OPINION: LAGOS BAN ON STREET HAWKING

They say, before you amputate a limb, you need to first give something to soothe the pain… Well, yeah, I said it. The ban on street hawking is a good move, “true and through”, its actually laudable, but are Nigerians ready for it yet? No, heck no! Where in the name of Sam Hill did Ambode come up with that idea? Its damn right inhumane!

Street hawking is actually embarassing, yes, but how many people have jobs? Ok, how many people have jobs that actually pay? Then how many people have jobs, that actually pay, and are able to foot today’s bills? Then how many people have jobs, that actally pay, that are able to foot their bills, and are not afraid of getting sacked anytime in the future! Do the math.

Yeah, we know Ambode is trying to make a London out of Lagos, but he shouldn’t forget that these hawkers don’t hawk for fun. No one hawks for the love of it. They do it so they can feed… Or has he got jobs prepared for these hawkers already that we are unaware of? How does he expect them to feed when they can’t hawk anymore. How do you expect an innocent person, who is just trying to make ends meet, to deal with the idea of spending 6 months in prison, or pay a fine of 90k just because he is trying to make a living legally!

You see, in Nigeria, we just make laws that favor the rich and comfortable, then everyone else can go to hell! If not, I don’t really see the purpose for this law.

Before Ambode can make this law, here is what he should do; Create jobs for eveyone capable of work in Lagos, then prepare a workout plan for free education for all the underaged hawkers (when I mean “free education”, the state would be responsible for even the books they would use) and then let him open his window and see if he would find anyone hawking!

Its easier said than done… He needs to go back to the drawing board on this one, I think he didn’t properly think this through.