NKECHI ISAAC x-rays the lives or the Nigerian children hawking on the streets.

Was it really worth it for 12 years old Chiemerie Eze, who slipped on his slippers and fell while sprinting to sell bottled water to a passenger in a speeding car and was ran over by an equally speeding trailer? Unfortunately, Chiemerie died on the spot at Giri junction in Abuja.

The premature snuffing of life out of the nostrils of this young lad, who could have been the future President of Nigeria, an ace footballer, a seasoned economist, a prominent legal luminary or even an international business tycoon, is a great concern.

The interim Coordinator, Voices for Food Security and Media Coordinator Oxfam, Mr Osaro Odemwingie attributed the motivation of teenagers to hawking as economical "many people find themselves under the poverty line and they are not easily able to make ends meet so they resort to using their children for the purpose of getting resources to feed the family," he observed.

Odemwingie said the parents cannot be completely blamed for sending children out to hawk because if they had enough money to feed the children, clothe themselves and the children and put a roof over them, there will be no need to send the children to hawk.

He listed the dangers as very numerous and which includes the risk of being molested, for the boys while the adolescent girls stand the danger of being rape, they can easily fall prey to ritualists and there is also the risk of stunted physiological and physical development.

He noted that this stunted development will also affect the nation on the long run because when children of school age hawk instead of going to school, the future or the country would be in danger.

A human right activist, Dr ifeanyi Okereke, throwing more light on reasons why teenagers hawk, said there are three group of teenage hawkers. One group of teenagers engaged in hawking are school dropouts who find hawking as a ready means of earning their livelihood.

The second group of teenage hawkers are those from poor homes, who are forced by their parents to engage in hawking as a means of supplementing their income, the third group of hawkers are those who migrate from the rural areas to the cities in search of non-existing jobs and take to hawking as the only means of earning a living.

Okereke said examples of dangers of teenage hawking is the possibility of teenagers getting involved in immoral practices, like a situation where teenage girls are lured into sexual acts by unscrupulous men in return for money, thus leading to teenage pregnancy while the boys take to street life of smoking, drinking, stealing and finally, end up in police net.The Director, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Dr Abubakar Shehu Yabo, in a statement never minced words in emphasizing that there is zero tolerance for hawkers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Yabo explained that he has nothing personal against hawkers but that sanity and order must reign in the capital city. He said they should be encouraged to go back to school and complete their education and make meaningful contribution to the society instead of hawking during school hours.

Those who do not want to go back to school, he noted, will be rehabilitated by the board and absorbed to serve as either waste collectors or street sweepers instead of being a nuisance to the society by bringing disorder in the FCT.He advised grown men who hawk to go to accredited neighborhood centers and rent a stall, if they are unable to afford stalls markets within the FCT.

However, a retired journalist simply called Marshal, opined that these people being harassed by the board will go back and unleash on the society in a suicidal way.

He said that will be as a result of governments uncaring behaviour to the less privileged "these children who hawk, do not do it for fun, the bad economy in Nigeria drove them to hawk

How can government want them out of the street when adequate provision has been made to carter for their needy?  A hawker who has little or no education and no other source of livelihood apart from hawking will not easily succumb to get off the street because he will have nothing else to do but  “turn to crime.”

Proffering suggestions on the way out of this situation, Odemwingie said the government should actually start governing "good governance is what we require; government has not been able to provide an enabling environment so people resort to hawking because they don’t have the economic resources to sustain themselves".

He continued that if government provides the basic amenities like electricity for instance, the industries will work, men and women will be gainfully employed and there will be no need for parents to resort to depending on their children to provide them with means of sustainance through hawking.

Okreke suggested that in order to stop all these, first of all, a national law must be passed reemphasising the abolition of street hawking by children of school age. In addition, the department of social welfare should come to the rescue of school drop outs by offering them vocational training in areas like kente weaving, carpentry, catering and shoe making."Once these hawkers acquire such skills, the incidence of street hawking will reduce and all the dangers associated with it will be a thing of the past for our children" he concluded.