The trouble of making ends meet on the streets

The desperate look on Samuel Ibeh’s face almost turned into a cry as the officials of the Lagos Central Business District (CBD) swooped on his goods.

He had borrowed money from a friend to buy goods from the warehouse in Lagos Island, where the traders usually buy at a wholesale price, with the intention of repaying after the day’s business. But all his hopes appeared to have vanished when his goods were impounded by the CBD officials.

“I’m finished. I don’t know what to do now. I just comot (came out) now and I never sell anything,” Mr. Ibeh said, fully focused on his seized bale of cloth lying on the floor of the CBD van.

In their bid to enforce the zero tolerance on street trading which the state government ordered at the CBDs, the officials embark on a daily raid in all the streets in the business district, impounding goods and sometimes arresting the street traders. The responsibilities of the Lagos CBD include creating an environment devoid of hindrance to smooth business transactions, and that includes getting rid of street traders and illegal structures on all CBD corridors.

What happens to seized goods?

The Special Adviser to the Lagos State government on the CBD, Oyinlomo Danmole, had stated earlier this year that goods seized during CBD raids were donated to old peoples’, remand, and motherless babies’ homes.

“When we started, the goods of those who refused to leave the streets were seized and they would be asked to pay fines, as established by the state government. Later, we decided not to release the goods anymore because after paying the money, they go back to the streets,” said Mr. Danmole.

According to a street trader, Obinna Okafor, goods impounded by the officials must not get to their office. “We usually settle them as soon as we are caught. If you allow them to take your goods to their Onikan office you’d have to pay more,” said Mr. Okafor.

It’s now a Monday affair

According to some of the traders, intensive raids are usually carried out on Mondays by the officials.

“They usually come on Mondays. I think it is because they spend all their money during the weekends,” said Ekenna Igwe, whose goods had been seized on three consecutive Mondays.

Mr. Igwe made the mistake of resisting the seizure of his goods on one occasion and this landed him in the CBD’s detention centre.

“I spent more than six hours there before my brother came and bailed me with ₦5,000.”

A senior official of the task force said there is a chance of some unscrupulous officers in the task force collecting money to release some of the street traders without their knowledge. “But those that we arrest, we make them face the full wrath of the law,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

War against street traders

Mr. Danmole maintained that the state is serious about dislodging street traders, especially within the CBD corridors.

“It is not that we are being very wicked, it is a way of making them (street traders) not do what they are supposed not to do. People are very recalcitrant to change. They think it is business as usual, maybe government do this for some time and stop. But this time around, we mean business.”

For the street traders who have remained undeterred, determined to make ends meet against all odds, while one eye serves to prospect for customers, the other one looks out for the CBD officials.

But Mr. Ibeh’s eyes are directed upwards. He is torn between giving his friend a plausible reason for the loss of his money and raising money to take home to his wife and two kids. “Oh God. What am I going to do now?” he asked, his voice trembling.