Why Ambode has got it wrong banning Street Hawking with Jail in Lagos.

Street hawking banned in Lagos with N90,000 fine or 6 months imprisonment.As much as i love Governor Ambode and think he is doing a fantastic job,he totally got it wrong this time.Streek hawkers and buyers being fined N90,000 or 6 months in jail is one of the worst things i have ever heard in my life.Does the governor or those behind this law think any right minded person enjoys sitting in the burning Lagos sun or running up and down in that sun sweating like a pig?NO! These people have no other means to feed theirselves and families.

Does the government provide them with jobs? NO...Does the government provide them with
affordable kiosks where they can afford to ply their trades? NO...A typical occurrence in Nigeria id for the government to build some shops and make the rent so high that the common man does not even make the monthly rent in a year!
What stops the government from building tiny stalls in vast numbers all over the state and subsidising the rent for these people?Now if they do this,everybody will then know that anybody arrested and fined will have deserved to be.But as it is,what are these people going to eat? Does the government provide social security for the unemployed to get by?NO..Its not a coincidence that people in the western world don't hawk goods on the street.It is because their government provides jobs and if there are no jobs they give them welfare to survive on.

You can't expect your country to run like Britain or America if you don't put the structure that these countries put down in place.
So sadly once again,it is the poor man that has to suffer.
I totally disagree with the idea of Gov Ambode enforcing a ban on street hawking and placing a N90,000 fine or 6 months impisonment.It is totally wrong and should be fought by like minded Nigerians.

I saw  those on the panel on the Tv show where Ambode made this revelation known applauding like sycophants,i don't know what they were applauding for.What they should have been doing,is asking questions of what is provided in the system to see these people through their poverty.These people should be commended for not taking to crime and working their ass off in the burning Lagos sun.

The Lagos State Government on Friday said that from July 1, 2016, it would commence a total enforcement against street trading and street hawkers, saying that the law banning their activities across the metropolis would take its full course. He also says buyers, sellers liable to N90,000 fine, six months jail term or both.


Speaking at a live interview session on Television Continental, the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode said that the renewed enforcement is in line with Section One of the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003 which restricts street trading and hawking in the metropolis.

I have heard many stories of big men and women today who saw their selves through school by what they earnt hawking on the streets.

Don't get me wrong,i am not saying street hawking is great,or that our streets will not look better if they were free of hawkers.But if you have a child that you refuse to feed,you can then not beat the child when he decides to go next door to beg for food.

The Governor, while sympathizing with the family of a street hawker who was knocked down by an articulated truck while trying to evade arrest from officials of Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) along Maryland Bus stop on Wednesday, regretted that the situation led to the destruction of public assets.

“It is not in our DNA to allow someone to just die by road accident or the way it happened in respect of the incident. But beyond the fact that we lost one person while crossing the road as a result of evading arrest by KAI officials, I need to tell Lagosians that over 49 buses were actually destroyed and it is costing us like almost N139 million to put those buses back on the road,” he said.
Consequently, Governor Ambode said the State Executive Council has resolved to enforce the Law, which according to him makes both the hawker and the buyer liable of the offence.

“The issue is we need to enforce our laws because we already have a law in respect of that and then there is a clause in it which says the buyer and the seller are both liable and that we are going to fine them either N90, 000 or a six month jail term.

“What we are doing on traffic is that we are introducing new strategies to eliminate traffic but Lagos being a cosmopolitan city, you cannot totally eliminate it but now this is the case, in the next few days, you will see on the street of Lagos signs that will be warning you that buyers and hawkers should be aware that there are consequences,” Governor Ambode said.
But what i will definitely be happy for Governor Ambode to ban though is the children who should be in school but are seen hawking on the streets of Lagos.That breaks my heart everytime i see that.Those kids have no childhood,they work day and night.But it once again boils down to poverty.If their parents had jobs or were giving welfare to subsidise them,they will not resort to these desperate measures to throw their kids on the streets.