MENACE OF STREET HAWKING IN NIGERIA

 by Ogunsola Oluwatosin

In a recent tweet, the governor of Kaduna state threatened that “any child of school age hawking in Kaduna will be asked to bring his parents who will be arrested”. Expectedly, the tweet went viral, giving force to vibrant discussions on the vexed issue of street hawking by children of school age, particularly in the Northern part of the country. It is a crying shame that for all these years, Nigeria has remained unable to address the challenge of street hawking and begging.

The menace of street hawking can never be over-emphasised. Unfortunately, it appears to be a normal business in Nigeria, hence most people do it.

Street hawking entails selling various items on the street, sachet water, bottled water, bottled or canned drinks,  beef rolls, sweets, gums, sunshades, phones,, power banks, wallpapers, vegetables, and some other items. Many children are found hawking or begging for money on the street, during high traffic jam intensity, and selected areas in a bid to survive and make a living.  What gets one thinking is the fact that these kids have parents, but most of them seem unconcerned, some even goes as far as begging in the streets with their kids. So many of these kids gets killed, raped, hit by a reckless driver or stray bullet, face teenage pregnancies or have to undergo abortion.

Measures such as providing free education to all children at primary and secondary level all over the country, strict enforcement of the law against child abuse, arresting parents whose children are found hawking in the streets could be used to control and gradually eradicate child abuse of any form, especially hawking an d begging alms in the street.