• About
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Terms
  • Contact
Breaking News Nigeria, Latest Nigerian News
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Business
    • Politics
    • Science
    • World
    Lagos

    Lagos unveils 5-year agribusiness roadmap to boost investment, food security

    COVID-19

    COVID-19: Taraba leads as NCDC records 100 new cases

    GTB

    GTB’s profit drops by 9% in Q1 2021

    COVID-19

    COVID-19: Nigeria records no deaths in 9 days

    Senior Police

    Why police chief, Usman-Baba removed senior police officers from EFCC

    Dollar

    Don’t reject any dollar notes, CBN warns banks, BDCs

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Tech
    • All
    • Apps
    • Mobile
    • Startup
    SIM registration

    Nigeria lifts ban on new SIM registration

    Twitter

    3 reasons why Twitter sidelined Nigeria to locate Africa office in Ghana

    Appzone

    Nigerian fintech, Appzone raises $10 million Series A

    Cryptocurrency

    Visa set to start accepting cryptocurrency

    nigerian tech

    Is the Nigerian tech ecosystem on a brink of Dutch Disease?

    Elon Musk

    It’s official, Tesla is accepting payment in Bitcoin

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Ryan Mason

    MOURINHO: Tottenham appoints Ryan Mason as new interim manager

    UEFA

    UEFA unveils new rules amid rising opposition to new super league

    BREAKING! Tottenham fire Jose Mourinho

    BREAKING! Tottenham fire Jose Mourinho

    Adekunle Gold

    Did Adekunle Gold actually cheat on his wife Simi?

    #eaglewingsmovie

    #EagleWingsMovie: Nigeria’s first true action film pitches duty against love in Boko Haram fight

    22-year-old Nigerian officially becomes the fastest man in the world

    22-year-old Nigerian officially becomes the fastest man in the world

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    omojuwa

    Omojuwa’s weekend is off to a bad start, here is why

    Weekend

    #TGIF! 5 exciting ways to make the most of your weekend

    University of Ibadan

    FG approves N190.5 million for University of Ibadan to purchase microscope to aid research

    HEATWAVE: 5 tips to stay stylish and cool in this hot weather

    HEATWAVE: 5 tips to stay stylish and cool in this hot weather

    who cheats more

    #VALENTINE SPECIAL: Men or women? Who cheats more? Result of this new study will shock you

    valentine's day

    5 ways to make Valentine’s Day memorable while observing social distancing

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • SMARTKOBO
    landed property

    Is that land really cheap as advertised? How to know actual cost of a landed property

    untitled lands in nigeria

    How to acquire untitled lands in Nigeria without getting into trouble with the government

    real estate investment

    A wrong real estate investment can wipe out your whole life savings. This is how to do it safely

    returned item fee

    #SmartKobo: What is a returned item fee and why was I penalised?

    investment strategies

    #SmartKobo: 6 winning investment strategies to stay ahead in 2021

    pay schedule

    #SmartKobo: Weekly, monthly & more: How your pay schedule affects you

  • #EndBadGovernance Photo Challenge
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News Nigeria, Latest Nigerian News
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Business
    • Politics
    • Science
    • World
    Lagos

    Lagos unveils 5-year agribusiness roadmap to boost investment, food security

    COVID-19

    COVID-19: Taraba leads as NCDC records 100 new cases

    GTB

    GTB’s profit drops by 9% in Q1 2021

    COVID-19

    COVID-19: Nigeria records no deaths in 9 days

    Senior Police

    Why police chief, Usman-Baba removed senior police officers from EFCC

    Dollar

    Don’t reject any dollar notes, CBN warns banks, BDCs

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Tech
    • All
    • Apps
    • Mobile
    • Startup
    SIM registration

    Nigeria lifts ban on new SIM registration

    Twitter

    3 reasons why Twitter sidelined Nigeria to locate Africa office in Ghana

    Appzone

    Nigerian fintech, Appzone raises $10 million Series A

    Cryptocurrency

    Visa set to start accepting cryptocurrency

    nigerian tech

    Is the Nigerian tech ecosystem on a brink of Dutch Disease?

    Elon Musk

    It’s official, Tesla is accepting payment in Bitcoin

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Ryan Mason

    MOURINHO: Tottenham appoints Ryan Mason as new interim manager

    UEFA

    UEFA unveils new rules amid rising opposition to new super league

    BREAKING! Tottenham fire Jose Mourinho

    BREAKING! Tottenham fire Jose Mourinho

    Adekunle Gold

    Did Adekunle Gold actually cheat on his wife Simi?

