Law on street trading and illegal stalls

By Punch Editorial board
Published: Tuesday, 1 Jul 2008

AS part of efforts to ensure smooth flow of traffic, the Lagos State Government recently enacted a law banning street trading. The law stipulates that whoever hawks, displays or sells goods or offers any services whatsoever on roads, highways, bridges and public buildings in and around Lagos is liable to a fine of N5,000 or six months’ imprisonment for a first offender and stiffer punishment for subsequent offences. The law also prescribes the same penalty for any person who buys such goods or services.

The same punishment is applicable to any person who establishes or keeps illegal shops; displays, sells or buys goods on pedestrian overhead bridges either in the day or at night in any location in Lagos. Any such displayed goods or items will be forfeited to the state government and subsequently destroyed. The law also bans indiscriminate pasting of posters on sidewalks, bus stops, pedestrian bridges or any public surface.

On the face of it, this law is desirable. Hawking on the roads and trading in the streets have become a big menace not just in Lagos but also in other major cities. Able-bodied youths dash from one end of the highway to another hawking sundry articles. Some of them are kids who should be in school. Some are armed robbers pretending to be traders. At every slight opportunity, they rob their unwary victims of their valuables.

But the government must also examine the socio-economic underpinnings of street trading. Many of these youths are pushed into this illegal business by extreme poverty and joblessness. Some of them are breadwinners not by their own choice but by the harsh realities of existence. They embark on trading on the highways as a last resort because the economy has excluded them and the government has not provided any form of social security or welfare.

To some of them, urban Lagos is a state flowing with milk and honey. They leave their villages for the city in search of greener pasture only to discover, regrettably, that they cannot afford the basic needs of life in a city. Without any reasonable income, a decent house to sleep and money to rent shops, these persons becomes extremely desperate. Those who are not criminally minded find trading in the streets a veritable strategy for survival.

Under normal circumstances, no right-thinking parent will want his or her child to trade on the highway. Apart from being subjected to the hazards of an inclement weather, street traders run the risk of being knocked down by fast moving vehicles. Some of them, especially girls, have fallen into the trap of evil people who either rape them or use them for rituals.

This unregulated trade also constitutes an eyesore to the environment. It poses a threat to the ongoing beautification and landscaping efforts of the Lagos State Government. Some of the traders build their shades directly below high-tension wires. Officials of the state government have already started demolishing such structures in some parts of the state. But so far, they have not been able to dislodge most street traders and highway hawkers.

No doubt, the environment in Lagos needs to be sanitised. But the roots of massive migration into Lagos must also be tackled by all tiers of government. Those who have no business staying in Lagos should be attracted back to villages through a proactive rural development programme. If all aspects of agriculture are developed, Nigerians can be gainfully engaged in food processing without bothering to come to the city only to become social miscreants.

Governments at all levels should also create an environment conducive for small businesses to thrive. If those who rent shops did not have to face sundry levies from state and local governments, many of them will not be pushed into going to the streets and highways to hawk their wares.

the SAN at it again, at least now Lagos would begin to take a more sane look.
but its definetly going to be a hard task due to the nature and complexity of lagos it terms
of road networking and building construction
but if it could be done over here in Abuja, sooner or later it would be in Lagos as well

I think its a good Idea, let the kids go to school instead.

This is not the first time,but will it work? because Lagos state lack the man power to enforce this law, they are street traders /hawkers in every street/highway in Lagos.