FG Should Perish Plan to Return Toll Gates
More than a decade after it was phased out, the federal government has announced plans to reintroduce toll gates on federal roads. This same threat was made last year, but was abandoned due to pressure from traumatised Nigerians. Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, who announced the plan, declared: “There is no reason why we can’t toll; there was a policy of government to abolish tolls or as it were, dismantle toll plaza but there is no law that prohibits tolling in Nigeria today. We expect to return toll plazas; we have concluded their designs of what they will look like, what materials they will be rebuilt with, what new considerations must go into them.”
I can safely tell Fashola today that this plan will fail. Any weapon fashioned against the people shall not prosper. There is so much suffering, so much pain, so much hunger in the land, and all they talk about is inflicting more pain on the people. Toll gates also mean creating scores of crisis points across our troubled federal highways. It would also amount to double taxation. I hope Fashola has not forgotten that the Obasanjo administration increased the cost of fuel and promised that part of the new money would be channeled to the Federal Road Maintenance Agency to effectively perform its duties? One of the palliatives Obasanjo promised and subsequently implemented after his fuel price increase was the demolition of the toll gates. The Buhari administration further increased the cost of petrol to N145 per litre. I hope Fashola is also aware that there is an existing petroleum tax of N1.50 per litre, set aside for the maintenance of federal roads. Where are these funds saved for this special purpose? Assuming the previous administration stole the money, what has been happening to it under the APC administration? Fashola has to respond because Nigerians are yearning for answers.
This country is clearly not in a mood for the reintroduction of toll gates. The cost of goods and services are galloping. So many Nigerians have also been thrown out of jobs. Nigerians are bleeding and cannot afford extra burden of paying at toll gates. Why make life more difficult for Nigerians in order to generate funds that will most likely be shared by a few privileged individuals?
I am also worried about the exasperating traffic gridlock associated with toll gates, leading to loss of productive man-hour. The persistent congestion on the Lekki-Ajah toll gate at peak period is a good example of what I am talking about. Tragic accidents are often experienced at toll gates. One heartbreaking scene that has remained indelible in my mind was the sight of a truck laden with petrol, ramming into a long queue of vehicles at the toll gate in Ibadan during those dark days. We can’t afford a recurrence, which the return of toll gates would clearly provoke.
The federal government must first drag out the dedicated funds I listed above and use them for the maintenance of federal roads. If after doing this, the money is found to be inadequate, then, they should sit down with the representatives of traumatised Nigerians to fashion out alternative sources of funding for road maintenance. This talk about returning toll gates is clearly eccentric.
As for our federal legislators, if indeed, they are the true representatives of Nigerians, I expect them to halt this impending ignominy called toll gate reintroduction. This country can’t continue taking one step forward and 100 steps backward.