Works Minister, Mr. Mike Onolomemen, said recently that the Federal Government would re-introduce toll-gates on the nation’s highways early next year. He made the announcement when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Works, saying the decision was to boost efforts at revamping road transportation in the country. We do not hesitate to condemn this ill-motivated and clearly unreasonable decision.

At a time most Nigerians are complaining about the deplorable condition of our roads, it is unconscionable that the solution that would be proffered is to further tax them. If there were serious thoughts behind the idea, it should be obvious that there are no roads worthy of putting toll gates on in the country today and to erect such at this period is to further expose road users to unnecessary danger while corrupt officials feed fat on their misery. It is all the more curious given that it was only about seven years ago that President Olusegun Obasanjo dismantled the toll-gates at a whooping cost of N360 million of taxpayers’ money. Now, Onolomemen wants to spend N1.3 billion that is better deployed to repairing the roads into erecting another set of tollgates.

There are certain questions which Onolomemen must answer before he proceeds with this scandalous action. First, what has changed between January 2004 when President Obasanjo dismantled the toll-gates and now such as to necessitate their reintroduction? Why must the citizens be burdened with extra taxes just as the government has concluded plans to remove fuel subsidy on petroleum products while at the same time raising electricity tariffs? Beyond raising money which will largely be unaccounted for, has Onolomemen considered the traffic bottle-necks that will arise as a result of erecting toll gates on roads that have too many craters and potholes?

Has government even considered the negative socioeconomic knock-on effects of the idea? In any case, if previous experience were any guide, a large chunk of the revenue to be generated from the tollgates will end up in the pockets of corrupt officials! It is noteworthy that the Federal Ministry of Works has on an annual basis voted billions of naira for the repair and maintenance of the nation’s highways. Yet at the end of each year, the state of the roads had become anything but better. In fact, almost without exception, all federal roads have become veritable expressway to eternity as several road users perish on them on a daily basis.

Notorious among them are the Shagamu- Ore-Benin road, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano- Maiduguri road, Mokwa-Jebba-Ilorin road, the Okene-Lokoja-Abaji-Abuja road, not to talk of the washed-off Onitsha-Enugu road and the Enugu-Port Harcourt road. How then can any self-respecting government be asking Nigerians to pay tolls on these same death traps?

Although the Minister’s proposal received an approval-in-principle from the Senate Works Committee chairman, Senator Ayogu Eze, it is instructive to note that Eze went further to qualify his committee’s support by saying government should construct “alternate routes” for those who do not wish to pay tolls on the “well maintained, faster expressways”. As altruistic as Eze’s suggestion may sound, we consider the whole idea as an exercise in self-deceit. Eze is yet to explain how a government that is incapable of maintaining the existing roads will embark on the construction of “alternate routes” for people who do not wish to use tollgates. Where will the money come from?

On the whole we consider this idea of bringing back tollgates, especially at this period, not only provocative but very insensitive indeed. We therefore urge Onolomemen to shelve the plan and concentrate on the maintenance of existing road networks without subjecting the forlorn citizenry to yet another avoidable burden. If government is truly serious about generating funds to run its affairs and meet its minimum obligation to the people, may be it should start by scaling down the monumental waste in the system. Reintroducing the tollgates is a revisionist policy that is both illtimed and ill-advised. We reject the idea and ask all Nigerians to resist any such move

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/tollgates-onwhich-roads-/103762/