Yesterday, the Nigerian Senate passed a motion for the reintroduction of toll roads. It was moved by a Senator Suleiman Nazif from Bauchi-North senatorial district.

Remember the Lagos-Ibadan expressway from a few years ago? That road so notorious or it’s traffic? It used to be a toll road. Now, it is understandable if you do not remember the Lagos-Ibadan expressway we speak of.

You definitely know the Lekki-Epe expressway don’t you? That’s a toll road. It’s essentially a road where you have to stop at intervals to pay money for travelling on it. So a road tax of sorts if you will.

Now, in regular places, because the construction of roads is such an expensive project funded often with government -state or local- money, the authorities will impose the payment of taxes for the use of the said roads. These taxes go to the maintenance of the roads, building of new roads, and to a large extent, job and wealth creation too.

So toll roads aren’t so bad now. Or are they?

Legally, road tolls in Nigeria are enabled by section 2 of the Federal Highways Act which empowers the the Minister (of works or roads) to “erect, equip and maintain toll gates on any Federal highway as and when required, with the approval of the President.” The said Minister also prescribes the fees to be paid as tolls.

We’ve gone to have and then not and then have and then not have toll roads in various parts of the country. Until President Olusegun Obasanjo scrapped the toll roads altogether in 2004 on account of their mismanagement. This remains one of the positive highlights of that administration. This is in spite of the fact that he scrapped the tolls and introduced road taxes which were charged through an increase in petrol pump price.

Now, in 2016, with general hardship plaguing the country and a populace grudgingly coming to terms with the reality of NGN 145 per litre as the new pump price of petrol that we ought have in abundance; some overpaid senators think that it is okay blame the same populace for all the different levels of deteriorating roads from Sagamu-Ore road to the same Lagos-Ibadan expressway that might never see completion.

By deciding that the reason why the roads are in the state they now are is because of lack of payment of tolls for usage, these senators are essentially saying that we are the problem. Not them! Not them who squander the taxes we already pay from little or nothing received in salaries (whenever they are paid).

These senators want us to pay taxes for using Federal roads that people in the new generation have probably never seen in good conditions. That’s just not right. We aren’t the ones who did not make provisions for the rebuilding of a collapsed railway system. We are also not the ones who consequently have continued to allow the passage of heavy-duty trucks on roads that cannot even sustain constant use by salon cars.

The senator who moved the motion complained about the fact that focus is being placed on construction of new roads! In a country where the exponential increase in an already large population has become a source of worry to even foreigners. Just think about the number of people who will need to migrate from rural to urban!

They’ll probably mention the success of the Lekki-Epe toll road as justification. What they do not understand is that Lagosians only grudgingly pay the toll on this road and we continue to do so because there is real justification to be seen the the condition of the road. You cannot tax us for maintenance of roads that you haven’t even the good conscience to properly construct.

It is just amazing. Senator Ali Ndume from Borno-South who seconded the motion claims that the resources for constructing and maintaining the roads have become limited by the economic crises. Wawu! The same economic crises that has ruined the finances of those you are about to tax?

The same depleted resources that will be dipped into to construct the toll gates?

Let us all just think through all of these for a minute before we begin to discuss the importance of recalling all of the senators that gave the “Ayes” in support of this wicked and suspicious motion including deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu.