“Hauwa!”
“Hauwa!”
“I will not call your name the third time you this stubborn girl!”
Hauwa ran hurriedly to the yard behind their smoke-filled home. A home where they could barely pay the rent as the end of another month fast approached, business wasn’t going so well for Hauwa’s mum who sold food stuff at the local market, and to make it worse, she had five mouths to feed, without a husband.
“Hauwa take this tray of bread, I was able to get it at a really good discount, make sure you sell all of it and look at the money well, so they don’t cheat you!” Her mother was speaking more of Hausa and adding a little English in the mix because Hauwa stopped going to school and her English wasn’t so good.
“Yes mama.” She said with a nod.
She put on a really over-sized T-shirt and managed to cover her head with a hijab, then she hit the streets with her goods, ready for sale, as she walked by, she kept announcing repeatedly in Hausa that she had bread for sale.
On another side of the same neighbourhood, Musa and Ibrahim, SS2 students of a government school were walking back from school, by 10am, a little too early for school to be over. They owed the school 100% of their school fees and had been kicked out by their class teacher. Musa was so angry and frustrated because he was tired of the struggle to catch up every term because of late payment of school fees, he was also tired of the hunger, oh the hours he had to go every day without good food were something he didn’t look forward to when he woke up each morning. Ibrahim on the other hand could care less about school, he had given up a long time ago when he lost his dad and mum at a younger age, he just followed Musa around after they became friends playing football in the street where they lived. He stole everything he wore, from clothes to slippers and shoes, nothing fit him properly.
They were both mad with hunger and walking in the scorching heat when they saw a little girl walking towards them, announcing that she had bread for sale, Ibrahim had a sinister idea.
“Make we carry the bread run” he suggested quietly.
“That is not right” Musa retorted.
“Be like say you nor wan chop” Ibrahim made for the direction Hauwa was walking in.
“How much be your bread?” He took one loaf of the tray.
“Hundi-red nay-ra” Hauwa replied innocently.
Musa’s stomach took over his brain and he walked over to meet them during the supposed transaction. Ibrahim pushed Hauwa to the ground, most of the loaves of bread fell to the sandy ground, both of them grabbed a handful of loaves and made for a nearby bush.
A study from nairaland showed in 2013 that 30% of Northern Nigerian children are beggars, and supposedly more are hawkers, those without such a privilege turn to a life of petty crime, in a bid to stay alive. What’s worse is that a good amount of the 30% are female. More money from the Nigerian government should be focused on very affordable or free education and job creation to eradicate poverty and educate our children. Maybe if the government paid more attention to education, Hauwa, Ibrahim and Musa would be in a classroom and not in the street.
