Features
Beggars in the City: Civic Responsibility vrs Religious Obligation
One cannot help but notice that in recent years there have been increased activities of beggars on the principal streets of major cities (Accra, Kumasi, Tamale etc.) in the country. Arguably Accra has been the leader in the activities of beggars in the country.
In Ghana begging is prohibited by law. Thus, Section 2 of the Beggars and Destitutes Act, 1969 (N.L.C.D. 392), makes begging a criminal offence. A person who is found begging, wandering, or who is on any premises or place to beg may be arrested by a police officer without a warrant. A person arrested for begging is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding GH₵1,800.00 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three (3) months or to both the fine and the imprisonment. However, the above prohibition does not apply to a person who is soliciting or receiving alms under a religious custom or the custom of a community or for a public charitable purpose or organized entertainment and a juvenile that is a person under the age of seventeen (17) years(Section 2(3)(4) of N.LC.D 392). Additionally, Section 6 of N.L.C.D 392 provides that a person found wandering about and unable to provide evidence of having a settled place of abode or employment, visible and sufficient means of subsistence, ora defective found neglected or abandoned shall be deemed to be destitute.
Notwithstanding the above express prohibition of begging in Ghana, the activities of beggars have gradually increased in some parts of the country over the period. Lead in this trend is the influx of migrant beggars from some parts of West Africa who most often uses children as their tool for begging. Due to the socioeconomic status of the country and the cost involved in enforcing this law on begging, the government of Ghana most often turns a blind eye to the activities of these beggars. This has emboldened these beggars to expand their activities as well as recruit more people into this venture.
Over the years, I have encountered these seven categories of beggars on the streets of Accra; I describe them by their status and the way they operate.
First is the “Professional Beggars”, these are mostly able-bodied people who have made up their minds they will beg as a source of livelihood. These people love begging, they enjoy begging, and they don’t want to do any other thing in life than to beg.I dare say that even if you attempt to help them secure decent jobs or set up businesses for them, they will still go back to begging. Some of these beggars believe their religion sanctions the giving of alms thus they must make themselves available for others to give the malms (one may argue that this is allowed under Section 2(3) of the Beggars and Destitutes Act).
The second is “Lying Beggars” this category of beggars may also be “Professional Beggars”. In addition to being “Professional Beggars”, they have mastered the art of begging by carefully crafting emotionally blackmailing stories full of lies. These beggars mostly come up with stories of needing financial assistance for medication, , hospital bills, food, and transportation among others. One will think that but for their needs, they wouldn’t be begging. However, this is just a scheme they use to solicit financial assistance from sympathetic people.
The third is “Circumstantial Beggars” these are mostly physically challenged people who due to unfortunate circumstances are unable to engage in any decent jobs or business ventures hence they resort to begging. Arguably if not for their physical challenges some of them may not be on the street begging.
The fourth is “Aggressive Beggars”.This category of beggars mostly resorts to the use of verbal or physical abuse to compel their targeted individual to give them money. Most often they get offended and use abusive words on an individual if they ask for money politely and the said individual refuses them. They may also physically restrain you in the street by grabbing your hand, holding your dress or bag among others just to compel you by the discomfort to give them money.
The fifth is “CasualBeggars” these are able-bodied people who are not Professional Beggars. However, from time to time these people resort to begging to augment their income from whatever business activities they may be engaged in. This category can also be referred to as “Occasional Beggars”.
The sixth category of beggars in the city is “Need-Based Beggars”. These are people that beg on the street because a need has arisen in their lives that they don’t have any means of taking care of the said need other than begging. These beggars usually have a genuine need that must be attended to, but they don’t have the financial muscle to do so all by themselves. Most often once the said need is met, they stop begging and undertake their normal activities devoid of begging on the street.
