Ironically he does not have hands. He lost his two hands in a fire accident when he was seven years old. But that does not bother him any more. If he could be useful to the society, he would do so with his whole heart.

That is why he is sweeps the Ikeja overhead bridge. With the two ends of his wrists, he firmly grips the handle of his broom and sweeps the steps. He and his partner-in-progress Saheed have devised a way of earning a living without clashing. They take turns per week, in cleaning the place. This way, they do other things when they are not at the bridge.

Watching them work must be an encouragement to job seekers or those who are hopeless in finding a job to do. The feeling you get is; “if these can find something to do and throw themselves wholeheartedly into it, what for heaven’s sake is stopping me from getting myself busy”? Or one could just appreciate their zeal for not wanting to be plain nuisance begging.

For Adebisi, who is married with two kids, he proudly talks about how he supports his younger ones in school and also fends for his family with what he earns from sweeping.” I sweep better than a man with two hands”, he enthuses.

He was an athlete coached by a kind-hearted coach, free- of- charge but had to stop training to cater for himself and his family when he got married. He repeats aloud several times, “I know I will succeed in this world. I will be somebody”. Oh! He is somebody no doubt about that. But the law may see him as a nuisance.

Adebisi tells how he was arrested by the task force and taken to the rehabilitation centre at Owutu, Ikorodu in Lagos and his family had to spend about N25,000($162) for his release even when he claimed not to be a beggar. A senior task force officer at the Ikeja office succinctly talks about what the law says about street begging.

Section 249, paragraph, criminal code law, Lagos makes it a criminal offence for any person to ask for or solicit for alms by begging and the Special Offences Court Law, 2003, vests power on the task force, that is Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences enforcement unit to arrest any beggar found in the street.

Furthermore, the Lagos Ministry for Youths and Sports and Social Development also set up rehabilitation centres at Majidun- Ikorodu, Tekole at Epe, and also at Badagry where trade and artisan work is carried out.
But Adebisi claims the Lagos prisons are better than Majindu where he spent over two weeks without getting water to have his bath. When asked whether he has ever stayed in prison, he replies, no! But he knows past convicts who say the prisons’ management treats its inmates better.

Engr.Gafar Shakiru Ayinde, senior special assistant to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos state, says people who duly identify themselves are released without paying fines, if they are not beggars and miscreants as the law forbids on the streets. “These people make free money without paying taxes at the expense of the public”.

He points out that a lot of criminals pretend to be beggars during the day, hiding deadly weapons amongst their stuffs, and at night they go on rampage, even killing people to forcefully get their property. He handed a replay video of a fraudster who pretended to have a diseased enlarged scrotum, but was found with a roll of garment, a disguise to fool the public to part with their money.

This he had been successfully doing until he was caught by the task force. Ayinde believes from experience that there is a cartel run by Mafians who position these beggars at certain spots, to generate revenue for them, and they pick them up at evening after the day’s job. The Lagos State government has been sending messages to other state government’s to come and repatriate its indigenes that are taken off the streets and as at week two of March, there has been laudable responses from the Kaduna, Abia and other state governments.

Some beggars arrested, remanded and released show tendencies of going back to their usual way of begging. He recounts of his experience with a woman who was arrested for street begging, and he pitied her, gave her N2,000 to trade in ‘pure water’, only for her to go back, the next few days to begging on the streets.

Its like an addiction, they are stuck in it. The reformation teams at the rehab centres have psychologists amongst them. What do they think about the proverbial “dog going back to its vomit”? What more can government do?
For Adebisi, the sweeper, there is more than the vocational training that should be done. He wants an avenue to express his athletic passion. He wants to run for Nigeria in the Paralympics or other international events.

He wants to do as much sporting activities as possible. That’s all he really wants to do. So he wants to make as much money as possible to set up trade business for the upkeep of his family before he refocuses on his sporting activities.