On an average day, one will find at least 20 children on the Bar Beach in Lagos. They engage in one business or the other. For these youngsters, the Bar Beach is not just a place where they make a living, it is also their ‘home’.
On Monday, when Saturday PUNCH visited the beach, three underage boys were seen playing in the parking lot.
The three boys – Daniel Wunga (15), Tochukwu Aneneme (13) and Friday Ojongbo (13) – ran after one another, locking themselves in what seemed to be a friendly wrestling match.
Before approaching them, Saturday PUNCH observed them for a moment. The looks on their faces said much about them. One would not but notice the carefree abandon with which they played, the laughter that suggested that they enjoyed their freedom and the foul words they uttered which showed that they were street-wise.
Though their stories sounded like a sad tale, it was immediately obvious that the children were smart survivalists.
Wunga, who told Saturday PUNCH that he was an Egun boy from Badagry area of Lagos, seemed to be the ‘big brother’ because of the way he talked.
“I live under the umbrella on the beach,” he said, without any hint of sadness.
How do you survive? How do you eat? Saturday PUNCH asked.
He said, “When I first came here nine months ago, I did little work for those selling food and drinks on the beach. When I made some money like N2,000, I started barbecue business.
“In the evening, I buy fishes from fishermen at CMS (Marina) and make barbecue. I also buy few bottles of beer and put them in our fridge.”
While Wunga was speaking, Aneneme and Ojongbo were looking on. All three were sitting on the disused fridge.
The youngster would buy ice from the older traders on the beach and pour it on the few bottles of beer he stocks in the fridge abandoned at the beach.
He said his umbrella, under which he accommodates Tochukwu as well, automatically turns to his barbecue stand in the night.
“I look for dry wood and make a fire on the beach. That’s where I make the barbecue,” he said.
Asked how much he makes daily, Wunga said he usually prepares small quantity of barbecue so that he could easily sell all off each day.
“I make up to N600 every night. I keep part of it to buy fish and some bottles of beer the following night and use the rest to feed. I don’t make much profit, but I get little from it to eat,” he said.
Sometime in January, Wunga made the decision to leave home and fend for himself.
He said, “My father is a fisherman. I don’t usually see him. He comes once in a while to give my stepmother money to take care of the house. But he is always away to work.
“But I was always hungry. My stepmother would beat me and she was not taking care of me. My elder brother lives and fishes with my father.
“Before I left home, I told my stepmother I wanted to go and look for my mother. But I came here instead.”
It is not hard to guess why the boy chose to come to the Bar Beach instead.
He said one of his friends at Badagry told him he would find work to do and survive at the beach.
Don’t you think your father will be looking for you? Wunga was asked.
“I have met my relations at this beach many times. They know I am here. My father is not looking for me because they would have told him where I am,” he said.
The boy, who explained that he stopped schooling at Primary Three, told Saturday PUNCH it would be a dream-come-true for him if he could be employed as a houseboy.
“I can leave this beach if I make enough money here or if I get a good job somewhere. I know it is not safe here, but nothing bad has happened to us since we started living here,” he said.
The story of Aneneme, Wunga’s ‘room-mate’, bears some resemblance to that of his friend.
Two new shirts were slung over his shoulder when he spoke with Saturday PUNCH.
“I just bought these two shirts with the money I made working here,” Aneneme said proudly.
Wunga took him under his wings when he arrived at the beach four months ago.
“I do all kinds of work here but the main work I do is helping food sellers to wash plates and set up their stands. They give me food and pay me some money,” the young boy said.
Asked why he left home, Aneneme said his father, who is a bricklayer in Osun State, brought him to Lagos to live with his (Aneneme’s) brother after their mother’s death.
He said, “My mother is dead. My brother is an electrician at Alaba (Ojo Local Government). He was maltreating me.
“He beat me with wire and an iron brush. I decided to leave when I could not bear the pains again. Many times, he would not give me money for food or buy me clothes. I don’t know whether he is looking for me or not.”
Aneneme told Saturday PUNCH he stopped schooling in Primary Five.
While Aneneme was speaking, the third boy (Ojongbo) was teasing him, calling him “Osanle! OsanleTochukwu!” Osanle is a Yoruba street slang used to refer to young people who run away from home to live on the street.
Ojongbo’s story is a little different from that of his friends.
He was a former street boy.
He said, “I lived on this beach for just 19 days. I left home at that time because I lost my mother’s N2,000. When she was punishing and beating me, I ran away from home.
“I came here and started working. I helped people to carry load and also worked for traders on the beach. Sometimes, I go to the park at Ikotun to carry load for traders too.
“When I was able to make the N2,000 that I lost, I returned home and gave the money to my mother. When she asked me where I got the money from, I told her I made it working in Bar Beach. She then decided to come here too to make barbecue for a living.”
Ojongbo said her mother brought her little sister, Blessing, along to assist in the business at the beach as well.
There was no doubt that Ojongbo’s mother was doing well for herself and the children in her new-found business at the beach.
“My mother said I would start school again next week. I stopped schooling last year. We have even stopped sleeping here. We go home every evening now. Our house is at Ikotun,” the boy said.
But the friendship he formed with the two friends – Wunga and Aneneme – whom he met when he ran away from home, was obviously still strong.
The three said they played together mostly when they were not busy working.
Ojongbo said his mother had gone to the mainland to make some purchase when Saturday PUNCH requested to speak with her.