    #eaglewingsmovie

    #EagleWingsMovie: Nigeria’s first true action film pitches duty against love in Boko Haram fight

    22-year-old Nigerian officially becomes the fastest man in the world

    22-year-old Nigerian officially becomes the fastest man in the world

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    omojuwa

    Omojuwa’s weekend is off to a bad start, here is why

    Weekend

    #TGIF! 5 exciting ways to make the most of your weekend

    University of Ibadan

    FG approves N190.5 million for University of Ibadan to purchase microscope to aid research

    HEATWAVE: 5 tips to stay stylish and cool in this hot weather

    HEATWAVE: 5 tips to stay stylish and cool in this hot weather

    who cheats more

    #VALENTINE SPECIAL: Men or women? Who cheats more? Result of this new study will shock you

    valentine's day

    5 ways to make Valentine’s Day memorable while observing social distancing

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • SMARTKOBO
    landed property

    Is that land really cheap as advertised? How to know actual cost of a landed property

    untitled lands in nigeria

    How to acquire untitled lands in Nigeria without getting into trouble with the government

    real estate investment

    A wrong real estate investment can wipe out your whole life savings. This is how to do it safely

    returned item fee

    #SmartKobo: What is a returned item fee and why was I penalised?

    investment strategies

    #SmartKobo: 6 winning investment strategies to stay ahead in 2021

    pay schedule

    #SmartKobo: Weekly, monthly & more: How your pay schedule affects you

  • #EndBadGovernance Photo Challenge
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News Nigeria, Latest Nigerian News
Home Featured

Recession, rising unemployment and the growth of a youth begging industry in Lagos

Ejike Kanife by Ejike Kanife
April 6, 2021
in Featured
0
A A
0
Youth begging

Youth begging for alms Source: istock

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

How youth begging is thriving in Lagos

As of March 2021, Nigeria’s unemployment rate stands at 33%. This ranks Nigeria as the country with the second unemployment rate according to Bloomberg. The figures are actually worse when you factor in the underemployment situation in the country. And for the purpose of this post, it is important to do so. In general, nearly 50% of Nigeria’s 69.7 million workforce are either unemployed or underemployed.

This means in your community, it’s likely that around 50% of people within working age don’t have jobs or work at jobs whose pay can’t take care of their financial needs. In other words, nearly 50% of people within working age in your community are broke and desperately in need of earning a living. If you live in a low-income area, the truth might be way more than 50%. In the absence of jobs and any hope of it, these guys, many of them young people and uneducated, are mostly expected to resort to crime, usually petty thieving, street mugging, house burglary and the inevitable cyber fraud better known as yahoo-yahoo.

But then again, these forms of criminality aren’t as lucrative as they used to be. For one, there’s actually very little money anywhere around their low-income communities to steal. And with the proliferation of digital banking, people hardly carry considerable cash on them. Even petty traders and retail shop owners prefer bank transfers. Indeed, the woman running a shop close to my house would always ask me, at the close of business, if I needed cash so she could supply me with some while I transfer to her. She’d count the fifty and hundred and 200 naira notes she received until they were up to 5,000 or 10,000 and hand them over to me. If you commute around Lagos and always find yourself in needless hassles with conductors over ‘hold your change o’, then you’d understand why someone like me doesn’t mind exchanging with her.

Neither are people wont to store up money in their homes for future use. Not even housewives and handworkers. In the end, just like most other industries where the big guys earn mega wages while the smaller fish struggle to keep up, these petty thieving and mugging doesn’t guarantee minimum wage for a great majority of our broke neighbours. They require extra sources of income and they required it like last week.

READ ALSO: See Tinubu’s solutions to Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, unemployment

In comes the hustle of begging, or mu’le as it has come to be known in my area. Mu’le is simply a Yoruba term which means to hold ground. So basically, these guys, their ages ranging from preteen to way past 50, all jobless and broke to their very bones, will walk up to you, an obviously more successful individual (usually a fellow young man) begging you to find them some cash to hold their respective grounds with. Something to keep them standing more solidly. Something to finance their meagre welfare.

For the professional ones usually the area boys, the art is quite primary enough. They usually huddle in street corners or popular junctions, or in front of popular barber shops, or even at busstops where they harass bike riders. Once they see a potential customer like myself approaching, they start pumping their fists in the air as a sign of respect and maybe admiration. If you’re a fully-bearded Igbo man like myself, you get titles like Odogwu! Ogaranya! Ebube Dike! Etc. If you’re a Yoruba guy, you get titles like Agbawo! Agbalagbi! Ajanaku! If you’re from the north then you’re Sariki! Sai Baba! If you’re walking, you might want to be careful if they try to surround you because you could get pickpocketed in the process. If you’re on a bike and you mu’le for them, they are very likely to let your bike go unhindered. Though I’m pretty sure the bike guy would eventually pay the tuft dues if he runs into them again.

Sometimes, these guys render unprecedented services too. If you have a car, they could clear a lane for you in the middle of a mild traffic jam. If you’re looking for something or someone, they could get them for you. If you’re in an aggressive confrontation, these guys could fight for you, as long as you aren’t in that confrontation with any of their leaders. They could even chastise their own members for you. I mean, these are the things you pay them for, even if you don’t realise it. During the EndSARS protest, these street urchins came in handy defending many a neighbourhood.

