Hawkers Kick Against Ban In Ondo, Say Law Is Anti-Human

ANTICIPATING a nationwide implementation of roadside prohibition law, hawkers, who display their wares and sell to commuters across the major roads of Ondo State have kicked against it, describing the Lagos State situation as inconsiderate, inhumane and terrible

indifference to the plights of the people.

As good as the argument for the ban sounds when the governor of Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode declared that “It is not in our DNA to allow someone to just die by road accident,” the Ondo State hawkers, who showed solidarity to their colleagues in Lagos over the law were irked to a fault by describing such actions as insensitive.

According to a car accessory hawker who spoke to The Guardian at the popular Oja-Oba in Akure Metropolis, “How about thousands that die gradually as a result of hunger, poverty and unemployment?” He retorted to the justification made for the sanctity of lives as put forward by the state government.

The hawker, who identified himself as Oscar, stated that many of them resorted to street hawking to eke out a living for themselves hence they could not afford huge capital to start a big business or get a shop, which he said are given out at very exorbitant rates.

He mentioned that they never loved the hassles, hurtles and bustles that characterized their businesses on the highway but since they cannot get better employment in town, they have to make do with whatever good opportunities they have to sustain themselves.

Though similar tragedy struck in Ondo State on April 14, 2016 when a commercial bus driver lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a plantain chips hawker, identified as Johnson Ogah, 25; killing him on the spot at Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) North Gate. 

The Ondo Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Edward Zamber, who revealed that the accident occurred as a result of brake failure of the vehicle and emphasized the dangers attached to hawking, noted that hawkers are susceptible to all sorts of mechanical contingencies.  

“That is the danger in hawking on the road, we have been telling the people to desist from this act, but they refused, I think this has to stop so that lives will not be wasting away,” he said, warning the people, especially children against hawking on the road. 

Dispelling the report that traffic grid-lock is mainly caused by hawkers in the metropolis, a Gala seller at the gate of Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo, said the submission is not true, but a mere accusation to “block our daily bread.”

The petty trader, Yemi Omojowo, pin-pointed that they use to look out for strategic places on the road to station their businesses, pointing at the speed breakers and bumps at the gate of the college as one of the determinants for their businesses, which he said, will necessarily cause the vehicles to slow down and make passengers who need their products demand for them.

“We don’t in any way cause go-slow at all. Go to FUTA gate, Oja-Oba in Akure; here at Adeyemi gate, Lipakala junction, Ore and other places like that, you will only see hawkers where there are bumps. We didn’t put the bumps there, so, how is it our fault?”

Pointing at the ACE campus, Omojowo disclosed that many of them have the ambition of furthering their education there since they are not fortunate to have relatives that can sponsor their education, he asked: “What happens to our dream when we are asked not to make a living for ourselves here?”

The hawkers urged Governor Olusegun Mimiko not to implement such law in the state; and if it becomes necessary, “government must make sure we are given better alternatives because we don’t want to steal and become nuisance to the society, that’s why we are into this unpleasant job.”

A town planner and Chairman of Downtown Agency, Mr. Adeniyi Adeyelu remarked that street hawking is the failure of the government in any society, noting that if government had put necessary infrastructure in place and created conducive environment, such social malaise will not occur.

His words: “What do you expect when the government builds a road and create platforms that look like stalls, when a petty trader cannot afford the public market? What do you expect when the agencies are playing politics with enabling laws and town planning directives?”

Adeyelu iterated that it is only a good will from the government at creating enabling environment and implementing enforcement laws that bring about decency to the society, not politics that often times render subsisting laws on town planning ineffective.

The Coordinator of all women-led Non Governmental Organisations in the state, Mrs Folake Esan, lamented the impasse caused by the unguarded activities of street hawkers in Akure metropolis and several attendant ills fomented on human sanctity such as child abuse.

“The hazards of street hawking especially for children are enormous. Apart from a few who may be able to get out of the situation and be prosperous, many of them may become prostitutes, armed robbers and some might even face teenage pregnancy,” she said.

 According to her: “A number of factors have propelled the world children into hawking in various streets. It is not as if street hawkers are not happy to join their mates in schools to enjoy Western education but they are faced with various challenges caused by poverty, religion, poor family planning, child trafficking, wars and illiteracy.”

Esan, who is also the founder of St. Joavics Foundation, suggested that street hawking should be eliminated, urging government at all levels to implement the Child Right Act.

“The government and NGOs have a great role to play to ensure that children are not treated in inhumane manner. They should collaborate and work by sending their officials to the street of Ondo State to fetch the hawkers and see how to punish law offenders that send them to the street.”

The coordinator affirmed that if those who breach the laws protecting children rights are properly punished, they will desist from such crimes. She also advised the state government and UNICEF to build more orphanage and rehabilitation homes to cater for the downtrodden in the society.