five million, the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, confirmed recently.
It is not the rapid growth of the population that is worrisome, but the way of life of a large percentage of this population which encroach on the sort of sanity that the city was built to have.

Thousands of downtrodden Nigerians troop into the city daily in search of livelihood. As they storm the city, they lack access to shelter and, obviously, they don’t give a hoot about it.
Some of them eventually settle for all sorts of menial jobs that barely fetch them money for sustenance. This crop of people are behind the proliferation of shanties, squatter settlements and slums that are rapidly diminishing the beauty of the city.
Some of them that cannot even afford the shanties, squatters or slums take refuge in uncompleted buildings, under bridges, stationery cars, frontage of shops and dilapidated buildings.

Despite the vigilance of the authorities, under bridges in the city centre are not completely safe from this crop of people, but places like Nyanya, Karu, Mabushi, etc are their hotbeds.
A large percent of this type of people come from the north.
“There are people from other parts of the country, but most of them come from the north,” a cab driver who pleaded for anonymity said.
One of the homeless people in Zuba, Ibrahim Ali, said he came to the FCT from a village in Bauchi state and has been sleeping under a  bridges for about six months.

He was trained as a bricklayer in his village and came to Abuja in search of better life leaving  his wife and children in the village.
He said he never came to Abuja with intention to live under the bridge, but poor finances forced him into the predicament. Ali admits that where he found himself is not by choice and, of course, nobody chooses to live that way but he has to adapt to the situation he found himself.
He said at cold nights, they wear as much as five clothes to beat cold and mosquitoes.
Another of such persons, Bala Isah from Nasarawa state told our correspondent that he has been sleeping in a stationery car for two months and depends on one of his townsmen for daily meal, as he has not got anything to do for a living yet. “I have been sleeping in this car for the past two months that I came. I take my bathe in a nearby river and depend on one of my townsmen for feeding because I have not got anything to do,” he said.

However, Dr. Musa Mustapher, a lecture of Human Psychology at FCT College of Education, Zuba, said government needs to urgently address the situation because such persons could cause nuisance in the society.
“Government needs to find solution to the menace because, apart from being a nuisance in the society, they also pose a security threat. Their types are easily recruited to commit crimes,” he opined.