By Biola Arogbo
Welcome to Lagos. Lagos is the most populous city in Nigeria, the second fastest-growing city in Africa and the seventh in the world. The population of Lagos, according to the Lagos State Government is 17.5 million. Lagos is the commercial hub of Nigeria.
The population of Lagos outstrips the entire population of some countries in the West African Sub-region. This fact is made very glaring by its topography. For size, Lagos is small and heavily over-populated. The reason for this, is its resources, wealth and opportunities.
One cannot talk about a typical day in Lagos without a mention of the hustle and bustle that marks a ‘Lagos day’. A typical day in Lagos begins at about 4.00 am when people begin their pilgrimage to their places of business. The ‘uninitiated’ wonder why people leave their homes this early. For native Lagosians, there is only one reason. Traffic!!!
There are two rush hours in Lagos; Early mornings and evenings. Mid-days are usually relatively free except for some areas with hyper traffic situations.
Although there is a well-established network of roads, most, of them are generally in poor condition, causing damage to vehicles and contributing to hazardous traffic conditions. Excessive speed; unpredictable driving habit and the lack of basic maintenance and safety equipment on many vehicles are additional hazards.
There are relatively few traffic lights; and even where these lights exist, they are never heeded. Motorists seldom yield the right-of-way and give little consideration to pedestrians and cyclists. There’s also the issue of the check-points mounted by the law enforcement agents.
Some argue that the fact that the traffic situation in Lagos is messy, chaotic, rowdy and sometimes uncontrollable, is what makes it special.
Interestingly, in the midst of the confusion on Lagos roads, an industry emerged and is here to stay despite the odds: Street trading!
Here, in the bloom of traffic, you would find people; men, women, boys, girls, young and old jostling to sell their wares to potential customers in the traffic. They run, shove, and put their lives in danger to have their wares sold.
There is no limit to what is sold on these Freeways. Anything and everything can be bought and sold here. From the legitimate to the illegal; from the absurd to the equitable. Household wares, corporate items, games, books, refreshments, technical tools, toys, newspapers, magazines and mobile phones are some of the wares you would encounter in the Lagos traffic.
The argument, as some put it is that since the average Lagosian spends a major part of his day in traffic, it would not be a bad idea if, for convenience sake, the market came to him. It’s a case of adapting the bad situation to good use.
Some say there is nothing as good as reaching out of the car to do your shopping while you drive. It saves time and takes away the stress doing proper shopping. Who needs proper shopping when you can reach out of the car and buy what you need. ‘Shop as you drive’, they call it.
The other side of this coin is that traders have become a menace to road users. They put their lives and that of other road users to risk unnecessarily. Rarely does a day go by that a street trader is not run over by a vehicle or be said to be the cause of an accident. The risk of this enterprise is too high for whatever gain there may be.
Why are these people on the street? One would ask. Has no one told them of the risk involved in what they do? What is the lure for them? Why would people voluntarily put their lives at risk? And why is the government of Lagos not doing anything about this?
The trend has become so popular that corporate organizations are now catching in on it. Aggressive marketing they call it. Organizations would do anything to out-do their competition in the market place. The argument here is that the potential costumer is out there in traffic. If the costumer can’t get to them, it would make economic sense to get to the customer. The customer is the reason why they are in business anyway.
It’s a case of adapting to the challenges of doing business in Lagos. To the one in traffic, who has to get somewhere in a jiffy, the traffic is a curse; but to the road vendor, the traffic means survival for another day. While one would want the government to do something about the traffic situation, the other sees the messy traffic situation as his source of livelihood.
As much as the people of Lagos would love to have a smoother flow of traffic, the flip side is that an industry stands the risk of being scrapped.
Though it isn’t a trend that should be encouraged, the phenomenon is putting food on the table for many household. People who otherwise would be miscreant have something productive to engage them, however dangerous it might be.
Biola Arogbo
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