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When Samuel Abdulraheem disappeared at seven years old, his family searched for him until they began to fear they would never see him again. For six years, they had no idea where he was or what had happened to him. His sister, Firdausi Okezie, refused to give up hope, even when the family began to accept that he might be dead. Then, in December 2000, she travelled to a church gathering in Ogun State to sell fabrics made by her mother. While waiting for a carpenter to help her set up her stall, she noticed a boy standing beside a blind beggar. She looked at the boy again. He was her missing brother. Samuel was seven years old when he disappeared from his family home in Kano, northern Nigeria. His father had 17 children with four wives, and Samuel was the youngest child in the family. On the day he went missing, he was reportedly at home with a nanny. The family was told that he had gone outside to ride his bicycle, but he never returned. At first, his disappearance was difficult for the family to understand. They searched for him and contacted the police. His nanny was initially arrested but was later released after investigations. His older sister, Firdausi, was away at university when Samuel disappeared. She was not immediately told what had happened to him. She began to suspect something was wrong when she repeatedly called home and noticed that things were different. After returning home unexpectedly, she learned that her younger brother had been missing for more than a month. The news devastated her. The family searched for Samuel, placed advertisements in newspapers and sent people to look for him. They checked places where they feared he might have been abandoned and pursued different leads, but none brought him home. As the months passed without any information, hope began to fade. His mother, who was living elsewhere after separating from his father, was not told about his disappearance immediately. The family delayed breaking the news to her because they feared how she would react. Eventually, she learned that her son was missing. Years passed, and there was still no sign of Samuel. What his family did not know was that he was alive, hundreds of kilometres away from Kano, being forced to guide blind beggars around the streets. Samuel had very little memory of how he was taken from home. When he later spoke about his experience, he remembered being approached by people who were not his parents and being persuaded to follow them. His clearest memory of the journey was travelling by train. He was taken to Lagos, where he was handed over to a woman who lived in an area where many disabled beggars stayed. According to Samuel's account, the woman sent children out with beggars and collected money from them in return. Samuel was hired out to blind beggars for about ₦500 a day. His job was to guide them through the streets as they begged for money. He could not simply decide to leave. The beggars depended on him to move around, and he was expected to remain with them throughout the day. Different beggars hired him for periods ranging from a week to a month. He moved around Lagos and neighbouring areas, sometimes travelling to other states and even across the border into Benin. He was rarely able to settle anywhere for long. Samuel later described his life during those years as a form of slavery. He had little control over where he went or what he did. Hunger was a constant problem. Sometimes people gave them food while they were begging. At other times, they searched for leftovers around restaurants or scavenged for food. The money collected from begging did not belong to Samuel. The woman who controlled the arrangement received payment for his labour. He spent six years living this way, separated from his family and without knowing when he would see them again. Meanwhile, Firdausi had refused to completely abandon the search for her brother.

After graduating from university, she moved to Lagos in search of employment. She continued to think about Samuel and hope that she would somehow find him. In December 2000, she attended Shiloh, an annual gathering organised by Winners' Chapel in Ota, Ogun State. She had secured a stall to sell tie-dye fabrics made by her mother. While waiting for a carpenter to help her prepare the display, she sat down to rest. Then a blind beggar approached, guided by a boy. Firdausi looked up and recognised the boy. It was Samuel. Six years had passed since she last saw him. He had disappeared as a seven-year-old child, but he was now 13. She screamed when she realised who he was. People gathered around her, trying to understand what had happened. Firdausi explained that the boy was her younger brother, whom her family had been searching for over the years. The beggar who was with Samuel reportedly pleaded with her, but she reassured him that she wanted her brother back. Samuel, however, did not immediately recognise Firdausi. He later recalled that although her face was unfamiliar to him, he felt a connection with her and believed her when she told him they were siblings. After six years apart, the two were finally reunited. Firdausi contacted their father, who travelled from Kano to Lagos to see his son. Their mother was also reunited with Samuel, but the years apart had changed him so much that she did not immediately recognise him. She eventually checked for a birthmark beneath his arm, which helped confirm his identity. The reunion brought Samuel home, but rebuilding his life was not going to be easy. He had spent six years without formal education. At 13, he struggled to find a school willing to admit him because of his age and the years he had missed. Firdausi continued searching until she found a school proprietor willing to give him a chance. She also arranged extra lessons to help him catch up. Samuel made remarkable academic progress. He advanced through primary school quickly, passed his secondary school entrance examinations and eventually gained admission to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria at 17 to study chemical engineering. However, his university education did not go as planned. He was expelled during his fourth year after being caught writing answers for another student during an examination. He later worked as a supervisor on construction sites and expressed hope that he might return to school when his finances allowed. Despite the years he lost and the experiences he endured as a child, Samuel said he held no grudges against the people who had treated him that way. His experience also changed how he viewed children who guided beggars. He explained that when people saw a child accompanying a beggar, they should consider whether the child might be in trouble rather than simply handing over money and walking away. For six years, Samuel's family had searched for a missing child while he was being moved from place to place and forced to work on the streets. His sister finally found him by chance, not through a breakthrough in the investigation or information from someone searching for him, but because she happened to look up at the right moment. The boy who disappeared at seven returned to his family at 13. And his sister's chance encounter with him revealed something troubling: a child standing beside a beggar might not be there because he wants to be. The attached image is of Samuel about 2 years later after he was rescued. He was standing beside his sister, Firdausi at her wedding. © Sallywrite