Although there are several things which separate me and the former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, one thing nevertheless unites us: we both are Nigerians.
Today, Fashola's name is engraved on a stony wall just outside the Law Faculty of the prestigious University of Benin where he studied Law and graduated before I was even born. Here, passersby see and praise.
This is well deserved, of course, because Fashola proved himself as a great administrator and leader during his tenure as the governor of Lagos State. Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, too, now has a golden opportunity to sign his own autograph on the sands of time and he must scribble something meaningful for himself and posterity. My fear, I must admit, has now risen by the contents of what Ambode is scribbling.
Very recently Governor Akinwunmi Ambode made the quite heartrending decision to commence the enforcement of the hitherto sleeping Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003 which restricts and penalizes street trading and hawking. He hopes to enforce the ban through the brutal and oppressive Lagos state taskforce known as KAI - Kick Against Indiscipline. The argument is that street hawking and gridlock merchandize endanger the life of citizens who engage in it. The said law imposes a fine of N90,000 or a jail term of six months on the seller and the buyer. With this biting economic situation of the country? Truly, John Holt of England who started street trading in Lagos-Nigeria will definitely be turning in his grave if this law prevail.
The first question Ambode should ask himself is why the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003 has remained a paper tiger until now. The answer is simple - the imposition of a fine of N90,000 or a jail term of six months on a young man or woman who, no doubt, struggles to make ends meet in the scorching sun of Lagos with an inventory hardly worth N3000 is not only satanic but unrealistic. If these hardworking hawkers had N90,000 in their bank accounts, they would rather rent shops in Lagos or stay in their villages farming tomatoes or cassavas than run back and forth like lunatics on the streets and highways of Lagos just to sell #50 worth handkerchief.
Professor Emeritus of Law, Gbenga Adeyemi of the University of Lagos, believes that a law is meaninglessly senseless if it is anti-cultural and imposes sanctions which a reasonable man considers laughable.
Now let us assume that the street trading prohibition law and the sanctions it imposes are justified, is Governor Ambode even aware that Nigeria has the highest population of unemployed youths in the whole of Africa? This fact alone should cause nightmare for a serious government who believes in creating a fertile environment for job creation and commerce.
Street hawking and traffic jam merchandize absorb thousands of youths and women who are largely unskilled and may not have found a finer life.
The ban, methinks, is an open invitation to the affected youths and young women to embrace armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, drug trafficking, etc.
Robert K. Merton, a renowned American sociologist and proponent of the Anomie theory, points out that people engage in crime when they do not have a legitimate means of achieving societal goals such as success and wealth.
Merton's argument is correct; what alternative has Governor Ambode provided to absorb the thousands of youths whose legitimate means of livelihood has been deprived by a clueless law? Nothing.
Lagos is the Nigerian version of the American Dream. It is the land of possibilities, a land where immigrants believe that achieving wealth, success and fame is possible with hard work.
There are hundreds of stories about people who are now famous and wealthy who hawked plantain, bread, palm oil, newspapers, Gala, satchet water, wristwatches, drinks, fruits and so on on the streets and highways of Lagos.
These stories have instilled in the youths the values that they can legitimately hustle their way into relevance by following the sweaty and narrow path of street trading and other available menial jobs. This is a fantastic dream which Ambode must not quench if he wants peace in Lagos; if he does not want "Eko to baje".
If government cannot create jobs, it should not create problems for those who have created jobs for themselves.
Governor Ambode should take note that Lagos has enjoyed relative peace when compared to other major Nigerian cities because, over the years, the state has created opportunities for all categories of persons to legitimately survive.
The state has jobs for the educated and the illiterates too. As a matter of fact, shirtless touts are empowered to use their mastery of Lagos slangs and street rules to collect revenue for the State Government. And this has been successful. These practices have reduced the crime rate in Lagos State because violent persons have been provided with a legitimate means of expressing violence, which is the best crime control technique in the world.
Ambode must not ruin this crime prevention system by sending erstwhile street hawkers to the streets empty handed. I foresee a looming trouble if this happens.
Observant Lagosians would notice that the insecurity and insurgency situation in the Northeast, Southsouth and Southeast geopolitical zones of Nigeria is gradually spilling to the Southwest and, unfortunately, Lagos appears to have been chosen by the insurgents as the field of honour.
The recent killings of civilians by masked militants in the Igbo Olomu and Ita Oluwo area of Ikorodu and the threat issued by the Niger Delta Avengers promising to bomb the Third Mainland Bridge are clear signals that the creeks have become too small for our insurgent friends. Lagos is the next annex of trouble.
The Ambode administration should not, thus, unconsciously create the preconditions for insurgency in our peaceful Lagos. If street hawkers are disengaged as announced, just like Boko Haram thrived in the North and militancy in the Niger Delta because of abject poverty and a vast army of unemployed, aggrieved youths, Lagos State would have created a 'labour market' from which insurgents would recruit, indoctrinate, train and carryout attacks on people and property in Lagos State. Lagos must not become a war zone!
Before I conclude this article, permit me to mention that it will be very unfair to street hawkers if I do not dedicate at least a paragraph to the recklessness and indiscretion with which the officials of KAI enforce the so-called anti-street hawking campaign.
They snatch goods from traders with a vigorous suddenness that is capable of driving the seller into the mouth of a speeding truck (maybe that was what happened in Maryland the other day and resurrected this hitherto dead law).
In some cases, KAI officials arrest pregnant traders and old women who are just disciplined people who would rather street-trade than indulge in crimes. KAI officials are consequently kicking against discipline because I do not see indiscipline in people roasting maize or "boli" on the roadside to make a living. The only indiscipline that should be kicked out of Lagos State are the KAI officials themselves who confiscate goods on the street and resell at cheap prices to owners of lockup shops. What could be more indisciplined than such a corrupt act?
Previously, when Fashola rolled out the drums against street trading, Human Rights Activist, a constitutional lawyer, the late Bamidele Aturu ,through the interview I had with him for a script on the same subject condemned this in strong terms.
Consequently, instead of banning street trading Governor Akinwunmi Ambode should send or sponsor a bill, probably named Street Trading Bill, to the Lagos State House of Assembly. The bill should contain regulations bothering on the rights of street traders, eligibility criteria for street traders, locations and circumstances in which street trading is prohibited or allowed. The Act will also prevent criminals who roam the streets under the pretext of hawking from finding a hiding place. This is as obtained in Auckland-New Zealand, Vietnam, China, Philippine, India, Indonesia.
Street trading is part of the Lagos life and we must preserve it because of the role it plays in our economy by the employment of our people.
Culled from Facebook
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