Hawkers Intensify Business In Traffic Jam

Hawking in traffic has once again been decried by road users especially motorists, who now grapple with the consciousness of the traffic warders as well as that of hawkers on the road.

Narrating his ordeal after a drama that would have culminated into a ghastly motor accident Saturday, at GRA  Junction,  Aba road   Mr. Aniekwe, a bus driver, who plys Port Harcourt –Owerri, route, said the activities of the hawkers is becoming a menace to the road users.

Mr. Aniekwe, who said that he moved at the command of the traffic warder, only to find himself few seconds later struggling to manage to defend a young male hawker, who in a bid to dulge an oncoming vehicle ran backward to his own side, a situation that put him into confusion as he feared matching the brake in a sudden to avoid a chain collision and continuing depressing the vehicle’s accelerator to avoid killing the poor hawker.

Recovering from the trauma of the sage that took him off road for some minutes while his passengers looked on, the driver said, “I thought the state government was talking about putting these people off the roads, what exactly happened afterall?

The number of hawkers on the highways in recent time no doubt has soared, contrary to opinions or expectations that it would go down if not outrightly stopped given the efforts of the state government few months ago to relegate their existence to history. These hawkers include both males and females within the ages of ten years and forties. Some of them who accepted talking to our reporter said it was their last option to survive.

Further investigation revealed that most of these hawkers are graduates who are yet to be gainfully employed and rather than starving or begging, resort to street and highway hawking.

Some others also claimed that they are under-graduates without helpers hence the need to undertake this road business venture.

Baffling too, is another revelation by few that more goods are sold on the roads than in the known markets.

According to Mercy, “With the rate of go-slow and hold-ups on our roads, most housewives and bachelors don’t get home early as to go to the market, so they prefer buying everything even while they are inside the cars.’

The street and highway hawking is fastly gaining grounds as virtually every household item can be gotten therefrom including food stuffs.

It will be recalled that the state government few months ago did make moves to check the activities, vis-avis dangers and menace of this group of people on our highways, the undaunted reinforcement of these hawkers on the motorways, at so much risk to lives, lives many questions in the air.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi