Governor Ambode VS Lagos state street hawkers.

       The law was passed on the first day of July 2016 any hawker caught
on the street of Lagos shall be arrested and the penalty shall be the payment of the sum of 90,000 naira or an option of 6 month imprisonment but you can also like to do both. Apparently, street Hawking has been illegal and it is enforced in the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law, 2003 it prescribes a punishment of N90, 000 or a six-month jail term, for both the buyer and the seller of any goods or services on the streets.

Let's take a look at the effect of this action:

Gomina wa I am not saying your stand on this issue is wrong as it has the constitutional backing, but have you stopped to consider where this so called hawkers will get their source of livelihood from, this amendment can bring about the rise in crime, insurgence and the beginning of poverty in Lagos state.

      

             Am sure at one point or another we have all heard success stories (olajumoke) which became possible because of the ability of the person to go into street hawking in order to keep body and soul together, if the government take street hawking away from the over-populated inhabited Lagos state are they ready to take on the task of steady job employment for over 1 million people children included ?

          This law enforcers can increase the level of road causalities caused when hawkers run from them, just take a look at when bike riders were being chased in Lagos most of them died not from their "Okada riding" but from the hot pursuit, also a lot of property's, cars, buildings belonging to both private and government officials were damaged.

Let's take a look at the possible increase of crime rate, death rate, vandalization and reduced economic revenue do we really want that?

                I once posted a story about a child of 13 years of age who was hawking and her wares got spoilt, her reason for hawking being her mother could not afford the fees of she and her four siblings, so everyone in the house had to hawk wares to make ends meet. This is wrong yes, let's think of all the bad things that can happen to this child, maybe that where we need to focus more on, CHILD HAWKING.

        

          Lagos state government can ban child hawking, create an act for free education up to at least senior secondary school level, set up vocational study center to help stop this evil, while reducing the percentage of elderly ones left to hawk on the street.

I beseech you to give Nigerians time to adjust to this law which has been brought to light as Rome wasn't built in a day, most people are not even aware of this law and as we speak arrests are being made all around Lagos state. Every situation has two sides but I think we have to bow low to the lesser of two devils.

           This is a link to a very beautiful article also written on this subject: http://chydee.com/open-letter-to-gov-ambode/.