Former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani has recounted how as a child he sometimes had to beg for alms to survive hard times.
He disclosed that this was mostly done on Thursdays and Fridays because he came from a very large family where fifteen (15) ate from the same bowl
“I grew up in a big family house. We used to eat in one big bowl with 15 other children and you had to survive because if you ate and you were not satisfied you had to go out and beg for alms especially, Thursdays and Fridays”, he revealed in a restreamed interview with Motion TV monitored by MyNewsGh.com.
The former lawmaker for Yendi Constituency also disclosed that it was part of their upbringing and those among them who had good voices, sang Arabic songs, recited verses or prayed to make some money.
“It was part of how we were brought up. You go out and if you have a good voice, you sing Arabic songs or you go and pray or you were called to recite some verses of the Quran for some spiritual help to some people and this is how we grew up and were able to make some small money” he revealed
According to him “we were more than 70 with my father who was an Arabic Instructor so you could not identify yourself with your father or mother because you were many in the house. Although you are the biological son of your father, you cannot call him as such because everybody is a son to him. 15 people eating one bowl you had to survive and that survival was part of me. Everywhere I found myself I needed to survive and if grew up in Yendi at that time and you are not somebody who will strive to survive on your own you would forever remain backward”
