COMMENT: After 56 years, hawkers still rule our streets...

Ghana will mark its 56th birthday on March 6, 2013. Amongst all the achievements which have over the years been touted by governments can we boldly say that 56 years after independence, the youth are in school to be educated and not on the streets hawking to put food on the table for their families?

I recently travelled on the Madina-Legon stretch of road and I was saddened by at what I saw. Hawkers have taken over this highway. Sellers have flooded out of the main Madina market onto the streets, posing problems to pedestrians and drivers. Their own lives are at risk. And most importantly, nobody cares!

As I drove on, I began musing over why people would not sell in the market provided instead.

Poverty, indiscipline, lack of training, poor leadership and struggle for survival came to mind as some of the reasons for the increase in the number of hawkers on the streets of Accra and other regional capitals in the country. As a country with a lower-middle-income status and widely seen as the star and hope of Africa, one wonders if the current scene on our streets would not erode these modest gains.

A colleague of mine on a recent trip to Kigali in Rwanda observed and wrote that “there was not a single child screaming, ‘yeeeeees, pure water’ by the car window when we got to the traffic lights. I convinced myself to say it’s a dream".

Even Rwanda, a country so much stigmatised by many, including Ghanaians due to its several years of civil which led to the 1994 genocide, has put measures in place to ensure that their streets are not used as a haven for hawkers.

In Ghana, Accra, has been named the Millennium City by Mayor Alfred Vanderpuye but does the name reflect the city’s present status?

Governments and city authorities at certain times of the year make efforts to rid the streets of hawkers. Markets are sometimes built for the hawkers to sell their wares. They however sneak their way back onto the streets with the reason that they record low sales due to the location of the market.

The sheds are then left empty and at the mercy of the weather to rot. It also becomes a den and hiding place for criminals from where they coordinate their activities.

Some of such markets have also become dumping sites for refuse by residents and a place of convenience as well. A known example is the pedestrian mall at the Kwame Nkrumah circle.

My view is that our leaders lack the guts to enforce what is right. This view is further strengthened by the seeming superficial approach we adopt in solving problems and a certain fixation to power even at the expense to the future of the country.

I give two examples relevant to the subject under discussion. Prior to the Odododiodio by-election in 2005, then mayor, Stanley Agyiri Blankson, embarked on a spirited, expensive, yet useful venture to clear the street of hawkers. The streets of central Accra became free of both vehicular and human traffic. The mayor received plaudits from well meaning Ghanaians for his boldness. Unfortunately, this did not last! Just when the by-election necessitated by the demise of Samuel Nii Ayi Mankattah, NDC Member of Parliament, was announced, the authorities relaxed. The situation became worse because the government of the day wanted favour with the people. In a matter of days the hawkers were back. Authorities immediately forgot that leadership is about taking hard decisions!

The second experience is just like the first, only that the actors had changed. Alfred Vanderpuye became mayor. His pledge to make Accra become one of the cleanest and functioning cities in Accra is still clear in my ears. He had so much energy, drive and vision. Some of us applauded his ‘no-nonsense’ attitude. All he knew was that things must work! Not long after that, he came into contact with resistance from officialdom and human rights groups. He was later overwhelmed by the need to remain in power so hawkers in Accra were left off the hook to cause human and vehicular traffic all in the name of selling to feed their families. He also forgot that leadership is about taking hard decisions!

This is the trend; if there’s no big political event at stake, city authorities go all out to want to clear the streets. Just when an election approaches or is announced we retreat.

Nobody has yet done any analysis on how much this exercise of temporarily clearing the streets costs the nation. It would be interesting to know how much we spend on these exercises...in vain.

They hawkers who at such times feel threatened they are bound to lose their daily bread, fight back or run to prevent their wares from being seized by the city authority task force. Other also pay some amount of money to some of the task force members to be pardoned and allowed to sell when the ‘bosses’ are not looking.

While I understand all the issues of rights and the need for alternative sources of livelihood for the street hawkers, I am in full support of the clearing of the hawkers from our streets because it is dangerous, it crowds our streets and pavement creating inconvenience for motorists and pedestrians plus it also contributes to littering of the city.

City authorities should therefore not be partial and selective as to what times to clear the streets. It should be how the city operates! Task force members who take the opportunity to enrich themselves by taking money from the hawkers should also be punished to serve as a deterrent.

The hawkers are well aware that their activities are against the law yet, they need to survive. I witnessed one task force member of the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) forcefully taking the second-hand clothing a young woman was selling in front of the pedestrian shopping mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. The lady was aggressively fighting back and raining insults on the city guard. When she got tired of fighting back, she gave up the wares and harshly said to the city guard: “Nyankopon b3 tua wo ka. Wo p3 s3 m’enk) b) ashawona m’enfanh3 mehoanna s3 m’enk) wiaade?”

Basically, she said: “God will punish you, do you want me to go and engage in prostitution to take care of myself or you want me to go and steal?”

These are the sentiments and the concerns of these hawkers who feel they are the few unfortunate ones who have been left out of the sharing of the national cake.

They are bitter when a prospective buyer enquires about the price of their goods without buying them. If you are bored in traffic and accidently your eyes meet that of a hawker who for the whole day hasn’t sold anything, he or she will pester you, convince you and even beg you to buy something from them. When the traffic begins to flow, they will run after your vehicle to persuade you to buy.

Many a time, some of such street vendors are knocked down by cars or even motor cycles. Some even don’t get paid because the traffic moved before he or she could get their money from a customer. Others also cunningly and intentionally delay in giving passengers their change so that that when the vehicle moves, they can keep the money.

In all these, who and what are to blame? Failed educational and social policies, lack of jobs, poor income of workers, laziness on the part of some parents to work to take care of their families, rural-urban migration?

Ghana needs to grow, Ghana has to develop, and Ghana has to live up to its name. We need to collectively move this country forward. Let us abhor what is wrong and uphold what is right, don’t let us interfere with the law but allow it to take its course because it is for the greater good of us all.

Author’s Email: osamidan@yahoo.com