Kingdom of Agberos

The tragic incident last week in Abuja, in which a cackle of rabid touts wrestled a private vehicle into an accident that killed a couple and some of the touts at Abuja’s Mabushi, is yet another reminder that our system of administration is flawed. Anyone who drives in Abuja and any other major Nigerian city […]

The tragic incident last week in Abuja, in which a cackle of rabid touts wrestled a private vehicle into an accident that killed a couple and some of the touts at Abuja’s Mabushi, is yet another reminder that our system of administration is flawed.

Anyone who drives in Abuja and any other major Nigerian city is familiar with the reprehensible actions of the desperadoes who rush your vehicle and wrestle your steering wheel from you, often putting both your life and theirs on the line, to extract some ridiculous fines from you.

The reasons for exacting these fines are often flippant, and the plethora of unions behind them are far too numerous to name.

While the Mabushi tragedy was caused by touts who claim affiliation to one of the transport unions in the country, the sad truth is that it could have been any of our “professional” law enforcers. How many times have police officers, road safety officials, or VIO acted in the exact same manner? How often have we seen videos of these law enforcement officers sprawled on car bonnets, clinging to windshield wipers as furious drivers speed away with them?

So while this practice has been widespread, let us focus on the activities of touts whose practices have often been unofficial but have found some form of legitimacy or state recognition of late. These practices are derived from our hustling mentality, where people whose talents and energy could better serve the country and themselves elsewhere are reduced to running after cars and passengers to do jobs that simple signs could do. This banal practice has resulted in the birth of an army of street touts whose singular purpose has been to harass road users, create chaos on the streets, and extract money from people going about their lawful business.

The sad reality is that these touts, who have become an eyesore on our streets and transit parks, have gained institutional backing when they are endorsed by local council authorities to harass motorists or are deployed as revenue-generating goons for “a council” or, more precisely, some council officials.

A few years ago, they gained a blanket licence to operate within the FCT when the city suddenly introduced street parking fees. They licensed these touts to harass road users caught unawares by the new parking regime and the sudden presence of drug-addled enforcers forcing themselves into private cars and wrestling car keys and steering wheels from road users.

I remember my encounter with them when I had pulled over at a designated parking spot to buy something off a street vendor, when several men accosted me; one was trying to seize my car key while several others were trying to force my car door open. I had thought I was being carjacked in the mid-morning Abuja sun until they explained that they were essentially FCT-licence-carrying touts.

Despite the subsequent court ruling that the imposition of the parking fees was unlawful and that ill-fated operation was swept aside, the touts had been emboldened, and their actions have grown even more daring. Now they engage motorists in high-speed chases and wrestling matches in moving vehicles that endanger public safety on the roads.

These endorsements have meant that they are provided with some sort of pseudo-legal backing by claiming to be operating on behalf of transport workers’ unions. The question here is: when did these unions have authority over road use in the country? Why does anyone who is picking up passengers, whether for commercial reasons or out of a desire to genuinely help, become subject to their extortionist fines?

The goal of any union should be to incentivise membership so that members see the merits and benefits of being due-paying members of the union. This could be in the form of some insurance cover, financial protection and other benefits, or advocating for better policies that will benefit the members. Dues are meant to be paid periodically. What we are witnessing, however, is a practice where motorists, be they members of the unions or not, are taxed for every single passenger they carry or for simply being on the road. This cannot be legal, and I hope the law can be called upon to state this.

The reality is that no one knows what the fines being collected are used for. One of the touts who assaulted the Ehekweme family and drove them to their deaths claimed to be working for the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN). However, when interviewed by a journalist, he admitted that for every “arrest” they make by corralling road users to their office to pay a N7,000 fine for any infraction, the union leaders take N3,000 while the touts take the remaining share of N4,000.

This is the incentive for the desperate acts we have seen these touts engage in so as to commandeer vehicles to their office. The tragedy for this tout was that since the accident in which he broke some limbs, the union he claimed to work for had not shown up to look out for him. This is not what unions are meant to do.

RTEAN, which in various iterations has been in existence since 1933, and in its current one since 1978, is supposed to reform the transportation sector, promote professionalism among drivers, ensure road safety, and support socio-economic development and youth employment in Nigeria.

As road users, we can all attest that there is hardly anything professional about drivers’ conduct in Nigeria. If the union is doing anything about improving this, we have not seen this or the impact of such efforts. Drivers continue to behave like the touts they have to wrestle with every day to put food on the table for their families. Neither can RTEAN demonstrate that they have made any significant impact in improving road safety among its members when basic safety requirements, such as wearing seatbelts or ensuring that vehicles are in proper working condition, are often completely ignored. Yet we have a proliferation of unions like this, including the NURTW and others in the country.

The big question is: what then do they do with all these fees they generate, for which the Ehekweme family was forced to give up their lives? If the union has the right to demand fines and levies from road users, to be able to seize and detain vehicles pending payment of certain fines for offences that were never clear to the road users in the first place, then everyone from whom they can demand payments can and should demand accountability from them and demand to know exactly how these fines are spent.

For the family of the Ehekweme, the damage has been done. Their loved ones cannot be returned. The only hope they can cling to is a sense of justice, and the state is bound by duty to provide this.

It is so easy to fall prey to these touts running around Abuja, trying to jump into one’s car like frenzied zombies from World War Z. This is why this tragedy resonates with Nigerians, because we all know that could have been any of us, that in the climate of extortion that the unions have created through their network of touts, we are one stop away from being driven off the road by agberos trying to earn their 3k for the day.

Their deaths must not be in vain for their family and for Nigerians. After investigations are completed, those indicted should be prosecuted for manslaughter according to the laws of the land. This should serve as a deterrent to other touts who are all too eager to charge drivers into dangerous situations. At the same time, the unions these touts work for or that licensed them to operate must be held accountable for this tragedy. This could take the shape of significant compensation to be paid to the family of the victims. It will also ensure that the unions will ensure proper and professional conduct for whoever they will task with generating revenues on their behalf.

Crucially, we must end this form of barbarism that we have unleashed on our roads. While I have read some reports of the FCT setting another task force to arrest street touts in the capital, we must be careful not to eradicate unlicensed touts with licensed ones. Recognised authorities like the police should step up to the plate and act accordingly to remove this menace from our streets. They must, however, go about this task with professionalism, as it would be counterproductive to use agberos to chase agberos. Our streets are not madhouses. We should not be losing people to this madness.