No religion encourages street begging – Gov. Bello’s aide

Tanko Ahmed, the Special Adviser to Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger on Religious Affairs, says street begging is a form of child labour not supported by any religion in the country.

Ahmed told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Tuesday that no religion encourages parents to give birth to children and throw them on the streets.

“Street begging is not good for any religion, community, society and country. Throwing children off the streets is child labour.

“We have prevalence of children on the streets begging because parents who are expected to inculcate sanity among their children have thrown away such responsibility.

“No child must be made to beg and every child has the right to proper education, upbringing and security.

“A man has no right to give birth to a child and throw such child onto the streets; by doing that such parents will be denying the children, parental comfort,’’ he said.

Ahmed said if this menace was not checked, the country would be producing a generation of beggars.

He said that street begging could make children vulnerable to security challenges the country was currently facing.

Ahmed said that the security, social responsibility, education and survival of a child depended largely on their parents.

According to him, if government fails to take drastic measures to control the menace the country will be neglecting what will turn out to be a time bomb.

Ahmed called on religious leaders and traditional rulers to sensitise parents on the consequences of sending their children to the streets to beg.

He said children who were sent to the streets to beg might not respect the rule of law when they grow up.

He warned parents to desist from allowing their children to beg stressing that government would, henceforth, not condone such an indecent behaviour.