The absence of entry and exit barrier in this sector has made it easy for anybody to compete and thereby reducing the level of crime in the society. Surely, this sector contributes to the GDP of the nation, even if nobody has bothered to measure their contributions. Most of the street traders and hawkers are engaged in it to raise fund to support themselves in school or other trades. While, of course you will find a few among them who have ulterior motives, these latter are however the exceptions. So, when I heard of the recent reawakening of Section 1 of the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003 by the Executive Governor, Akinwumi Ambode, my first reaction was that of disbelief, then incredulity and now anger. Like Bayo Adeyinka wrote, we would all have been jailed several times including the Governor himself, if the law had been enforced since 2003! If Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, under whose administration this law was signed and who happens to be the godfather of the sitting governor, had found this law enforceable, he would have done so long ago! I am therefore surprised that Governor Ambode is flogging a dead horse and bringing back a law that, ‘ab initio’, is bound to be ineffective. The first question is ‘why do these people thrive so much, especially on very busy roads of Lagos where speed limits can be as high as 100km/h?’ They thrive because they are filling a gap in the market which they have wisely identified. No TFC or Mr Biggs or KFC or any other fast food provider can satisfy the urge of a poor pupil who has been out all day for school and his returning with his mum in the car, and here they are stuck in traffic on the almighty third mainland bridge! To make matter worse, the last time the poor boy ate was during lunchtime maybe at 2pm or so! Or which of the fast food joints can meet the urgent need of a heavily pregnant woman who is squeezed in between other passengers in a ‘Danfo’ bus on 3rd mainland bridge and have a pressing need to drink cold water? Has this been thought through? It could have dire and serious health consequences on road users! Now that our Governor has re-invoked the law, who will fill these gaps? Or are we consigned to carrying extra luggage of foods or snacks on our way to work every day? Or has a technology been discovered overnight that will guarantee absence of traffic or near zero traffic? Two, what will they take up in the absence of where to trade their wares? I can think of some immediate consequences of this needless law. One, they can decide to defy the order and stage a mass protest. Two, they can decide to start selling at night knowing that most of the KAI officials would have retired to their various homes, creating another problem. Three, those who cannot do any of these two or who already have criminal tendencies will go into crime; and guess what, if they show any sign of success, many others will follow them. So I think this step is an open invitation to increase in crime rate, unless there are serious efforts on the part of Lagos State Government to provide market spaces for them. Three, knowing the kind of system we operate in this country, even if the government decides to create designated markets all over the metropolis, the local government officials and their cronies in the State will hijack the allocation process and make it become unaffordable to the street traders. More so, such shops don’t even come close to what the street traders can afford. In effect, the State Government is only telling the street traders to go and find something else to do. Chikena! While the dream of making Lagos State a ‘Mecca’ of sort is plausible, it is first expedient that the State Government create alternative sources of employment for these economic agents, either by registering them (as suggested by Bayo Adeyinka), or setting block of times for them to sell their wares on the road. Even so, if this is done, how do you ensure you don’t have crisis on the road if people start fainting out of hunger or traffic induced exhaustion? Even when the Pharisees accused Jesus Christ of allowing his disciples to pluck corn on Sabbath day, his response was that man was not made for Sabbath; rather Sabbath was made for man. In the same vein, men are not made for laws, laws are made for men and they are made to make life better, more orderly and fair to all. This particular law is truly unfair in the absence of ameliorating actions.]]>