TALES OF WOES AND PAIN: WHEELBARROW PUSHERS IN KETU AGONISE
by Oki Samson and Abayomi Oyelami
Wheelbarrow Pushers at Ketu, Lagos
Pushing wheelbarrows is fast becoming a means of livelihood across Lagos and many parts of Nigeria. This is especially common among youths irrespective of tribe and religion. For those in Ketu and environs, they have taken the business another step higher. Their job is fast replacing the practice of head porterage, the people who bear load on the head, commonly called alabaru or kaya.
This commercial activity is obviously aided by the presence of nationally-acclaimed Ketu Commodity/Food Market. Food items like beans, yam, cocoyam, grains, rice and fruits like pineapple, pawpaw, apple, cucumber, carrot, oranges, plantain, pepper, tomatoes, onions and other perishables come into Lagos from various parts of the country, from where they are later transported to other locations in Lagos.
Traders who come from other parts of Lagos to Ketu to buy goods will usually patronise the wheelbarrow pushers to move their commodities to the road before they join the public transport.
SURVIVAL INSTINCT ON THE LOOSE
For many young males about age 15 – 24 around the Ketu Market, pushing wheelbarrows has become a means of escaping unemployment and equally, a source of income. It would be noted that the Nigerian Demographics show that the 15 – 24 age range is 19.61% of the over 190 million-strong country. This shows that there is a burgeoning youth population which Nigeria must harness so as to reduce poverty, criminal tendency and ethnic violence.
For them, it is better to struggle than go into stealing or pick pocketing. While these boys have taken the ‘better’ route, it has not come without its challenges. Young Bukola, Usman and Sodiq came all the way from Ogbomoso to Ketu for survival. While Bukola is a spare parts dealer, Usman is a bricklayer while Sodiq is a high school leaver. Another boy, 20-year old Tobi is an aluminium worker who hails from Ado-Ekiti: ‘I could not start up on my own because I don’t have capital to buy machines and materials. I just found my way to Lagos and here I am pushing wheelbarrow.’
HOMELESS AND BATTERED
In spite of the trade these young people are involved in, they do not have enough to feed or house themselves. They sleep on counters and kiosks of market people inside the Ketu market after their day’s activity. Their meagre wage is often cornered by corrupt officials of government agencies who regularly accuse them of aiding thieves, harbouring guns and are released after parting with their hard-earned wage. Suleiman Olaniyi narrates his ordeal: ‘I came to Lagos from Monatan, Ibadan where I learnt bricklaying and nobody to take care of me again after my father died shortly after finishing. I started pushing wheelbarrow here in Ketu. The painful thing was that during Ramadan last year, I was accosted by a policeman in my night sleep. That was how I spent three months in prison. I can’t go back home because of the needs and responsibilities at home. I am really unhappy and angry with that policeman.’ When asked if he would do another job if available, he exclaimed ‘Yes. I don’t really like this job but what can I do. If I can see somebody that will pay me N2000 per day. I would gladly take the job because I currently make N1,000 or N1,500 but with great stress.’
HEALTH AT RISK
The living condition of these boys is nothing but desirable. They loiter around until the market is scanty, sleep in the open under extreme cold and heat and get bitten by mosquitoes. One of them currently suffers from a skin disease that was caused by stepping into stagnant muddy water. The disease germ is taking its toll on the boy’s legs but he could not go to hospital because of lack of money. He is still hustling on the streets day in day out since no one is willing to help.
A PRICK ON SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
The situation of these youths is a prick to the conscience of the society. Widespread poverty has pushed these ones into survival mode instead of thinking of how to attain significance in various areas of life. Today, Nigeria has overcome India to become the new poverty capital of the world. Their youthful strength is exhausted in drudgery, gambling, and quick fix means to wealth, which eventually tends to vicious penury.
They cannot participate in nation building because they lack requisite education and skills to do so. Access to education is abysmally low, currently; there are over 10.5 million children out of school. The lack of access continues throughout the entire school system. What are their chances without adequate education and skills development in the 21st century to be gainfully employed? Those that have the education do not even have jobs to go round, talk less of someone who is not.
Promotion of economic growth and development cannot be extricated from peace and security in the society. Their daily search for economic opportunities is what an average Nigerian youth can relate with but are regularly faced with various challenges of safety and security. They are unanimous about their readiness and ability to work an honest day job but the chances are so few and far between. The security agents that should cater to their security are complicit in making daily life extremely unpleasant for them by ripping them off the little they gather. They do have nothing to show for the ‘hustle’ they engage in on a daily basis.
With an outrageously high doctor-to-patient ratio of 1 to 6000 (1:6000), which is way below the recommendations of World Health Organization, the state of health and wellbeing of these youths is suspect. Many of them can never visit a public hospital or health centres; they always have to resort to self-help and roadside drug dispensers or even unorthodox methods to be able to survive the stress of life. Even if anyone of these ones die, it is not likely that anyone will take notice.
Pushing wheelbarrow is, on the long run, not a sustainable venture. The youthful capacity will not be there forever, thus, it is meant to be a means to an end not the end itself. For these potentially great young ones in Ketu of Lagos Megacity similar to their contemporaries spread across the length and breadth of the country, their youthful energy and asset is waiting to be channelled towards economic prosperity.
