Many states in the country have banned street hawking. Having failed to enforce extant rules and regulations to check the menace, the authorities enacted new legislation against hawking. The laws appear stringent and able to discourage hawking and general street trading, but the situation has become more chaotic, complex and embarrassing, especially in cosmopolitan areas across the country. For instance, the 2016 law of the Lagos State government banning buying and selling in streets imposes on defaulters a N90,000 fine or a six-month imprisonment on conviction. Similar tough action was taken by the authorities at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. With the belief that street trading was degrading the environment, the authorities embarked on demolitions, evictions and the harassment of street traders.
Although the practice is fraught with human degradation, environmental challenges and health hazards to the traders and their patrons, it is being sustained by government officials who shamelessly extort traders and collect illegal levies in collusion with uniformed personnel. Worse still, the officials confiscate the articles of trade and dehumanise hawkers, sometimes leading to avoidable deaths. Traders take the opportunity of heavy vehicular movement to ply their trade.
The latest of tragedies arising from street trading involved four hawkers in Onitsha in Anambra State. They were crushed by a truck while being accosted by revenue collectors. As the parties engaged in a verbal war over a levy demanded from the traders, the vehicle rolled back, crushing the hawkers in the process at the Upper Iweka flyover in the commercial city. Out of desperation to eke out a living, especially at an austere time, the hawkers have sadly lost their lives. Corrupt mentality, disdain and impunity on the part of the officials created yet another calamity. Perhaps if both parties had been circumspect and civil, the incident would have been averted.
But the main culprit in the chaotic scenario is the government which has failed in its primary duty of giving priority to the welfare of the citizens. The majority of Nigeria’s estimated 220 million population have been asphyxiated by economic woes, and the desperation to eke out a living is fearful. People have sunk further and further into poverty and want due to the inactions of government at all levels. Many have lost confidence in the state and its agencies because of the lip service paid to the welfare of citizens, as well as deceitful and corruption-ridden projects. The provision of market spaces has become less attractive as allocation of stalls is often based on political patronage and un-dignifying demands.
To curb street trading, therefore, there has to be real governance with emphasis on the welfare of the people, and sanctions for erring public officials. There must be sustained public enlightenment on the hazards of street trading, the damage to the reputation of the country and its negative consequences on the environment. If only because of the collateral damage to human dignity, the menace must be appropriately addressed and with despatch. The informal business environment must be refined. Critical factors like unemployment, urbanisation and migration form part of the roots of the problem.
Perhaps governments and their agencies can appraise the system operational in Calcutta, India. Under the Street Vendors Act (SVA), public space is grouped into two zones: vending and non-vending, with municipal governments empowered to carry out a periodic census of vendors. Beyond restoring aesthetic values, this will help in improving security and orderliness. But all stakeholders should be carried along in any new policy direction to avoid friction and tension.
The Onitsha incident is a metaphor for what obtains across the country. Nigerians are daily exposed to indignity, frustration and hardship in their attempt to eke out a living. Politicians do not know the gravity of the problem because of their ostentatious lifestyle and isolation from the hapless citizens.
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