In recent times, concerned individuals, governments and organisations have stepped up the campaign against street begging, especially in Northern Nigeria where the practice is more pronounced.

One of such concerned individuals is the Senate President, David Mark who recently charged Northern governors to ban the 'almajiri' system.

He had argued that the almajiri system is counter productive and is a breeding ground for miscreants. Also, the Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime recently vowed to get begging off the road in the state, saying street begging was an offence under the law. He reasoned that it was a sin to engage in street begging under whatever disguise.

However, one state that appears to be tackling the menace of street begging headlong is Kwara State.

The administration of Governor Abdul Fatah Ahmed has thought it wise to put in place some pragmatic measures to discourage people from engaging in street begging in the state.

The truth is that, since about two years ago more people, especially women politician have turned beggars in the state. These women have cultivated the habit of reporting daily in public offices to beg for alms, claiming that they had contributed to the electoral victories and appointments of the public officers.

Disturbed by this scenario, the government through the office of the Senior Special Assistant (poverty alleviation), Hajia Sarah Adebayo during the celebration of the 2013 Democracy Day in the state rolled out empowerment tools for over 200 women in the state.

The empowerment items distributed to the women who are mostly widows included deep-freezers, grinding machines, television sets, yam flours, grain and other items which were valued at about N10m.

In her remarks during the presentation of the empowerment materials to the beneficiaries drawn from all the 16 local government areas of the state, Hajiah Adebayo, said the gesture was a further demonstration of the state government's commitment to the improvement of the welfare of the people especially the vulnerable groups.

She added that the government was concerned about the widows, allegedly hiding under the guise of widowhood had reduced themselves to beggars.

According to her, government's gesture was to assist them become productive citizens and improve on their socio-economic status.

"These women are fond of moving during the office hours begging from government officials. Under the Magida Women Empowerment Scheme, my office collaborated with the office of the First Lady in this empowerment. It is under the 'share prosperity' scheme of the state.

"The essence is to take the widows off the streets. We do not want them on the streets again. We embarked on their needs' assessment that will assist them become productive. We then made available what they requested.

"The programme is to empower them and to add value to them socially, economically and otherwise. It is also to tell them that there is no gain in begging," she said.

She stated that the state government had set machinery to monitor the business development of the beneficiaries with a view to assisting them with business expertise to make the investment worthwhile.

She urged other beggars to stop such indulgence and avail themselves of the empowerment windows of the state government. She noted that such empowerment windows included skills development and small medium enterprises platforms.

According to her, these strategies will ensure that the widows were productively engaged, have wealth creation avenues and contribute positively to their individuals and state economy.

It could be recalled that the administration of Dr Bukola Saraki, the immediate past governor of the state had on December 7, 2006, signed into law, the bill prohibiting street begging in the state.

And the administration of his successor, Alhaji Abdul Fatah Ahmed had decided to build on the legacy of Saraki in seeing that the streets of Ilorin are rid of beggars.

To achieve this, the government has dispatched officials of the social welfare ministry to every nook and cranny of Ilorin metropolis to arrest the beggars who have constituted themselves into social miscreants.

According to the law, any person who hawks or wanders about to beg for alms is guilty of the offence while any person who encourages or facilitates any act of street begging is equally guilty.

Besides, any person who contravenes the provisions of the law would be guilty of an offence and would be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N5,000 or imprisonment not exceeding three months or both.

The law has defined alms to mean money, food, clothes or other material things. At one of his monthly media chats tagged "The Governor Explains," Governor Ahmed described as unfortunate the myriad of social problems confronting the country, resulting to a few people going into street begging as a profession.

"We know very well that street begging is not a profession, it has been proscribed in Kwara State, having put in place a plethora of social nets that people can take advantage of," he said emphatically.

Ahmed said, his administration has created a rehabilitation programme under the ministry of social welfare to ensure that a lot of skill acquisition centres across the state are put into use, wondering why many people particularly the beggars have refused to take advantage of this.

The governor noted that the increasing presence of beggars in the state was largely as a result of the evacuation done in other states where they just bundled them into vehicles and dropped them indiscriminately in different locations of the country.

While those states have their own laws to contend with, he said, his state also has its own and would not bend the rules simply because they want to take care of the less-privileged.

Beckoning on beggars to take advantage of the systematic programme government has put in place for their rehabilitation, he warned that to take to street begging was to contravene the law as government's door is wide open to support beggars who seek rehabilitation.

The governor emphasised that for any society to record any meaningful progress, sanity must be allowed to take its toll in all ramifications so that government can judiciously apply the meager resources at its disposal towards providing dividends of democracy to the citizenry.