Why Removing Hawkers Doesn’t Help The People

Lagos has ambitious goals of becoming a mega city comparable to New York City, London, Paris and other famous cities known for their wealth, power and influence. In the past decade, steps have been taken at modernizing the city. Recently, the Lagos State governor, Mr Ambode, announced that hawking will be banned. Hawking being trade (of usually small food items and beverages) on the street. Men and women and sometimes boys and girls carry wide trays on their heads, intricately stacked with several goods as they chase after cars to ensure that they make money. Many people crave their services as they sit through hours of tiresome traffic and would like nothing more than a cold Coke or Gala to satisfy their needs. That said, there are things about hawking that need exploring. There have been cases reported of people being robbed by thieves posing as hawkers. One should not have to fear for one’s life or money just because you’re eyeing Gala. I’ve also heard that some hawkers purposefully create potholes in the road so that traffic increases in the area, giving the hawkers more time to sell their goods to more cars. However, these beliefs tend to come from the more cynical ones amongst us. However, the rest of the people suffer and there’s a total loss of welfare in the society. It appears that the government wants to clean up the streets and so from July 1, there shall be no more pure water, Gala or La Casera on the streets.

I don’t think this ban helps people. Surely there will be positives, the streets might be cleaner, some of those kids might be put in school, only trucks and cars will damage the roads and thieves won’t be acting as hawkers. his ban doesn’t help the people. It also comes off as slightly elitist. I say this because it is an elitist response borne out of an  inability to  deal with the root cause of the problem while trying  but to want to remove the symptoms so it does not affect us since we are not bothered by the root cause. But that is only an argument, the ban is not necessarily elitist. So now, it is currently the 7th of July, you’re driving down the road in Lagos and you tell your friend in the passenger seat how nice it is that the roads just look better these days. The hawkers are gone. But you should think, gone where? Because jobs haven’t dropped out of the mouths of birds manna-style. Lagos government hasn’t done anything to ensure a transition from hawking to anything else for these hawkers. The economy has been piss-poor for a while. There are limited opportunities for them. These poor ex-hawkers are now just poor. It’s only a matter of time before they become incredibly desperate. One thing leads to another and they could be forced into a life of crime. Prostitution, Drug Smuggling, Theft. And guess who they’ll be stealing from? You.