Teenage hawkers: Impoverished families’ answer to ‘wealth creation’

Babalola Mujeeb, Lagos

Lagos, the fastest growing city in Africa and the seventh in the world with an estimated population of about 21 million is naturally endowed with abundant human and natural resources like bitumen, clay, glass sand – and recently, oil and gas; yet some of the residents still live in abject poverty despite the natural resources.

The above features can be traced to the legacies of decades of prolonged military rule coupled with mismanagement of resources and corruption which have daily depleted the people and made them “Beggars” on the streets.

This act of inefficient of resources and misrule has increased the hostile behaviour among the populace. Sadly, the pursuit of material wealth and things at all cost has introduced another aspect of wealth creation into the mind of
Nigerians which is “Street hawking”.

An author, Aiyeluro (1979), defines street hawking as the process whereby the hawker hawks his goods by carrying the goods on his or her head by means of tray, or minor forms of transportation like wheelbarrows, bicycles, and trolleys among others in search of customers in the process of which he/she could employ the use of bell or shout the name of the item he/she is hawking in order to attract the attention of any interested customers.

Lately, however, individuals have now ventured into hawking business mostly to provide for their daily needs (food, clothing, house) and also settle bills like LAWMA bills, PHCN bills, etc., which makes it become rampant in certain areas in the metropolitan city of Lagos like Agege, Iyana Ipaja, Egbeda, Shasha, Oshodi and many others.

In a series of interviews with different teenage hawkers, Moshood Sulaiman, a 14-year-old boy who spoke with our correspondent, said he lives with her grandmother at Agege which is the major cause of his hawking

The 14-year-old said he lost his father at the age of eight which resulted into absenteeism of his fatherly care. He stated that hawking is a great challenge for him as a teenager, adding that the practice affected him among his peers and also makes him to lose concentration in school.

His words: “Every single day of my life I have to help my granny hawk her pap early in the morning around 7am to the neighbouring streets before going to school. This practice makes me a perpetual latecomer which I suffer for it every day”.

He further stated that his granny is an old woman who depends on the hawking of petty items to provide for her daily needs. For Amaka Chukuwma, who hawk soft drinks, table waters, recharge cards, and chin-chin inside traffic hold-up at Egbeda in Lagos, she said she lost her mum when she was a kid, adding that her father remarried to a Yoruba lady which is the basis of her hawking.

She stated that her step mother is a very stern woman who saddled her with the responsibilities of doing arduous and strenuous house chores and also impose the law of “if you don’t hawk, no food for you” on her. The 15-year-old lamented that she sees this action as a means of child abuse and maltreatment. “I see this action as a means of child abuse.

Hawking has reshaped and redefined my life as a teenager. Sometimes I have to suspend my extra-moral classes in school to get home early for my hawking routine which disturbs my concentration in school,” she told The Daily Times.

According to a mother of a 12-year-old hawker, Mrs. Balogun, who spoke with The Daily Times, she ventured into hawking of cooked Ofada rice when she was unable to secure a shop to establish the work she learnt. She said: “I learnt tailoring as a profession.

Only a hopeless individual will choose hawking as his or her first priority, but we are doing this because life gives us no choice. We have to provide for our children’s needs, pay their school fees and other essential bills”. On her own, the 12-year-old daughter of Mrs. Balogun, said she helps her mom with her cooler of stew during her hawking routine to relieve her of her loads.

Another part time student of Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), Rahman Akewusola, who sells newspapers in the morning and also sells bread in the evening at Pen-Cinema, Agege, Lagos, told The Daily Times that he deliberately chose part-time in his school because his parents lamented that they are not financially capable of providing for all his needs at school. Rahman further stated that, “Life has been unpleasant for me.

I have to engage in hawking and also schooling. Hawking stops me from enjoying full lectures like the full-time students do”. Causes of hawking Nobody will be willing or will voluntarily venture into street hawking, but the economic situation in the country presently has left poor individuals no choice, said Mr. Waheed Abdulsalam, while speaking with The Daily Times.

He stated that the rate which poverty has submerged some Nigerians is overwhelming, adding that some Nigerians find it difficult to afford three square meals per day which is the cause why parents instigate their children to engage in street hawking.

He further stated that many parents find it difficult to purchase trays for their children and fill them with edible materials to hawk in the streets talk less of affording their children school fees and other essential bills.

Mrs. Cosmos also contributed that street hawking can be attributed to inadequate family planning, adding that most parents give birth to too many children they are not capable of training financially and sometimes physically. She added that most parents broke up over a mere misunderstanding that can be settled amicably which leads to a child losing his or her motherly or fatherly care.

Speaking with our reporter, a medical practitioner, Dr. Tayo Alalade, pointed out that street hawking causes different health challenges to the body system, adding that too much trekking at the early stage of life can lead to permanent damage of the heart and trigger rhythm abnormalities at old age.

He stated that most teenagers who fall victims of hawking suffer rape and sexual harassment from their superior customers who feign to be nice to them at the beginning and later force them into the criminal act regardless of their age, adding that they are also exposed to road accidents, hunger and hectic sun as they are always on the road.

Government control But in a chat with the environment sanitation assistant 1 of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), formerly called Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), Mr O. Oyedola, he disclosed that the state government has environmental task force officials who are in-charge of arresting offenders who hawk on highways.

He said: “Hawkers caught on highways are taken to our headquarters situated at Army Arena, Oshodi and later transferred to Special-Offences Court where verdict is passed by paying stipulated fines or sometimes the culprits go to jail if they are not capable of bailing themselves”