The undemolished tollgates

CHINEDU MADUABUM

Onitsha - Nigeria

maduabum@surfy.net

Thursday, February 19, 2004

INTRODUCTION

When the news for the demolition of all tollgates in the country was publicly announced earlier this year, it was greeted with joy by a vast majority of Nigerians but the same could not be said in the eastern region of the country and Anambra State in particular. For those who are not aware, tollgates in Nigeria was set up as a means of internal revenue generation for the maintenance of roads in the various states where they are located. Every motor road user is expected to pay at least #10 each time s/he passes by any of the tollgates. That is to say, the amount ranges with respect to the type of car but the minimum is #10 for small vehicles.

Nigerians have since then been enjoying it. I went to the Ogbunike tollgate in Anambra State and saw for myself that it no longer exists. I also travelled to Lagos where you have about four tollgates from Onitsha and truly they were all gone. But when I was returning from Ukpor my native village in Anambra State en route Onitsha, I discovered that there were yet some ‘tollgates’ that exist. These ‘tollgates’ do not really affect those on private cars but commercial vehicle drivers would prefer the old structure to what they are facing in the state. So, which tollgate am I talking of? Well by now, every true meaning Anambrarian should have caught the joke. But for those who have not, it is my pleasure to tell you through this medium that the ‘tollgates’ in Anambra State are yet to be demolished and it has now constitute a social problem. I am talking strictly of police checkpoints. 

POLICE CHECKPOINTS

One of the major roles of the police worldwide is to maintain social order, security and protection of lives and properties but when this role is transformed to represent illegal collection of money from motorist then it becomes a social problem. This is the problem motorists in Anambra State are facing presently. There is hardly a town in the state where there are no police collection checkpoints. We all know that police checkpoints are good at least to minimize crime but Anambrarians are yet to benefit from the structure.

If one is travelling from Enugu State to Anambra State, you are bound to come across at least 5 police checkpoints. Within the state, there is just no town without at least two police checkpoints. This is no exaggeration. From Nnewi to Onitsha alone is about five, Asaba to Onitsha about three and Onitsha to Uli, just before the border with Imo state is about four. All these I have personally counted. It is a welcome development going by the high level of criminal activities in the state but rather than being happy, inhabitants of the state more especially commercial bus drivers are pleading to the federal government to demolish these checkpoints. They would rather prefer to leave under the siege of arm robbers than to be tormented by the same structure formed by the government to grant them protection of their lives and properties. The question therefore is why are these motorists not happy with these ‘tollgates?’

MONKEY DEY WORK, BABOON DEY CHOP

No man will like to see the fruit of his labour being taken away from him by means of force and at gunpoint. Anambra State has become one of the most popular states in the country and the world over from a negative perspective, which is not far from the truth. This is a state that has produced some of the greatest individuals Nigeria can ever boast of in the likes of late Nnamdi Azikiwe, Emeka Anyaoku, Alex Ekwueme, Odumegwu-Ojukwu, late Chuba Okadigbo to mention but a few.

On that blessed day when I was returning from my village during the Christmas period, I was able to witnessed it for myself and decipher why these motorists are annoyed. From the time I entered the bus from my village, I countered about five police checkpoints. Along the Nnewi/Ozubulu express road, Ichi/Oba Expressway, Oba/Nnewi junction, Obosi junction and Mgbuka Obosi for those who are very conversant with the area. There are days you will not find the five ‘tollgates’ but since the last two years according to one driver, there is hardly a day without at least three police ‘tollgates.’ At each point, the drivers are expected to pay #20 to the policemen who are not ready to negotiate. This is done at every given trip embarked upon by the motorist. Let us now do the calculation and see whether “baboon is actually living at the expense of monkey’s labour.” According to the driver of the bus I entered, they cover at most 7 trips per day. That is to say at each trip, they spend about #100, which gives us about #700 ($5) each day for those operating along the Nnewi/Onitsha route.

These buses carry a maximum of 14 passengers at a fair of #100 per passenger. This is to say, they make at least #1,400 per trip and in a day, they make at least #9,800 ($67). This amount is indeed a big sum for an average person in Nigeria for a day. At first I taught the #700 they pay at the ‘tollgates’ can be over-looked but I was told by the driver that for each loading at the park, they pay 10% (#140) to NARTO (national association of road transport owners). It does not end there because they are also supposed to fill their tank with fuel buy tickets from the local government of #150 each day. One of the drivers told me that if one is driving his own bus, he can bare the unnecessary expenses but for those driving for someone, they are in real mess. He went further to explain that the drivers are expected to submit #5,000 each day to their owners. I was able to confirm this from a friend of mine who has a bus. He acknowledges the fact that some return #5,000 each day but his driver returns #1,000 less.

MORE NEMESES

You can now decipher why these people are not happy even after the demolition of tollgates in the country. Most of them would prefer the tollgates to the police ‘tollgates’ because you are only expected to pay at one tollgate within the state and not all of the transporters make use of the route where these tollgates are located. One passenger with us inside the car complained that if the police where actually doing their job of controlling crime and at the same time collecting these illegal amounts; the impact may not be severely felt. But after collecting these amounts, they retire to their base at nights. Thus, allowing inhabitants to go for vigilante services to protect them at nights from arm robbers.

These police checkpoints are more or less useless to the inhabitants because they are not doing what they are supposed to do. The presence of these police along the high ways has not reduced highway robbery. On the 5^th of February arm robbers attacked a luxurious bus at upper Iweka in Onitsha killing 22 persons right at the spot where these police carry out their illegal collection of #20. During the December period, another siege at upper Iweka claimed the lives of an undisclosed number of persons leaving many injured in the process. According to an eyewitness, the arm robbers after haven robbed a bank got themselves trapped in the ever-busy upper Iweka and had no choice than to shoot randomly at people so as to have their way. Flying bullet as he was putting water into his radiator caught one of the victims who is from my area. According to another eyewitness, one of the police in the area quickly removed his uniform in order not to be identified by the arm robbers. The question I asked is, of what good is the police to the people of Anambra State?

CONCLUSION

The harm that police and these police ‘tollgates’ have inflicted upon the citizens of Onitsha is in a plain language excessive. Police is a western ideology for the maintenance of law and order and no doubt symbolizes white power, white racism, and white repression. The question now is this, can there be social order without the police? Yes and without doubt, there would be peace.

The African society and the world had flourished in most part of the last millennium without the police and the police, which came after the ideas of Robert Peel in London in 1829, just less than 200 years cannot be indispensable in the maintenance of law and order. The truth of the matter is this: Ndiigbo have lost their sense of directions and the way out we seem not to decipher anymore. If for more than 800 years our ancestors lived in a crime-free society as against less than 200years of what we have presently with the police, then I think it is time we redress our pre-existing social lifestyle towards a better tomorrow for the generation yet unborn; for there might not be any opportunity for them to even write more or less complain.

I am therefore calling on Anambrarians and Ndiigbo as a whole to come to the rescue of these suffering inhabitants of the state by ensuring that these police ‘tollgates’ are completely removed from our roads because they have not helped the state in reducing armed robbery. Moreover, I advocate that vigilante services be restored in the entire Igbo states because it has proven to be more effective than the police. The ‘Bakassi Boys,’ whom the former governor of the state Dr. Mbadinuju brought, was able to maintain peace and order within the very short period that it lasted, as against the so many years of the presence of police and police checkpoints on our roads.

IT IS TIME TO UNITE.