In crushed Lagos hawker, Nigeria dies

Nigeria diminished in number and essence last Wednesday when a hawker was killed on Lagos road in controversial circumstances. The late teenager was said to have been knocked down by a truck while trying to evade arrest from officials of state’s environment monitoring outfit, Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) in front of Maryland Mall on Ikorodu Road.
Different versions had since trailed the incident. Initial assumption that he was killed by a bus in the fleet of the state’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) prompted the vandalism of BRT buses by concerned residents and street urchins.
Lagos Commissioner for Information, Steve Ayorinde, however clarified the situation later, stressing that the hawker was actually killed by an articulated truck belonging to a soft drink manufacturing company that he did not name.
Apparently on account of the ugly incident, the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Friday, July 1, declared that from that day the state would commence a total enforcement against street trading and street hawkers, saying that the law banning their activities across the metropolis would take its full course. The law, according to him, makes both the hawker and the buyer liable.
“The issue is, we need to enforce our laws because we already have a law in respect of that and then there is a clause in it which says the buyer and the seller are both liable and that we are going to fine them either N90,000 or a six months jail term,” he said.
Going by ugly experiences of commuters and other road-users in the hands of hawkers and the collateral danger involved in the exercise, it is not likely that the governor’s position can be faulted.
Aside accidents – fatal and minor – that often occur on account of activities of the hawkers, there have been incidences of road-users being robbed by criminal elements in their midst.
Some of the street traders also easily yield to unwholesome agenda of mischief-makers who use them for odious purposes. There have been occasions of hawkers serving as informants to robbers or even concealing deadly weapons for them.
Many are known to have been run over by careless drivers. Some have ended up victims of ritual murderers, while the girls among them often fall victims to sex maniacs.
It is in a bid to guard against these occurrences and to show interest in the welfare of the hawkers that various governments have come up with pronouncements that include free and compulsory education for the young ones among them.
But even when most of these declarations have in most cases ended up mere public relations stunts, the kid hawkers, on their own, have failed to grab the opportunities at their disposal by states that match the programmes with actions.
This is one of the negative effects of their early exposure to money and easy lifestyle that hawking offers those on the loose end.
Taken from this backdrop, the Lagos governor may have meant well in his tough talk against the traders. But beyond the declaration by Akinwunmi and his colleagues on hawking, there are many questions surrounding the engagement that have not been genuinely answered.
Who, for instance, are these hawkers? And why do they engage in the hazardous exercise? On the first question, many of the hawkers, in the event of non-availability of accurate population data by the country, can be said to be Nigerians.
Part of the reasons for their involvement in the vocation had been proffered above. But there are many unexplained reasons behind the street trading exercise. And those are the issues of the matter that cannot be wished way.
The people that, for example, embark on hawking, particularly those of the school age, are usually children and wards of the artisans and low income-earners in the society.
Aside occasional instances of deviants among them who choose to be outlaws, even in their adolescence, some of the kid hawkers contribute to running their various families.
Some are orphaned early in life; hence they begin to attend to responsibilities beyond their ages at relative infancy.
Whatever misgiving we may have towards the engagement, those in this category must survive.
The situation is made trickier by the nature of our society that has near zero consideration for the downtrodden or the less-privileged.
Most governors, who have publicly proclaimed free and compulsory education in their states, are known to have kept the pledge in breach.
In a system where the leadership does not factor in social welfare for those in the lower economic rung into the scheme of things, it remains to be seen how any legislation against hawking, no matter how stringent, can comprehensively deter those in the trade.
There are also occasions of demolition of markets by governments and consequent displacements of traders. Even when the initial explanations had been on the need to reconstruct or renovate the markets, the traders are often displaced at the end of the exercise on account of high cost of the stalls or activities of government agents and middlemen.
These are often the traders that flow into the streets. They are the people that may be caught up by the N90,000 fine or six months sentence. Some of them do not even have such capital.
Some do not have other places or states to relocate to. They also do not have other means of livelihood. And they must survive to carry out their civic obligations to the state and country.
For those in Lagos, the announcement by the governor is therefore akin to declaration of war on their existence. Given their obvious limitations, they cannot fight back. They may, in the interim, lie low but will certainly come up in a matter of time.
Ambode may therefore need to go further in making the law against street trading more people-friendly.