OPINION: *DANGER IS LURKING*- WALE OLUWALEIMU

Drove out this morning, as I usually do once in two weeks since the Coronavirus Stay Home directive was given, obviously, to restore my groceries and get some stuff as well, to enhance the staying at home.
Drove to over five stores, Goodies, Spar, Bazaar, Osata etc for most things but I needed something in a particular brand and that was the reason for my merry-go-round. My trip took me from Adeniyi Jones Avenue to Bank Anthony Way, Opebi Rd, Ogba Ijaye Rd/ Ogba Retail Market and back to Adeniyi Jones, all in Ikeja area of Lagos State.
At every store I drove out of, I noticed a small group of young men stretching their hands out asking for handouts, at the first two stores I ignored them but when I realized that it’s like a tread and a serious one, I paid attention to them.
They are hanging at the entrance of stores and markets now and it seems funny and unimportant, I had to give out some few buck at the other stores to these guys as I realized that most Lagosians are Hustler and more people hustler in Lagos than actually work. I knw my money might not do much for them but I believe if two more people do same, they’ll probably have meals for today.
Heard a popular Afrobeat artistes say in an interview few days ago that people/artistes shldnt be giving out handouts on social media but as much as I respect the artistes as he’s like my “aburo” and a lot of times, his views are good views, I totally disagree with him this time. He also quoted the bible saying, even Jesus said
“Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again to-morrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life.”
What can we teach these people now that we are all in this lockdown, we can only manage the situation and pray it doesn’t get worse or unnecessary long.
I wrote this after I got home, sitting down to my brunch, I switched on the TV and decided to watch Netflix and the first film that came up was “All Day And A Night” the film is about a young man that was born into a rough neighbourhood and ended up in prison for many reason but nobody’s fault. A scene in the movie had the young man and his friend, stop two young men and collected all the had at gun point and still brutally hurt one of the two men.
If this guys hanging around stores had access to guns, we might not be able to go to stores even in broad day light during this lockdown period.
These stores are stores I go to regularly before the lockdown and I had never seen such people hanging around the entrances.
As I pray that God, in his mercy shld give us the way forward as regards the end of this Pandemic, i hope our Govt will also put plans in place to sort out a lot of such people.
Be safe and dont forget to always abide by the rules and instructions of the Govt so we can come out of this soon.
My name is Akinwale Oluwaleimu.