TUNDE ALAO combed the streets for the kids who have taken over the outlawed street trading in Lagos State. A traditional ruler has an interesting perspective.
STREET trading in Lagos is a crime. Child abuse in any form, including turning them to hawkers, is also a crime. These two unlawful acts are, however, going on unpunished in the state. Many parents and guardians have particularly turned their children and wards to hawkers, exposing them to a lot of dangers in the process.
With no one practically getting punished for turning youngsters to hawkers, many people in some prominent towns have become so emboldened that they send kids as young as four years old to engage in the banned street commerce.
Underage children selling wares is commonplace at bus stops and motor parks, especially in the suburbs, where enforcement against child abuse is obviously countenanced. In parks in places like Epe, Ibeju, Ikorodu and Ketu, scores of little children sell items ranging from sachet water and fruits to dry fish and soft drinks.
Incidentally, in most of the affected areas, there is a prevalence of kidnapping of kids. Students of Igbonla Secondary School in Epe who were kidnapped over a month ago are yet to be returned to their parents. Killings, most of them ritual in nature, have also been on the increase in the state, the most prominent now being invasions of Ikorodu communities by a cult gang known as Badoo, which is making victims out of even children.
But in spite of these potential dangers, excuses are still being made for the idea of kids remaining on the streets to sell wares.
A market leader, Alhaja Seinab Adekoya, is not in support of having children as street traders but she says there is an excuse for the situation: the degree of poverty in the country. “We know the value of education despite the fact that we are not literate, but the simple truth is that poverty has eroded our values and that is the reason why you see our children hawking either in the garages or on the streets”, she said.
Other people who spoke with Saturday Tribune described the subjection of children to any form of abuse under any guise as a social aberration, saying no cultural or religious reasons could be advanced to justify the act.
A respondent, Hakeem Ibrahim, said no sane person would like having his/her child hawk on the streets as this was against the principle of normal parenting.
An Islamic cleric in Epe, Alhaji Subair Adeyemi, said he was opposed to the idea of making children hawk or using them to beg for money. “I’m in full support of giving alms to the needy but it is quite an aberration to subject innocent children to abuse such as begging or trading”, he said.
However, the Oloja of Epe, Oba Kamorudeen Animashaun, told Saturday Tribune about his efforts to discourage children from hawking.
“I think some parents just want to train their children to engage in trading owing to the fact that many of them are traders and they are willing to inculcate trading knowledge in their children. However, it is difficult to see children hawking on the road except in the garages or neighbourhoods. Besides, 99 per cent of children in Epe are attending school”, the monarch said.
We’ll continue to arrest underage hawkers –KAI
Meanwhile, the agency in charge of enforcement of environmental laws in the state, Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), said it would continue to arrest underage hawkers, declaring that the practice is seriously frowned on by the state government.
Spokesperson for the agency, Mrs
Rahmat Alabi, told Saturday Tribune on telephone that the agency had in the past arrested some underage hawkers and punished them through community service like cleaning toilets and weeding. She, however, said the youngsters were not to blame but those who engaged them in such a criminal, yet risky venture.
“We have always apprehended them and will continue to so do. But you know they are underage. They are always made to undergo community service as a form of penalty. It is not their fault but those who ask them to sell wares for them despite the inherent risk,” she said.
Alabi said the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) had been making efforts to check the menace but wondered why some people find it difficult to obey simple rules.
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