Return of toll gates

Eleven years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the dismantling of toll gates throughout the country, Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Raji Fashola recently said the Federal government is considering their reintroduction across the country to provide optional funding for road maintenance. The Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Works which investigated the state of […]

Eleven years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the dismantling of toll gates throughout the country, Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Raji Fashola recently said the Federal government is considering their reintroduction across the country to provide optional funding for road maintenance. The Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Works which investigated the state of the nation’s federal roads as well as the threat of gully erosion in the South-East also appealed to the federal government to reintroduce toll gates with a view to generating revenue for rehabilitation and constant maintenance of existing roads infrastructure.
Tolling has always been controversial with the Nigerian public. Motorists see no need to pay tolls since the roads were built with public funds. Officials however argue that toll collection is required to maintain the roads and to fund the building of new ones. The problem is that federal roads were poorly maintained when we had the toll gates. Obasanjo had dismantled the toll gates when he announced an increase in fuel prices. He said at the time that the additional fuel price, estimated at N4 billion a year, would provide much more money to repair the roads than the N800million annually that government got from toll gate operators.
The toll gates were initially run by Federal Ministry of Works staff but were later leased to private operators.  There were allegations at the time that many of those who got the leases were but fronts for high ranking government officials. Not only was the effect of tolls not being seen in road maintenance, but the toll gates also became points at which numerous government agencies congregated and often extorted money from motorists.
The reintroduction of toll-gates on federal highways at this time should therefore be approached with caution, careful consideration and planning to avoid the pitfalls of the past. It is not yet clear if they will be run by Ministry of Works officials or leased out again to private operators. Either way, technological innovation in recent times will make it possible to determine the number of vehicles passing through the toll gate in a day, which means the operators cannot pocket most of the proceeds as was done in the past.  Fashola has promised that this time round the money will be accounted for and will be used for the stated purpose.
All revenue accruing from the toll gates ideally should accrue to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) for routine maintenance. Perhaps even more important than providing revenues for road maintenance is the socio-economic benefit of toll gates. Economic activities around the toll gates created new communities with business opportunities. The newspaper industry was one of the hardest hit by the destruction of toll gates which provided one of the largest sales outlets where travelers who do not buy newspapers on a daily basis, purchase them to read on their journey.  It’s important these lessons are taken on board and the toll-gates comprise more than simply money collection points.
In addition to an accident-emergency medical centre toll gates should have provision for offices of the Nigeria Police force (NPF), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) as well as clearly demarcated areas for provision of eating facilities, spare-parts sellers, toilet facilities, car and trailer parking off the road, mechanic workshops, towing vehicles and other sundry services which should not be allowed to develop haphazardly. In effect town planning authorities must be involved in the design of toll-gates and their immediate environments so that they develop into new town areas with business opportunities for our teeming unemployed graduates rather than slums and shanties.
The amount of toll to be paid must also take into consideration the number of motorists expected to pass through on a standard journey. As for the application of funds it is vitally important that investment must be made in FERMA to provide better equipment and staff training. In all truth FERMA seems to specialize in “patching” roads rather than repairing them properly. Successful road maintenance is a continuous process rather than a contract awarding one. For the toll policy to be successful FERMA must be repositioned to be able to carry out effective maintenance and repairs.