IN its desperate search for cheap sources of revenues, the Federal Government has announced its plan to re-introduce tolling on federal highways as from 2012. The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolomemen, who made the disclosure to the Senate Committee on Works, stated that the abolition of toll plazas had reduced funding for the maintenance of the nations highways. According to him, We need to have a legal framework that will enable us to pool resources together to service the national road fund. Toll gate is an option that government will look at. He added that the abolition of toll plazas had completely robbed the road sector of the critical income that should have been used to rehabilitate the roads.But some days later, the Minister issued another statement to clarify the Federal Governments position on highway tolling. Government, he said, is sensitive to the feelings of the people, (and) so in re-tooling the toll gate policy, we have decided that we are not going to toll a road that is so bad that there would be nothing to show for it. What we have decided is that we would rehabilitate and reconstruct the roads, and only roads that qualify and pass through this process of full rehabilitation are going to start collecting tolls.The plan to re-introduce toll is coming more than seven years after toll gates were dismantled by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration at great costs to the government. The administrations cancellation of road tolling was hinged principally on the corruption that attended the process. But over the years, Nigerias roads have increasingly become eyesores and dangerous to motorists due to graft and lack of proper maintenance. They are full of potholes and in dreadful or even dangerous condition. A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, once described the nations roads as worse than those in war-torn countries. A report says some paved roads have lost their asphalt surface and are in very poor condition or have reverted to being gravel roads.It is said that over 80 per cent of federal roads in the country have collapsed and 27,200 kilometres out of 34,000-km federal road network is out of use. The result is colossal loss of lives owing to road accidents. The Federal Road Safety Commission recently disclosed that Nigerian roads were rated second worst of 192 countries surveyed with a death rate of 162 per 100,000 population from road traffic accidents. A 2003 Central Bank of Nigeria report valued the annual loss due to bad roads at N80 billion, while additional vehicle operating cost resulting from bad roads, was valued at N53.8 billion, bringing the total loss to the nation per annum to N133.8 billion.For decades, obscene graft has defined the nations transport system. Road projects budgeted for year after year by the National Assembly go unexecuted even while money keeps being spent. The Senate ad hoc committee that investigated corruption in the transport sector from 1999 showed how in 10 years, through multiple contract fraud, connivance between contractors and government officials, N633 billion was spent on only 4,752 kilometres of road, short-changing the government by N47 million per km of road. It further alleged that between 1999 and 2009, the Ministry of Transportation gave contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of 11, 591km roads at a cost of N1.7 trillion - about N87 million per km - and with only 24 per cent of the roads rehabilitated, 64 per cent of the contract value had already been paid for at about N133 million per km.No doubt, the Ministers clarification is reassuring, given the terrible conditions of the federal roads and the level of corruption that defined the management of toll revenues in the past. Globally, toll roads, also known as toll ways, turnpikes, toll highways, or express toll routes, are acceptable sources of new finance for the maintenance of existing highways and the construction of new roads.Yet, in addition to the need to repair the highways to be tolled, the Federal Government must wean itself from the mindset of turning its roads to solely revenue generating ventures. In most countries, toll motorways are a luxury for the wealthy as secondary roads are provided for motorists who are not in too much of a hurry and may want to save money. A World Bank report says most countries have no toll roads. Where there are toll roads, the tolled network typically comprises less than 5 per cent of the road network, the report adds. Where tolls are simply required to cover construction costs, and the traffic levels are high, then tolls will only be required for a relatively short period. Recently, the Japanese government made 61 roads toll-free following the recovery of the total project cost.Other cheap means of transport should be developed. The excessive dependence on the road network, given the undeveloped state of waterways and the poor state of the railways, which are alternative transport modes, should be addressed. Why has the 1955 Nigerian Railways Act, which forbids private sector participation, not been repealed or amended' To offer citizens alternative means of transport, the moribund railways system should also be resuscitated by opening it up to private investment.The National Assembly needs to examine the proposal critically. Under no pretention should the former graft-riddled system be allowed again. What were the capital allocations to the Ministry of Works for road construction over the years' The Federal Government should go back to the Senate report and prosecute indicted public officials. Taxpayers have the right to detailed information about how much money a particular road cost, when it was completed or why it was not completed.
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