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Residents of ibadan They have expressed their concern about the indiscriminate display of merchandise on the main streets of the city by merchants and the danger that this entails for lives and property.
A cross-section of residents, speaking to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) on Thursday, lamented that virtually all major roads and thoroughfares in the state capital of Oyo have been taken over by merchants.
Residents said the development had aggravated the usual traffic experienced in the metropolis on a daily basis.
Aside from traffic congestion, they said the city had also been affected by overcrowding, narrowing of roads and at times complete road blockages in some places due to the activities of merchants.
NAN noted that merchants from Iwo-Road, Monatan, Gate, Mokola, Dugbe, Challenge, Oje, Apata, Ojoo and Omi-Adio have turned roads into places to display merchandise, while most pedestrian sidewalks have also been converted. turned into store extensions.
A community leader, Badmus Akindele, denounced the situation in Mokola, saying the area had become a death trap for unsuspecting traders, travelers and passers-by.
Mr Akindele said: “Traders have turned the walkway and service lane into their shops, replacing their usual trays with tables, forcing passers-by to fight with commercial motorists, tricyclists and motorcyclists for the right of way .
Mr. Akindele urged the state government to take a critical look at the matter and enforce compliance, adding that any dealer found operating on the highway must be stopped and forced to face the full wrath of the law.
He said the government could also ensure that such traders lose their goods to deter others.
Another resident, Munirat Kajola, urged the state government to evacuate street vendors within the Ibadan metropolis to facilitate the movement of passers-by, motorists and travelers.
One official, Johnson Adeagbo, said street trading had led to accidents that had claimed many lives.
A resident of Omi-Adio in the Ido local government area, Christopher Olorode, described the popular Oja-Agbe (farmers’ market) in the area as a disaster waiting to happen, if the government does not take urgent action.
Mr. Olorode asked the government to either relocate the market to another area or move the traders, who usually trade on the main road, inside and build a perimeter fence to prevent imminent danger.
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Similarly, Oyedunni Arulogun, a professor and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Ibadan, said that people who patronize roadside traders need to face music to encourage roadside trade.
According to Mr. Arulogun, if there are no buyers, there will be no roadside sellers of goods.
“Above all, there must be a continued commitment from traders who have chosen to sell their wares on the roadside to the inherent danger of street trading.
“The government must also ensure compliance with the laws that regulate commerce on the highways.
“If laws were made to regulate the practice of standard shopping malls and supermarkets, then the government should enforce those laws to clear our roads of illegal trade,” the don said.
But Femi Aborishade, a human rights lawyer, described the trade on the roads as a reflection of the severe malaise in the economy.
Mr. Aborishade described the situation as a by-product of the phenomenon of school dropouts and mass unemployment.
“Where governments provide decent jobs and school-age children are kept in school, the phenomenon called highway trading will gradually evaporate.
“Trade on the road should be seen as an index of the biggest socio-economic problems that call for an urgent solution.
“Those who trade on the road are forced by the need to address some existential challenges, which leads them to risk their lives trading on the streets.
“Governments at all levels should not be encouraged to inflict pain and discomfort by criminalizing commerce on the roads.
“Rather, this unfortunate development should serve as a challenge for them to address the socioeconomic conditions and challenges that force merchants onto the streets.
“The rich, who set up their shops and offices on the road, like the banks, also engage in trade on the road in a way, with serious implications for the free flow of traffic.
“Interestingly, the people are being overlooked, while the poor, who lack the financial capacity to rent offices, are suppressed and repressed by the policy of criminalization.
“Let governments address the root causes of trade on the roads instead of criminalizing it,” said Aborishade.
NAN reports that the threat of trade on the roads in the city of Ibadan remains a concern for many.
NAN also reports that successive administrations, particularly that of the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, had made various efforts to eradicate the threat, resulting in the seizure of property exposed on the highways.
The administration also established a series of neighborhood markets through the local governments in the Ibadan Municipality, where people could buy and sell.
NAN, however, observed that most of the neighborhood markets have been abandoned by the merchants, while they have found a safe haven for their businesses on the roads.
A director of the state environment ministry, reacting to the development, said the government was not taking the threat, particularly in the metropolis of Ibadan, lightly.
The director, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the state government had taken some steps to address the threat.
He said the government had, on many occasions, given notices to street vendors to vacate the streets, adding that vendors who made mistakes would face the wrath of the law when the holiday notices expired.
The director also said that ministry officials had carried out sensitization of roadside traders in Molete under the bridge, Challenge, Bodija, Apata and Oojo, among other areas, to inform them of the dangers associated with the practice.