Tuesday,
January 15, 2013
Once
again, the Chief Executive Officers of the Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan
Assemblies are out, warning petty traders (hawkers) to “voluntarily vacate” the
streets and public spaces or face the consequences. Those in Accra gave a
deadline that has expired with little indication that the warming had been
heeded. Those in Kumasi have given a two-week’s ultimatum to the hawkers to do
so or be met with stringent measures to uproot them from their business enclaves.
So, the
tone is set for a physical confrontation between these stubborn petty traders
and those who claim administrative/political jurisdiction over the business
spots in these metropolises.
This
ding-dong battle between these two is nothing new. For sure, we know what the
trend is. The petty traders will not heed all those strings of warnings. The
consequence? The Metropolitan Chief Executives will unleash the full force of
the “law” at their disposal to physically “put the fear of God” in these
recalcitrant petty traders.
But
these traders will be unfazed because they have for long known how to cope with
this situation. They have many ways to counteract such measures and will brace
themselves up to absorb the pressure. There will definitely be casualties when
brute force is unleashed on unarmed but determined petty traders seeking to
make a living at all costs.
This
scenario is perennially enacted and re-enacted. In the heat of the physical
confrontation, the government will step in because it fears losing support from
that constituency of petty traders. It will introduce cosmetic measures to
attempt solving the problem, pay lip-service to it through cosmetic measures to
placate the petty traders for goodwill at the elections, only to look on while
the problem resurfaces and the local authorities return with brute force once
again.
You see,
my friends, that’s the situation. Obviously, this persistent harassment of
petty traders and hawkers in our towns and cities by the local administration
is appalling. It reflects a serious lack of management and administrative
acumen, which is the main cause of our national development crisis.
Whenever
I hear the stern warnings given by the management of the Assemblies to these
hawkers, I cringe and wonder why Ghanaian public officers never learn any
useful lessons from observable human behaviour to be able to solve pertinent
problems once-and-for all. Can’t these Assemblies re-define their problem-solving
strategies to account for the dynamics of life in their domains?
I wonder
if they even have any development plan for their areas of influence. It is
obvious that they are more invested in ad hoc measures spurred by political
considerations, not economic expediency.
Do these
local Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies not go about collecting daily
tolls from these hardworking but unsettled hawkers? They do. And what do they
do with that revenue to provide facilities for these toll-payers? Little or
nothing.
The
nagging question, then, becomes: If the contributions of these hawkers sustain
local governance, what prevents the Assemblies from settling these traders to
assure them that their interests are catered for as responsible citizens contributing
invaluable efforts towards local and national development?
The
problem is that the local administrators care very little about the wellbeing
of these poor hawkers. Otherwise, why haven’t they so far invested any
resources in building decent trade posts or markers for these hawkers to
operate in an atmosphere of peace and business-like instincts?
For as
long as these hawkers feel discriminated against—or totally disregarded and
disrespected despite the contributions they make to sustain the activities of
these Assemblies—no amount of force will deter them from spilling over onto the
public spaces to ply their trade.
I take
umbrage with the management of the Metropolitan Assemblies, particularly. These
sprawling cities continue to grow and the population increases. But sadly,
little is done to provide social facilities that the residents need to live in
measured comfort and decency.
How many
public places of convenience and other social facilities do these metropolises
(Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, and Tamale) have to cater for the people’s
sanitation needs? Good governance demands that the authorities address the
problems of these petty traders in a more humane and business-oriented manner.
One preliminary step is to take m
How many
decent markets do these metropolises have, where law and order exist for
business to be done in an orderly manner? Certainly, if the existing trading
centres function more like prisons, the traders will not be encouraged to use
them for anything. They will rather choose to risk it all, gravitating to where
they can attract customers and make quick money each passing day.
The
sanitary conditions existing in the public markets are horrible. Go to any of
them to see things for yourselves. Who will be proud to operate in such an
environment when chances of making profits street hawking are better?
The
unfortunate sequel is what we see every day when these Assemblies resort to the
basest and crudest means of solving the problem, which is to unleash brute
force and mayhem on these poor innocent hawkers as if doing so would deter them
from pouring onto the pavements, streets, and any available open space to ply
their trade. Street hawking cannot be tackled that way.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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