By

Tochukwu Ezukanma

maciln18@yahoo.com

It was by chance that I stumbled on the article written by Tunde Olusesi, titled, Re: KAI-Induced Tears and Sorrow. Tunde Olusesi is the PRO for Kick against Indiscipline (KAI) Brigade. His article was in response to my earlier article, (KAI induced) Tears and Sorrow. In his article, he ignored the allegations I made against the KAI Brigade and dwelt on the objectives of the KAI Brigade. The objectives and goals of the Brigade as presented by him are laudable; I was impressed. However, it is now evident that irrespective of their lofty aims, their methods have been marred by the Nigerian factor.

What is the Nigerian factor? The Nigeria factor is corruption, greed, dishonesty and lawlessness. Did not the Nigerian military pledge to uphold the Nigerian constitution, to be loyal to constituted political authorities and to defend the country from foreign aggression? But then what are they known for? They are known for plotting and overthrowing legitimate governments, invading villages and massacring unarmed civilians, acting above the law and despising civil authorities, and whipping and beating civilians for flimsy reasons. That is the Nigerian factor.  

A catalog of the role of the Nigerian Police Force must include ideals like respect and protect Nigerian citizens, enforce the law and maintain law and order. Has the Nigerian Police distinguished itself in any of these areas? Of course not, the police are instead notorious for demanding bribe from motorists, harassing and intimidating people, accusing the innocent falsely so as to extract money from them, torturing and sometimes killing suspects who are still presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is the Nigerian factor.  

Despite the loftiness of the stated missions of KAI, its approach evinces a streak of that criminality that is the hallmark of Nigerian public life. To the KAI officials, the program to rid the streets of Lagos of street trading presents an opportunity for money making and wanton brutality. They arrest street traders and hawkers and demand bribe (they call it bail) before their release. They dispossess them of their money and valuables. They destroy and/or confiscate (actually, it is stealing because they resell these goods or put them to personal use) their wares. They harass and humiliate them. They assault them and treat them like animals.

To punish people for hawking on the street is comparable to punishing people for sleeping on the street. No sane person with the option of sleeping in the house will choose to sleep in the street. People sleep in the street because they are down and out, totally devoid of option and completely destitute. So, while sleeping on the street might constitute an environmental eyesore, it presents the society with a problem that needs to be accommodated on the short run and solved on the long run. For government officials to dwell on the environmental unsightliness of people sleeping on the street and refuse to address the social injustice that brought about this problem and to empathize with the immense hardship suffered by those who sleep on the street is unconscionable.  

People sell on the street because they are unemployed and cannot afford shops or market stalls. They sell on the street because they have no other option for economic survival; they are desperate. So, while selling on the street (if unregulated) may constitute an environmental blemish, it presents the society with a problem that needs to be sympathized with on the short run and regulated on the long run. For government officials to fixate on the environmental unpleasantness of people selling on the street, and feign ignorance of the pervading reality that street traders and hawkers are victims of social injustice and economic dislocation is insidious. For them to choose to overlook the plight of thousands of utterly poor Nigerian citizens reduced to subsisting on selling pure water, oranges, soft drinks, etc in the street is disdainful and supercilious. To then persist in compounding their plight by hounding and humiliating them, dispossessing them of both their dignity and money and destroying their means of livelihood is absolute wickedness.

Tunde Olusesi subliminally reinforced my point when he wrote “it is discovered that when we (go) for an operation and clear the place, within 24 hours the people would still return to the same place with their (trading and hawking)”. You do not need a PhD in human behavior to realize that these hawkers reappear after each KAI onslaught (at the risk of being beaten up, arrested and stripped of their merchandise), because of their extreme desperation. Does that not dramatize the incontrovertible truth, that their situation is hopeless, that they have no other source of survival? 

The decision to force traders and hawkers off the street of Lagos is wrong. It is most insensitive. But, even in the very sad circumstance that the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, in disregard for reason and compassion, chooses to continue with this exercise, is it not possible for KAI to do its work without brutality, theft and extortion? It is possible to order hawkers and traders off the street without beating them up like slaves, stealing their goods and valuables and extorting money from them. In other words, can KAI Brigade do their job with civility, in recognition that Nigeria is a democracy and that the law demands that her citizens be treated with respect and decency?  

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria