Apparently, everyone desires to hear that the society he or she belongs to is addressed by all and sundry as ‘a well decent, disciplined and peaceful group of persons’.
In the same vein, it is worthy of note that no society would be recognized as a ‘decent or disciplined society’ if it is proliferated with touts.
A tout is a person who renders services or sells things such as tickets unofficially or illicitly, usually at charges/prices which are higher than the official ones. A tout can also be defined as someone who solicits business or employment in a persistent and annoying manner.
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A tout can be found in places to include motor parks, airports, seaports, railway stations, tourist centres, government quarters, schools’ admission points, shopping complexes, and stadia, just to mention but a few.
Touting can take place in so many forms. A person who frequents tourist areas and presents himself as a tour guide, particularly towards those who do not speak the local language, but operates on behalf of local bars, restaurants, hotels, or what have you, being paid to direct tourists to certain establishments, can be referred to as a tout.
Taxi touting refers to a kind of illegal taxicab operation, which involves taxi drivers and the touts in which they attract potential passengers by illicit means. For instance, calling out travelers or fetching them and their luggage to an area where the taxi drivers are waiting in their respective vehicles.
They often charge the drivers exorbitant fees upon arrival or while departing, possibly using threats to ensure payment, thereby hiking the transport fare.
Another devastating method is ticket touting. A ticket tout is someone who engages in ticket resale for more than the face value of the ticket. Recently, ticket touts have moved into internet ticket fraud.
On the other hand, shop touting has also become rampant. A shop tout is a person who is engaged by a shop owner to loiter outside their office, sometimes outside the building or outside their competitors’ shops.
The tout then promotes the sales or services of the shop to a passerby and afterwards escorts him or her to the shop in question for patronage. The tout is invariably paid a commission for each person he lures to the shop.
Though touting has rescued millions of unemployed youths in Nigeria from idleness, on the contrary, it’s noteworthy that it is indeed a social and economic menace in any society where it is harboured. Owing to the inevitable dangers attached to touting, it has been tagged by analysts as ‘a colossal societal cankerworm’.
Touting has been a serious threat to the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) sources of any government. Take for example; virtually in all the localities in Nigeria, one would hardly see the commercial motor drivers making use of the officially designed motor parks situated in their respective areas of operation.
In recent times, the motor parks, among other transportation parks/stations, which are one of the paramount revenue sources of any government, have been turned to mockery grounds by the various touts littered all over the nooks and crannies of the country, thereby posing an enormous danger to the purses of the affected governments.
Tax collection, which is an official activity required to be carried out by government officials, has also suffered similar maltreatment in the hands of touts. Currently, one would hardly know who is actually standing in for the government when it calls for tax collection due to the manner in which the touts have hijacked the routine.
In most cases, they operate in disguise as genuine agents unknowingly to the firms or individuals involved. Most pathetically, sometimes the government employees indulge in such illegal acts or may in some occasions, prefer to act as an accomplice, just as it is presently found in various institutions of higher learning during the admission era. This incident often makes several companies or entrepreneurs dodge tax payment, which is supposed to be obligatory.
The sports arena is not left out. During any sporting competition anywhere in the world, touting activity is usually observed at the stadium that is meant to be used for the tournament. The touts are illegally engaged in selling tickets to the prospective spectators. This illicit practice has severely hampered the activity of sports’ organizers across the globe, particularly in Nigeria.
Touting had on various occasions caused the death of many innocent Nigerians. To say the least, even the lives of the touts are mostly at risk, which is usually attributed to rivalry, envy or greed that are often witnessed among them.
In a nutshell, touting, which has become the order of the day in Nigeria, has succeeded in maiming as well as terminating lives of thousands of our ebullient youths on a daily basis.
Thus, it’s needless to state that if severe and drastic measures are not taken towards eliminating the menace, it is most likely to become one of the major causes of death rates and economic mayhem in the country in the nearest future.
To this end, the lawmakers are enjoined to put hands together toward ensuring the societal cankerworm, which is on the rampage and ubiquitous, is duly taken to the history book.
The various labour leaders on their parts, ought to endeavour to fish out the saboteurs or bad eggs in their midst as regards touting, so that he or she would be made to face the wrath of the law.
Above all, in our individual capacities, we are expected to work hand in hand with the government in order to ensure that touting won’t only be eradicated but shall continue to be seen as a monster by all concerned for eternity, so that we will live to embrace a thorough decent and disciplined society, which everyone prays for.