Street begging or mu’leh has become a serious prerogative of street urchins and area boys. But beyond them, it is becoming a culture, almost an industry, that is spreading as quickly and as surely as the nation’s economic situation worsens. The jobless young man or woman, sitting at home or in the streets, possibly a graduate and quite enlightened enough to know stealing is a crime against humanity, has no option but to play in that industry. The young person browsing on free mode, liking every post on Facebook and Twitter even when they don’t make sense and hoping that the poster might one day do giveaway and they would like to be remembered when that happens is tapping into the culture of mu’le.

Social media inboxes are full of young men begging for money to finance a small business, fund an application, transport to an interview, purchase data and all. Young women are often the more popular adapters of the mule culture and any urgent 2k is always highly appreciated in words or in kind. The growth and explosion of that industry is borne out of the most basic human need to survive. Fulfilling this need has been made extremely difficult by the worsening socio-economic situation in the country. And unless there’s a turnaround in this situation, the culture and industry of street begging would keep growing.

Tags: BloombergNigeriarecessionRising unemployment in lagos

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe
Previous Post

WARNING! Hand sanitizers imported from Mexico could be dangerous – NAFDAC

Next Post

BREAKING! Buhari replaces IGP Adamu with Alkali Baba

Next Post
Police

BREAKING! Buhari replaces IGP Adamu with Alkali Baba

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected

  • 2.4k Followers
  • 5 Followers
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
landed property

Is that land really cheap as advertised? How to know actual cost of a landed property

April 22, 2021
COVID-19

COVID-19: Nigeria records no deaths in 9 days

April 22, 2021
GTB

GTB’s profit drops by 9% in Q1 2021

April 22, 2021
Passport

Why Nigeria reviewed passport processing time to 6 weeks

April 23, 2021
Sanwo-Olu

Lagos rolls out N9B COVID-19 stimulus to support 20,843 households

April 22, 2021
Baba Ijesha

Popular Nollywood actor Baba Ijesha arrested for allegedly defiling 14 years old girl

April 23, 2021
Lagos

Lagos unveils 5-year agribusiness roadmap to boost investment, food security

April 23, 2021
Passport

Why Nigeria reviewed passport processing time to 6 weeks

April 23, 2021
COVID-19

COVID-19: Taraba leads as NCDC records 100 new cases

April 23, 2021
#PantamiMustGo

#PantamiMustGo: Nigeria Presidency throws weight behind minister who professed love for terror groups

April 23, 2021
Baba Ijesha

Popular Nollywood actor Baba Ijesha arrested for allegedly defiling 14 years old girl

April 23, 2021
GTB

GTB’s profit drops by 9% in Q1 2021

April 22, 2021

Recent News

Lagos

Lagos unveils 5-year agribusiness roadmap to boost investment, food security

April 23, 2021
Passport

Why Nigeria reviewed passport processing time to 6 weeks

April 23, 2021
COVID-19

COVID-19: Taraba leads as NCDC records 100 new cases

April 23, 2021
#PantamiMustGo

#PantamiMustGo: Nigeria Presidency throws weight behind minister who professed love for terror groups

April 23, 2021
Breaking News Nigeria, Latest Nigerian News

Follow Us

Subscribe to our newsletter

Please wait...
Want to be notified when our article is published? Enter your email address below to be the first to know.

Browse by Category

  • Apps
  • Athletics
  • Basketball
  • Breaking News
  • Business
  • Business Editor's Pick
  • Business Featured Section
  • EndBadGovernance Photo Challenge
  • Entertainment
  • Fashion
  • Featured
  • Food
  • Football
  • Gaming
  • General
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Mobile
  • Motor Sports
  • Movie
  • Music
  • News
  • Politics
  • Politics Featured Section
  • Review
  • Science
  • SmartKobo
  • Sports
  • Startup
  • Tech
  • Technology
  • Technology Featured Section
  • Uncategorized
  • World

Recent News

Lagos

Lagos unveils 5-year agribusiness roadmap to boost investment, food security

April 23, 2021
Passport

Why Nigeria reviewed passport processing time to 6 weeks

April 23, 2021
COVID-19

COVID-19: Taraba leads as NCDC records 100 new cases

April 23, 2021
#PantamiMustGo

#PantamiMustGo: Nigeria Presidency throws weight behind minister who professed love for terror groups

April 23, 2021
  • About
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Terms
  • Contact

© Copyright Nigeria Today 2020

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • SMARTKOBO
  • #EndBadGovernance Photo Challenge

© Copyright Nigeria Today 2020

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Please wait...

Subscribe to our Nigeria Today News

Want to be notified when our article is published? Enter your email address below to be the first to know.
SUBSCRIBE