Toll Gates To Return? ~ News in Nigeria ~ 28/01/2018

Toll Gates to Return? Fashola, Please, Perish This Program
The news in town is that as soon as repairs are carried out on some selected federal roads, toll gates will be reintroduced. For me, this is merely a strategy to develop 38 crisis points across our troubled nation. It would also amount to double taxation. I hope our Operates Minister, Babatunde Fashola, has not forgotten that the Obasanjo administration improved the expense of fuel and promised that element of the new revenue would be channeled to Federal Road Upkeep Agency to proficiently execute its duties? One particular of the palliatives Obasanjo promised and subsequently implemented right after his fuel cost raise was the demolition of the toll gates. The Buhari administration further enhanced the price 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 upkeep of federal roads. Where are all these funds saved for this special objective? Assuming the previous administration stole the cash, what has been happening to it in the last 30 months of the APC administration? Fashola has to respond mainly because Nigerians are yearning for answers.

This country is clearly not in a mood for the reintroduction of toll gates. The truth that have to be told is that there is also considerably suffering in our land at the moment. The last 30 months have been horrendous, with the cost of goods and services galloping. So lots of Nigerians have also been thrown out of jobs. Nigerians are bleeding and can not afford this added burden of having 38 toll gates. Why make life far more tricky for Nigerians in order to generate funds that will most likely be shared by a handful of privileged individuals? This talk about applying the private sector to construct and maintain the planned toll gates is unconvincing.

Aside from the additional burden of paying tolls, I am also worried about the exasperating visitors gridlock linked with such toll gates, major to loss of productive man-hour. The persistent congestion on the Lekki-Ajah toll gate at peak period is a excellent instance of what I am talking about. Toll gates usually constitute inconvenience to motorists. Visitors gridlock apart, tragic accidents are typically experienced at toll gates. A single heartbreaking scene that has remained indelible in my mind was the sight of a truck laden with petrol, ramming into a long queue of automobiles at the toll gate in Ibadan through these dark days. There were a lot of ghastly accidents at toll gates across the nation. We can not afford a recurrence, which the return of toll gates would clearly provoke. So, I urge my dear Fashola to have a rethink about moves to reintroduce the demolished 38 toll gates across the country.

My beloved Fashola, you should initially drag out the dedicated funds I have listed above and use them for the upkeep of federal roads. If following undertaking this, the revenue discovered is discovered to be inadequate, then, I am suggesting that you should sit down with the representatives of traumatised Nigerians to style out option sources of funding for road maintenance. This talk about returning toll gates is clearly preposterous. For a get started, you ought to try and sell the concept of receiving vehicle owners to spend a modest amount as road upkeep levy whilst acquiring or renewing vehicle particulars. The petroleum tax of N1.50 per litre set aside for road maintenance could also go up to N3 per litre.

Once more, I am shocked that out of N25 billion appropriated for FERMA in 2017, only N800 million had so far been released to the agency by the Ministry of Finance. Obviously, this is the most important purpose federal roads are in a mess. It is also depressing to study that the hyped N100 billion sourced via the Sukuk Bond for roads is but to be released to the Ministry for perform to get started on the selected 25 federal roads. Why really should these shenanigans be taking place in an era of adjust? These are some of the challenges I anticipate Fashola to correctly tackle, in order to repair federal roads.

As for our federal legislators, if certainly, they are the true representatives of Nigerians, I anticipate them to halt this impending ignominy known as toll gate reintroduction. This nation can not continue taking one particular step forward and 100 steps backward.