Nigeria Content Online

Auwal is 27, and
sells kola nuts. His heels have worn through his flip-flops. There is
no accurate way of measuring the distances he walks everyday peddling
kola nuts, but 10 kilometres is not a bad guess. He has a wife and
children back home, as well as aged parents he has to assist from time
to time. The combined value of his tray and the kola nuts he sells is
about N2,000. He lives from his tray.

Musa mai tabur has
a small table at the gate of the uncompleted building where he has
lived for a number of years. He is not sure of his age, only that he is
over 30 because he was born when General Obasanjo was head of state. He
does not have to trek long distances to sell his wares. On his table
are sweets, detergents, pure water, cigarettes, mosquito coils and a
variety of other things. He travels back home once in a while to see
his family. His entire stock is worth about N5,000. He lives from his
table.

Danjuma is a
teenager. He shows absolutely no fear as he darts in and out of
traffic, selling chewing gum to motorists along the highway. He is not
sure of his age, and frankly cannot be bothered. Whether he gets to eat
something each day depends on how much chewing gum he is able to sell.
He has no table, no tray and no wares of his own. He only gets a
commission on whatever he is able to sell each day. He has no
dependants yet, just fighting the brutal battle to survive by selling
chewing gum, come rain, come shine. He lives from meal to meal.

Ibro sells Gala.
His favourite spot is just before the traffic lights where vehicles
stop for a minute or two. His best customers are the harried and hungry
passengers in taxis and buses who buy Gala and canned drinks for a meal
on the go. Ibro is ever on the lookout for municipal authorities that
may arrest him and seize his carton of Gala and drinks. He has been
arrested many times before and his goods ‘forfeited’ to government. But
he comes back to the same spot as soon as he can raise enough capital
to stock up. The total value of his wares is about N4,000. He is
married with a child and sends money to his siblings whenever he can.
He lives from his carton.

Buba knows every
corner of the city. On his bicycle selling ice cream and bottled water,
he pedals as far as he can and only gives up when he is overcome by
sheer exhaustion. The bicycle does not belong to him, nor the ice cream
and bottled water. His is just to sell for a commission at the end of
the day. On good days, he earns between N600 to N700. But on very wet
days, he earns just enough for a meal to make up for the tens of
kilometres he pedals daily, rain or shine. He came to the city because
there was nothing to inherit from his family’s farm. Now he sends money
back home to his wife and children.

He lives from his icebox.

Danbala is not yet
10. His father is a security man, while his mother sells tuwo at
whatever construction site she can find. Along with his father, mother,
two stepmothers and other siblings, they live in the one room gatehouse
of the house where his father works as security man. For Danbala,
school is out of the question. He collects boxes of matches from Musa
mai tebur for sale to motorists and pedestrians. There is no pay and no
commission. He takes whatever Musa offers, grateful for a morsel or two
from Musa’s tuwo. His entire being is programmed to fighting the ever
present pangs of hunger to which he was born and from which there is no
probable escape. He lives from errand to errand.

These are real life people from a city in the North. The names may
be Emeka, Dele, Akpan or Joseph. The goods they sell may be ‘pure
water’, recharge cards or newspapers. All across Nigeria’s towns and
cities are millions of under-aged children and youth in the grip of
hunger and poverty. They live a brutish life, eking livelihoods from
trays, cartons, baskets and iceboxes, weaving through traffic and
defying death at every turn. They live from day to day.