That Ban On Street Hawking

The mayhem caused by the killing of a hawker who was trying to evade arrest by officials of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) on Wednesday, June 29 in Lagos must have forced the state government to start the enforcement of the law against street hawking and trading as well as illegal markets enacted since 2003.

Hell was let loose at the Maryland area of the popular Ikorodu road, Lagos that day, when a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) bus crushed a hawker who ran into an on-coming BRT bus while fleeing from KAI officials.

Hoodlums used the confusion to rob motorists and unsuspecting public, dispossessing them of their valuables, as well as destroying 49 BRT buses in the process. According to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, it will cost the Lagos State Government N139 million to put the buses, which serve Lagosians daily, back on the road again.

And with that, the state government decided to wield the big stick on hawkers from Friday, July 1. According to the street trading law, anyone found selling or buying in the traffic would be liable to six months jail term or a fine of N90,000.

Ambode warned: “We will be watching out for buyers and sellers and all we need is just scapegoats.” The governor said aside environmental hazards associated with the activities of street traders and hawkers, they also pose great security and health risks.

Echoing his principal’s words, Lagos State Information Commissioner, Steve Ayorinde, explained that the state had to enforce the law so as to “have Lagos work according to the laws that determine what you are allowed to do in the metropolis, particularly on the highways.

Failure to do that would be failure of the government in terms of urban renewal and development.” Ayorinde further explained that the state government’s intention is not to take bread out of people’s mouth, but to make sure that a megacity like Lagos does not allow the level of degeneration presently operating on highways through Okada, street hawking or illegal trading.

Casualt ies are recorded daily from street hawkers getting knocked down by vehicles and commercial buses when these hawkers dash across busy highways trying to sell their wares. One can imagine the trauma such drivers go through. It has also been established that robbers mingle with hawkers to rob motorists in traffic.

Aside this, hawkers are alleged to be responsible for destruction of public assets. Recently rehabilitated roads, especially in high density areas, are known to have mysteriously developed fresh potholes due to suspected hawkers digging fresh potholes in the night to create traffic just for them to sell sausage rolls, satchet water etc.

Rising in the defence of hawkers, a body, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders argued that the state government should have provided a sensible alternative fbefore enforcing the ban on street hawking, adding that the state does not have any moral right to ban them as it would amount to an oppression of poor people.

Speaking through its Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, the body suggested that government provides spots off the highways with barriers where street traders can be patronized.

The body said that available markets built by government in Lagos are not within the reach of the poor hawkers. It said the markets are also not situated in convenient places for people.

Adeniran argued that government should have provided employment opportunities for its teeming population instead of the threat of six months jail or a fine of N90, 000. “If those involved in street trading could afford to pay N90, 000, they will not be on the road to sell their wares.”

In all these, we believe residents are entitled to earn a living in Lagos, but within the ambit of the law. We also believe nobody sets out to be a nuisance, which the street hawkers have turned out to be in Lagos mega city.

A pro-active government like Governor Ambode’s owes residents a duty to protect their lives and property, even if some residents would want to stare death in the face in the course of searching for their daily bread.

As the chief security officer of the state, it is the duty of the governor to make sure new or existing laws are enforced. Since Nigerians like to shop on the go, the state government should also look more into modifying trading in traffic like the example of the ultra modern park it built at the Oworonsoki end of the Third Mainland Bridge where commuters, hawkers and motorists can interact with each other.

More of this park can be built all over the state to curb street hawking. The Federal Government cannot afford to abandon Lagos as a former federal capital as it has done since the seat of government moved to Abuja in 1991.

Lagos still remains the commercial and economic capital of Nigeria and deserves a special status from the Federal Government. The Federal Government should compliment the efforts of the state government by encouraging industrialization in the state thereby providing employment opportunities for the state’s population, which keeps increasing everyday.

Lagos is a choice destination for all as it provides opportunities. If all these are put in place, we believe street hawking will be reduced tremendously; pressure on and destruction of public utilities as well as insecurity would have been addressed together.

Also, the teeming population of would-be prisoners, that are expected to be convicted of hawking or patronizing hawkers and fed free by the state daily would also have been reduced.

Source: New Telegraph 

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