Young boys such as these three live and survive on the streets in different parts of Lagos.
The beach is just one of the many places where they can be found. One would find such youngsters under bridges, motorparks and sometimes at major road intersections, washing vehicle windshields at night.
The sour point of these homeless children’s life is the fact that some of them become hoodlums who snatch bags for a living while some of them resort to begging.
Two weeks ago, the Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences arrested 13 of such homeless children under the bridge at Oshodi.
The task force Chairman, Bayo Sulaimon, said most of the children were responsible for cases of phone and bag snatching in the area.
The children were taken to the state’s correctional home for rehabilitation.
On Monday night, Saturday PUNCH visited the Maryland intersection, where some underage boys wash the windshield of vehicles passing through light traffic.
The kids live on the magnanimity of few motorists; many motorists do not give them money because their service is usually unsolicited.
Armed with a fabricated brush and a bottle of liquid soap, the boys promptly move towards any vehicle that slows down in traffic. Most times, a driver protests that he does not want his windshield washed, but the children go ahead to wash it all the same.
When the service is done, they have to beg to get money for the unsolicited service.
This same scene played out many times when Saturday PUNCH went to Maryland about 8pm on Monday to speak with some of the kids.
One of them, who volunteered to speak with our correspondent, identified himself simply as Bisi.
Bisi, a young boy of 15, said he did not run away from home, but was sent out by his father after he was accused of stealing money.
He said, “I did not steal the money. My elder brother, who was not living with us anymore, was the one who came in when nobody was at home and stole the money.
“My mother is not living with my father again. She lives in Oyo now and I have not seen her for a long time. I don’t know her house in Oyo. That’s why I could not go to live with her when I left home.
“I was sent out of the house in February and I joined my friend living in the front of a shop around Mende (a street in Maryland).
“In the daytime, I work as a porter. I make some money carrying goods at different shops in Onipanu. But in the night like this, I wash windshields. We don’t make money much from this work but sometimes we can be lucky.
“Someone has given me N1,000 for washing her windshield before and there are nights I don’t make more than N200.”
Asked if he felt safe sleeping in the front of a shop, Bisi said he was not usually afraid because he did not sleep there alone.
Bisi has become street-wise. He said he would not want to sleep with other boys who live under bridges because they were regularly arrested.
“Some of them do bad things like stealing too. I don’t want police to arrest me and call me an armed robber,” he said.
“Why not go and beg your father?”
He said his stepmother was the one who orchestrated his ejection from the house and would not let him stay at home.
Saturday PUNCH could not confirm the boy’s story as he would not give the contact of his parents.
“I can’t give you because I don’t know what they will do if they see me,” he said.
Bisi looked unkempt. His life on the street has obviously taken a toll on him.
He would sleep in the front of the shop that had become his home around 12 am and would leave by 4am so that the owner of the shop would not see him around.
“We leave the place very early so the owner will not meet us there and call us thieves,” he said.
Apparently, homeless boys who sleep under the bridge at Oshodi have chosen to stay away for now because of the recent raid by men of the state task force.
A commercial bus driver, who spoke with our correspondent at Oshodi, said it was just a matter of time before they would come back.
The driver, Ibrahim Yinusa, said, “Oshodi bridge will always be home to homeless boys and older people. God knows that I was once like them.
“The truth is that many of these boys are robbers, but some of them are genuinely homeless and have nowhere to go; that’s why they chose to come and sleep here.
“Government should not treat them as criminals. When they have nowhere to go, would they not steal when they have the chance?”
Investigations by Saturday PUNCH show that the abbattoir at Oko Oba area of Agege is another commercial centre that is home to many homeless kids.
The big premises of the abattoir provides many spots for such kids to put up at night while the various commercial activities that take place at the abattoir give them opportunities to make some money.
However, no matter how smart these youngsters are, they are vulnerable and exposed to all kinds of dangers.
One curious thing about these children is that they were reluctant to provide the contacts of their parents. It was obvious most of them would rather make a living off the street than return home.
These children left home thinking they were better off on their own and would better fend for themselves.
It is not clear whether the state government collates data on these homeless children.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Lateef Ibirogba, would not give a comment on the phone when our correspondent contacted him to provide an insight into government’s efforts at ameliorating the plight of homeless children.
“I will be available later in the week for a face-to-face interview,” he said. But he was said to be unavailable when our correspondent visited his office.
A security expert with child specialty, Mr. Richard Amuwa, told Saturday PUNCH that without an urgent intervention to take homeless children off the streets, there would be an increase in insecurity in the country.
He said, “In any developed country, homeless children are taken off the streets and put in homes. I don’t believe the government can do this alone.
“The private sector needs to collaborate with government to provide conducive homes in which these children can be housed to learn crafts and skills. The children will end up becoming serious security threats if this is not done. The homes should be an avenue for them to develop skills that will make them useful to themselves and the society.”
This seems to be the focus of a police officer in Lagos, Mr. Ralph Odoh, who runs a foundation on youth development.
He told Saturday PUNCH that his organisation, Arise Nigeria Youths, has always emphasised the need to keep homeless youths, who could turn to crime, off the street by engaging them in activities that would develop their skills.
“The attention of these youths needs to be diverted to activities that will keep them busy, develop their skills and help their families. This is why our foundation established three academies for football, scrip writing and acting to provide avenue for homeless and idle youths to do something with their lives,” Odoh said.
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