TACKLING HAZARD OF ROADSIDE/STREET TRADING
Just Event Online by Nu'akofu Uthman Oladimeji
From Adualere junction to Ojagboro junction, Sobi junction through Ita-Ajia to Isale-oja Roundabout, from Post Office to Taiwo Isale junction and from Challenge to Post Office, the situation is the same. Traders have taken over the major roads and streets in Ilorin, selling everything from meat, fish, Beske, Kulikuli, pepper, okirika (fairly used clothes), wristwatches, recharge cards, handsets accessories, fresh fruits to beverages and electronics.
Some roads like Ipata, Oja-Oba and Post Office area in Ilorin metropolis have been rendered impassable by traders who display their articles of trade on the road and carry out their trading with impunity.
Prior to the immediate past administration of Governor Maigida, many people constructed kiosks and shops by the road-side, but government demolished them to give Ilorin a befitting look. Sadly, despite this drastic measure, street trading and hawking have continued to thrive in the City of Ilorin.
Apparently, oblivious of the risks associated with street trading and hawking, and its menace to the environment, many people are increasingly participating in road-side merchandise. Some of the hawkers often get hit by moving vehicles; resulting sometimes in permanent injury or even death. Yet the business continues to boom while the inappropriate dumping of refuse constitute environmental vis-á-vis health challenge.
The most disturbing thing is that while these traders are obstructing traffic on major roads with their business activities, many stalls in various markets in the city are unoccupied. For instance, at Ipata Market where almost all the traders are on the road, many stalls inside the market are empty begging for occupants.
What beats one’s imagination is that government could allow this hazardous business to continue without making law against it.
Roadside/street trading must be making as punishable criminal offence by Kwara State House of Assembly with three months imprisonment for any person to sell or offer for sale, any goods or other articles of trade at Post Office area where traders have turned the walkway and under the fly over their marketplace or any other unauthorized places in Kwara State.
The law must further includes that upon prosecution, convicts are liable to be fine of not less than ₦10,000 but not more than ₦50,000 for a first offender and not less than ₦20,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months for subsequent offence. Incidentally, making a law is one thing and enforcing it is another. We keep churning out laws in Nigeria, without enforcing them.
Government must be firm in enforcing the law if the menace of street trading and hawking must be tackled effectively. That is why one must commend the recent efforts of the current administration in the state to dislodge street traders in Ilorin. The Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Urban Development, Environmental Sanitation Authority, KWATMA and other relevant authorities should take all measures necessary to arrest the situation. Allowing street trading and hawking to go on unhindered will certainly negate the policy of the present administration to beautify Ilorin through its urban renewal programme.
One area that the authorities need to consider critically is the issue of dearth of affordable shops which has often been given by traders as the reason for trading on the streets. The cost of renting market stalls must be made affordable to the small scale traders that majorly constitute bulk of street traders if the dream of stamping out street trading must be realized.
Some people have also suggested that alternative places should be provided for the street traders since the stalls in most markets are above their reach. I beg to support the idea.
Most importantly, government should address the plight of the street traders and hawkers, especially those who took to that line of business due to unemployment and poverty. Reports from opinion polls carried out by many media organizations in the past revealed that a good number of hawkers are graduates who decided to hawk when they couldn’t find any paid job.
It is a fact that we need to make our environment, state and country look decent like many other countries of the world. But it is also true that we cannot achieve these without first of all taking care of the human beings that inhabit these places. Nigeria is blessed with abundant resources which are daily lavished on irrelevant things. If we invest some of the wasted fund on employment generation and poverty alleviation, certainly, the number of street traders and hawkers will reduce drastically.
Nu'akofu Uthman Oladimeji writes from Ilorin.
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