• How corporate begging has become the new style of begging
By Debo Popoola
These are hard times for Nigeria and Nigerians. The poor and the rich are complaining. The economy is collapsing daily- inflation sky-rocketing as prices of goods, especially food items, have reached an epic height. Naira is losing value minutes by minutes against major currencies; the stock market has crumbled and still crumbling as shares are losing values, investors are gnashing their teeth in the horrific realities; real estate business that used to be the desire of many a rich investors has become a nightmare.
The price of oil in the international market seems to be enjoying the nose-diving. Many companies are folding up and workers laid off. Government workers are wailing because they have not been paid months of their due wages. Small and medium businesses are struggling because no one has got the money to patronize them. Nigerians are devastated, disoriented and disillusioned. Everything looks like the dejavu of the post-World Wars periods in Europe and America.
But the quest for survival is daily taking different dimension. While some people have taken the wrong and destructive means of survival by defrauding people and robbing them of their fortunes, many have turned to corporate begging, a somewhat new way of begging.
Many are familiar with beggars in tattered clothes and weary appearances, but the new concept of begging where the beggar is well adorned with beautiful attire and does not look anywhere close to a person in need of help is what people now call corporate begging.
These set of beggars look like a every other persons in appearance, so when they call to ask for money, it will be difficult for anyone not to first stop to give audience which is the main aim of their appearance.
Not that this form of begging has never been in existence, but recently, it has surged up like an over-fed dam.
These corporate beggars have strategically placed themselves at locations where they know they will attract people’s sympathy. They are at major bus stops in the city. They come to you in their good appearances, they tell you that they were coming from an occasion and were stranded, that you should give them a particular amount of money.
They can also be found at shopping malls and cinemas. They come like an acquaintance, they greet cheerfully after which they lay their demands with plea. Some even go to churches and mosques on worship days. They dress gorgeously like every other worshipper to get attentions.
Some of these corporate beggars result to begging as their last resort when other means of making earns meet have failed, while some see it as easy means of making money without much effort.
Findings show that numbers of corporate beggars have increased recently. The present economic crisis in the nation has made many to turn to begging. Many whose businesses have failed or lost their jobs have entered into the business of cooperate begging.
As Nigeria’s economy continues to deteriorate daily and the policies made by the present government seem to worsen it, the number of corporate beggars will likely be on the increase except the economy is revived with serious policies.
