Finally, it has happened: toll gates are coming back on federal roads in Nigeria: “The federal government of Nigeria has approved reintroduction of toll gates on federal highways across the country. The approval was made during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on Wednesday.” That is checked as expected. The next one to watch is the privatization of most federal universities. I have written that by 2029, the Nigerian government will put most on sale. While many general hospitals have been abandoned across local government areas, they will not abandon universities as there are great paying customers. Simply, they will flip and exit!
The plan to reintroduce tolling on federal highways in Nigeria was conceived in 2019, as the effects of dwindling oil revenue hit home.
“One of the highlights of today’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting (Wednesday, August 11, 2021) is the APPROVAL of a Federal Roads and Bridges Tolling Policy and Regulations.
The biggest shame remains the abandonment of Isuikwuato General Hospital, a premier hospital, many years ago. IGH served Ovim, Eluama, Isuochi, Uturu and many communities in Abia state. Check the GH in your state, it is possibly gone unless you were born in Lagos, Abuja or PHC. Systematically, Nigeria dismantled and abandoned one of the most critical national infrastructures: relative quality healthcare in rural communities.
People, things used to work. As a kid in Ovim, we used to mock those working in Ovim Veterinary Clinic, opposite the police station. Yes, no one understood why they needed a clinic for cats and dogs. That thing has since gone – everything is going, and gone.
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The biggest illusion in Nigeria is the thinking that Nigeria is rich. Because of that, no one is doing what is necessary. A great leader in Nigeria is one who will recalibrate that thinking. This is the fact: South Africa’s health budget alone will be more than Nigeria’s total annual budget. Yet, South Africa is less than 60 million people when we are excess of 210 million. Did I write that South African citizens are not even happy with what they get because they want more?
Welcome toll gates: hope they will fund the roads.
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One of the best decisions from this administration, you cannot borrow billions of dollars to build infrastructures, only to leave everything to chance; that would be total madness.
Our people are largely irresponsible and docile, because nobody pays for most things put together by the government, so nobody cares much about misgovernance in the land. When you pay for the fine highways you pass through, when next they are in bad shape, you will be forced to speak up and protest, because you are paying for them!
We have been selling lies for decades that Nigeria is very rich, just because few people steal a lot of money, but when you crunch the numbers, you realise that the country is fantastically poor, but that’s not the domain of argument for largely misinformed and ignorant public.
The federal universities are heavily subsidized, giving room for all manner of people to hunt university education, and upon graduation, many will be looking for nice countries to emigrate to. What it means is that Nigeria creates value without capturing much of it, but it’s very easy to deride and frown at Nigeria, without thinking through on how we contributed to the mess.
We need to recalibrate a lot of things here, which will help raise our level of national consciousness, making Nigerians a lot more responsible.
As things get tighter, when next you hear elections or political governance, you will not leave it for politicians alone.
Keep them coming…
“A great leader in Nigeria is one who will recalibrate that thinking”. – Indeed, but if the head is bad don’t expect anything great!
“ The biggest illusion in Nigeria is the thinking that Nigeria is rich. Because of that, no one is doing what is necessary.”- What can they do, please explain?
When OBJ abolished toll gate the toll gate on the grounds of State embezzlement, was it the road users that embezzled it?
That said, firstly congratulations to the tech firm that would be used to end leakage in this move since they would be smarter in levy collection.
Next, when the levy was stopped did Nigeria immediately go bankrupt were there not other path to growth aside the oil?
Yes, we need more money but putting so much burden on local is Madness!