“The opposite of
poverty is not wealth. In too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.”
― Bryan Stevenson
I am duty-bound
to write this open letter to you because of the enormous and utmost regard I have
for you as a person. To begin with, I wish to acknowledge that the way you are
going about the CONTINUITY agenda in Lagos-State, Tinubu and Fashola combined
together will not add up to your milestone achievement even if you do just one
term in office. The undeniable reality is that some people may not like your
approach to governance but as for many of us social crusaders who is conversant
with Lagos economy, your style is what fits a state as cosmopolitan as
Lagos-State.
To set the
record straight, whoever says the government is the biggest employer of labour
is naïve and a big joker for that matter, the STREET to me is the biggest
employer of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour force, in my almost 4
decades of existence and knowledge about street trading, I have come to realize
that countries where inequality is institutionalized, where some people get
richer more quickly, while others are getting poorer at a faster pace, where such poor people are increasingly
marginalized and debased, there is bound to be the culture of street trading
and other social struggle. Street Traders or Hawkers are the very poor, the
people who are continuously driven away from their source of livelihood in the
name of social transformation and left with little or no option of survival
than the street. Ever since I was born in Mushin LGA of Lagos State in 1978,
and growing up in Lagos State all through my cradle to adolescents, from school
days to career at the bank and ultimately till this present day as a family
man, I have never seen a government so insensitive to the plight of the
downtrodden and poor masses on the lower rung of the social ladder as the
present crop of administrators we have at the various level of governance in
Nigeria.
Take for
instance the issue of states owing workers salaries for several months while
the Governors in such states keep billions in their personal bank accounts,
only about 5 states are said to be solvent enough to discharge their financial
obligations and of such state is Lagos State, where opportunity to become a
Governor is 8/10, where the prospect of an hawker to become a commissioner in
the state government is not a tall dream, Lagos state is the only
multi-cultural capital of AFRICA as continent. A state adjudged the FIRST and
BEST in so many ramifications, perhaps, the fastest growing MEGA city in AFRICA
and also competing with the fastest in the world at large. My dear Governor
Ambode, you are an exception to those administrators I refer to because you
promptly pay workers salary, provide social measures to ease the sufferings of
the masses and also attract big investment opportunities to Lagos-State as
whole but something dangerous is about to happen if not nipped in the bud and
that is the issue of ban on street trading and hawking in Lagos-State. STREET
TRADING and HAWKING is one of the most significant culture of Lagos State that
set it apart from any other cities of the world and for those of us born, bread
and buttered in Lagos State, we have imbibed the culture of buying and selling
on the street to such an extent that, we stop at any point on the road to buy
our favorite Gala, soft-drinks, household items, newspapers, books, phones and
accessories and many other items and this way of life brings smile to the faces
of both the buyers and the street hawkers you want to castrate.
However,
this common culture is set to be wiped out in order to create another class
struggle in our DREAM LAND, Lagos-State. My dear Governor Ambode, you are set incur the
wrath of POSTERITY if you carry out your threat to expunge completely the ART
of street trading without providing alternative source of LIVING and INCOME to
the teeming unemployed members of the STREET HAWKERS UNION in Lagos-State
because these were the pool of people on whose mandate you won your election as
the governor, these were the set of people who stayed under the sun while the
ELITE and UPPER CLASS lounge in their cozy apartments listening and watching
the street hawkers/buyers casting that genuine ballot for you as a Governor.
These very set of people usually abandons their wares, trek with you on your
campaign train in order to show unwaivered support for your candidacy during
the gubernatorial election in 2015, and it was not their first time doing so as
they have done so for your predecessors Babatunde Raji Fashola and Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu himself, why do you want to pay them back with tears and sorrow?
Mahatma
Gandhi said…..” A Nation’s Culture Resides In The Hearts And Soul Of Its People”
Since the
beginning of this current CHANGE ERA dispensation, I have watched gleefully how
you have turned things around in Lagos-State with your CONTINUITY agenda, the
way you have constituted your cabinet shows it is not business as usual, we
have witness tremendous change in LASTMA, KAI, Government agencies and parastatals,
my greatest admiration was the launching of OFFICE OF OVERSEAS AFFAIRS AND
INVESTMENT (LAGOS GLOBAL), with that move I truly believed Lagos-State is
headed for a top spot in the comity of mega cities of the world. However, your
laudable policies is set to be dented by
one social policy about to be set in motion, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, you announced recently that
you are set to kick in motion for the enforcement on the ban on street hawking
in Lagos-State, why this time when frustration is written all over the people’s
faces, abi you don’ read newspaper ni?
My Governor Sir,
you made the announcement during an interview with TVC, a media outfit owned by
your political godfather Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu where you stated that anyone
caught hawking in the street of Lagos will be prosecuted. The prosecution will
extend to the hawkers and their customers who will either get a fine of N90,
000 or a 6-month jail term. Last year, you directed the Task Force on
Environmental Sanitation and Other Special Offences to carry out full
enforcement of the law restricting street trading in the metropolis, despite
the fact that it is not a bad decision but the timing I suppose is not right.
You
expressed your concern about the resurgence of street trading in major areas of
the state, noting that not only does street trading constitute an environmental
nuisance, it also pose a security threat to citizens. And that an existing law
in the state prohibits street trading, you therefore urges those interested in
doing business to seek for space in the various modern markets redeveloped by
the state government to enhance business activities. Where on earth will these
peasants get the ‘OVER THE MOON RENTAL FEES’ in the various modern markets in
Lagos-State? Let us fear God and be reasonable with the poor people, the only
connecting place between the RICH and the POOR is the street, why do you want
to drive them away from the street?
However, My
Governor Sir, you have not stated if there is any plan to alleviate the
suffering of the mostly indigent street hawkers, whose daily living depends on
hawking along the highways and streets of Lagos. Some days ago, an angry mob of
hawkers vandalized several BRT buses in the Maryland area after a female hawker
was crushed to death by one of the buses. The hawker was killed while she was running
