Harassment of travellers on highways

Few people will claim ignorance of the uses to which governments put the taxes that are collected from the citizens. What people do frown on are the magnitude, mode of collection, misappropriation and multiplicity.It is not uncommon in Nigeria nowadays to see revenue collectors on federal and state roads mounting roadblocks, collecting revenues which travellers were ignorant of and for which they made no provision while starting their journeys. They do so in a way that is very barbaric, disgusting and merciless.Imagine a traveller going to Port Harcourt from Lagos and he gets to Patani in Delta State and is being asked by agents of the Delta State Environmental Protection Agency to pay a levy of N25,500.00 to the Gaseous Emission Board and if he does not get such an amount, his extra tyre is impounded and kept until such a time that he can pay. They also waste travellers time, resulting in loss of productivity to the country.The above example is not a cooked-up story. It is something that happens every day on our roads, especially on the nations interstate highways. When it is not state revenue collectors, it is local council ones. And yet the country has a Ministry of Tourism that encourages people all over the world to come to Nigeria to see the country! Apart from the horrible roads and the pervading insecurity, what tourist will come to Nigeria to experience indignity at the hands of the rigid and pitiless revenue collectors, who portray Nigeria as a lawless country' It is time the Federal Government did something about the collection of revenues on the major highways. This is a matter that touches the common people. The state governments should also consider the roads as not the best and civilised places to force travellers to collect stickers for radios, air pollution etc. Our legislators who are expected to legislate for the good governance of the citizenry ought to and should look into this in the interest of us, the underprivileged.Chief G. A. Bamgboye, Warri, Delta State alexander_bam@yahoo.co.uk.
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