It was a Monday morning in Oke Foma area of Ilorin, Babatunde Saliman was excited to delve into the business of the day as he took to the road in his white T-shirts and a blue jean, complemented with a black-stripped Balenciaga shoe. His house is just a stone thrown away from his shop, he only needs to take a few steps.
On his way, he sighted a river filled with women armed with shovel and bucket, digging and packing out sand to the river bank. What will they use the sand for? He quizzed himself.
With curiosity plastered across his oval face, Babatunde took a peek into what these women were doing. “Should I go and ask them? Maybe it is hardships that lead them to this,” this reporter concluded as unanswered questions stream through his mind.
But when he moved closer to the women, Babatunde was swept off his feet. The women were digging the waterway for sand to cater for their families.
“Sometimes, I cried for these women, I felt so bad for them, when I heard they sell the sand to make a living, I felt more pity for them. I can’t even imagine what situation could have pushed them to this hard labour. I guess they have no other option than to dig the sand from the river.”
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, forty percent of Nigerians lived below its poverty line of 137,430 naira ($381.75) a year. It said that represents 82.9 million people.
“In Nigeria, 40.1 percent of the total population was classified as poor. In other words, on average four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capital expenditures below 137,430 naira ($352) per year,” it said.
The figure is bound to plummet as a result of the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic. These are tales of women who pack sand for a living along Al-Adabiyya Oke-Foma, Babalaje way in Ilorin.
The women were assisted by their little children to pack the sand into the trucks which thereafter take it to construction sites at the sum of ‘N2,000 per truck’.
Some of these women who spoke with this reporter could not hold their emotions as they reflected on the loss the pandemic has done to them. With deep sorrow, they seek the support of the government, corporate organization, and privileged individuals.
One of the women, Khadijat Musa, relieved how her soap business failed during the lockdown, stating that she engages in the business to cater to the needs of her six children.
“I hawk soap before the lockdown, I have six children most of them are in secondary school.
“All of us that are working in this river are businesswomen. There is nobody body among us that doesn’t have one thing or the other that she engage in. But after the ‘Coro wahala’, things have not been going smoothly, our businesses were ruined, because we need to keep the upkeep in the house, most especially the feeding among others. So we end up losing our business.
“We venture into this because there is no option for us.”
Another woman who identified herself as Hawau Abdulazeez explained the difficulties they went through in the river. Before COVID-19 holds the world to ransom, she sells beverages in her home.
Hawau narrated how they toil through thick to pack sands from the river, losing their valuables to the storm. Despite the challenges they contend with, she said their buyers pay pittance for their works.
“After the stress, we went through in the river, which sometimes the wave of the river will carry our shoe, rapper, and even money, we sell a full truck of sand for N2,000 while those ‘tippers’ resell it for construction at the rate of N12,000, I don’t have any other options because I can’t steal or beg people around for food.
“Sometimes after packing sand from the river, we will wait for like two or three days before we will get buyers for our sand and if there is none when the rainfall, it will wash it back to the river,” she added. This time, some specks of tears have turned her eyes into a temporary pool, waiting to overflow.
Like Hawau Abdulazeez, Aminat Abdul Rauf, who lost her business during the pandemic said proceeds made from the “sand selling” business are used to cater for their feeding and the education of her children.
“I always use the money I got from selling the sand I pack from the river to sponsor myself and my children, most especially the feeding, school fees of my children, and the petty things in the household.”
Her words: it’s the saddest day of my life. The day I fainted in this river. Oh!, I will never forget that day, I haven’t eaten a night before, So when I got to the river I couldn’t control myself, then I fainted.
By this time she was crying heavily as she continues her sad narrations.
“They rushed me to a hospital nearby but there is no money to even pay the hospital bill, I am a widow, I have no option,” another lady, who simply identified herself as Iya Abdulgafar, chipped in.