The seventh is “ChildBeggars”.These are children below the age of seventeen (17) years that are mostly used by “Professional Beggars” as a mechanism to undertake their begging activities. This category of beggars has been introduced in recent years by the influx of migrant beggars from some parts of West Africa. These children cling on to individuals on the street just to collect money from them whilst their parent/guardian relaxes under a shade supervising their activities. Most children under Section 2(4) of the Beggars and Destitutes Act and Section 18(g) of the Children’s Act, 1998 (560)(as amended) would not be held criminally responsible for begging. However, it is a criminal offence to use children as a mechanism to undertake begging activities. Such an act is deemed as exploitative child labour under Section 87 of the Children’s Act.
Note that the above categories of beggars are not mutually exclusive as there may be some beggars that fall within two or more of the above categories. There may also be another group of beggars I have not encountered who may operate differently from the ones I have identified above.
Section 5 0f the Beggars and Destitutes Act provides that a person who permits or encourages another person to commit an offence under Section 2 may be arrested by a police officer without a warrant. The person is liable on conviction to a fine not exceedingGH₵1,800.00 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three (3) months or to both the fine and the imprisonment. The question is does an individual commit an offence of encouraging another person to beg by giving alms to a beggar?if so, why do a lot of people still gives to beggars despite the possibility of suffering these penalties if arrested?
Most religions globally believe in giving to the needy in society. Also, our sociocultural orientation as Ghanaians encourages the giving of alms to the needy in our communities. As such it is not surprising that a lot of people give to these categories of beggars identified above when they encounter them on the street without hesitation. If you are a Christian believer like me, you might seek solace in Mathew 5:42 ESV which admonishes us to “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you”. If you are a Muslim, you might draw inspiration from one of Islam’s pillars, Zakat which is alms giving or charity. Whatever your reason for giving to those who beg on the street, there is always a contrast between adhering to your religious beliefs and your civic duty not to encourage beggars on the street by giving alms to them.
Let me conclude with my most recent encounter with a beggar: on 25th May 2022, I went to Madina (a suburb of Accra) in the morning to purchase some items. I had to use the footbridge at Madina Zongo Junction to crossover to the other side of the street because the store I was going to was on the opposite side of the direction I came. Midway through my journey on that “anaconda size” footbridge, I was approached by a decently dressed fair lady. She had in her hand a placard with the inscription “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew11:28-30NIV. When we got close to each other, she asked me to read the inscription on the placard which I did. Under normal circumstances, I would have ignored her, but as religious as I am, I had to respect the carrier of the gospel of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, I paused and decided to listen to her share the gospel with me.
What was she trying to do? your guess is as good as mine.She was not trying to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to me but only to use the inscription on the placard as a means to get my attention. She started with a story about how she inadvertently stepped into someone’s “black magic” at Takoradi, which got her leg swollen, because of that, she was bedridden for six(6) months and had to undergo a series of surgical operations before she got back on her feet. Since the incident, she had lost her job and she had to undergo the final surgical procedure to bring her leg back to normal. She then proceeded to say she was raising money for the surgery, and I should give her GH₵20.00 to support her cause. I told her I didn’t have a GH₵20.00 note to give to her. From the inconsistencies in her storyline, I could sense she was lying. Also, she was wearing a long skirt, and clearly, I wouldn’t even dare to ask to see the leg. She then negotiated downward and said I could give her any amount, even if it was GH₵5.00 or GH₵1.00. For her not to waste my time further, I gave her a GH₵10.00 note.
After this encounter with this lady, who is a “Professional Lying Beggar”, I met her at that same spot on the Madina Zongo Junction footbridge attempting to catch my attention with the same strategy. That was a couple of weeks after my first encounter with her.
In light of the above encounter, I leave you with these questions: How do we religious people balance our beliefs in giving alms on one hand? On the other hand, as patriotic citizens, our civic duty is not to encourage this social nuisance that is gradually taking over the principal streets of our major cities. What must the government working through its ministries, departments and agencies do to reduce, if not irradicate this social nuisance that is engulfing our major cities.
Autor:
The writer is a Legal Practitioner
Email: barnabas.abisa@gmail.com
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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