•’Roadside businessmen’ lament

By Susan Onuorji

It is no longer news that economic recession is taking its toll on every segment of the society and making life difficult for many Nigerians.

When the pulse of the economy is measured, emphasis is normally placed on the banking sector, the oil and gas sector, the service sector and the small and medium scale enterprises. Curiously, not many pay serious attention to the crucial informal economic sector whose drivers make their money by the roadside with all sense of pride, audacity and zeal.

The Abuja vanishing jobs!

And they come with various appellations! “Master-I-Want-Work”, “Half Bread is Better than None”, “How We Go Do”, etc, all refer to the die-hard labourers or artisans, who spend most of their days waiting in the sun or rain on the roadside of Abuja to be hired by clients to carry out menial jobs for the patrons at fees much lower than those who own shops spread across the city.

Some of them are highly skilled while others are mere apprentices, who shuttle between their masters’ shops and the roadsides in search of clients. Many others are elements frustrated out of other professions merely taking refuge in the trade just to eke a living.

The roadside workmen, a sector not usually captured by the economic planners, constitute a large chunk of Nigerians, whose contributions to the economy is high but often not measured. Although most of them are not highly educated, their trade has affected the lives of many Nigerians in many ways than one.

That is largely because hardly is any house built without the services of these individuals; no major civil work is done without the engagement of these labourers.

Unlike white collar jobs which require sitting in the office, carrying out their daily duties, the labourers scramble for customers on the road side in order to make ends meet. “Speaking about his experience, Mr. Peter Uwakwe, a painter who has been doing the same job for over 30 years, complained bitterly about the state of the economy.

He said, “Before the present administration, things were not as difficult as they are. I and my family lived very comfortably from my daily earnings.

I made between N4,500 and N5,000 for any work I did each day. But since this government came into power and they began to talk about low oil price and recession, I hardly see customers in three days. How do I fend for my family?”

Mr. Abdul Fatai, a carpenter, disclosed that he had been standing by the roadside and getting jobs for about four years and had been using the proceeds to support his education.

“With the way things are going, I will not be able to cater for my schooling. I do not want to be a dropout,” he lamented. “Mr. Friday Benjamin, a technician, disclosed that he preferred to stay by the roadside in search of customers because of the cost of renting a shop.

“To rent a shop in the city centre in Abuja is between N1 million and N3 million, which I cannot afford.  How much do I make a day and I have to cater for my family too? That is why I am on the road,” he said. “Benjamin pleaded with the government to make provisions for apprentices in the cities willing to fend for themselves until they can stand on their own.

“If government builds small kiosks for people whose businesses are very small, the price of such shops would be affordable,” he noted.

The reason you find most of us on the road is due to the cost of shops and lack of money. No one in his right state of mind would enjoy staying on the road”.“He also noted that if he gets a better opportunity, he would leave his present job and switch to something more honourable to protect his image as a family man.

Another labourer, Uwen Nelson, stated that he ventured into the “Master-I-want-work’’ business because of lack of job.

“I have been unemployed for about three years now and can no longer wait for any white collar job because I need to cater for my family. I had been wandering all over town looking for formal employment but none came my way and I could not continue being jobless while I am getting older and with increasing family responsibilities”, he said.

“We have this adage that ‘an idle hand is the devil’s workshop’”.“Nelson pleaded with government take urgent measures to create massive jobs for Nigerians and take them off the road amid mounting frustration and hazards. “The Information and Public Relations Officer of the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, Mrs. Biodun Dada, while reacting to the development, assured that the Federal Government was aware of the situation facing youths and was working hard to address it through various employment schemes.

“I can tell you that job creation is one of the major functions of the NDE”, Dada said.

She explained that the NDE had designed  programmes aimed at providing graduates and non-graduates with skills to earn a living.

But as many in the society look down on the roadside job seekers, many of them may be quietly smiling to the bank as no agency has ever demanded a dime from them as tax, levy or rent like the ‘troubled’ Abuja shop owners, who get regular quit notices for not paying rent promptly or routine invasion by tax officials from the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and  agencies and groups posing as security agencies all in a bid to extort them.

The roadside job-seekers had hoped for a brighter prospect of being gainfully employed with the coming of the new administration with the mantra of ‘Change’ but with the slum in oil price and the slipping of the nation into full recession, the hope has fizzled, giving way to hopelessness and frustration. That, in itself, has heightened the sense of despair among them.