FG’s plan to toll highways

MINISTER of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, recently indicated that the Federal Government plans to toll the nation’s highways. Tollgates on the highways are not alien to Nigerians. They were on many Nigerian roads until 2004 when Olusegun Obasanjo, then the president of Nigeria, ordered their dismantling on account of the loss of revenue to government and poor maintenance of tolled roads. It will be interesting to see what the Federal Government plans to do differently now to ensure that the reasons for which the former tollgates were removed do not recur.

To be sure, tolling per se is not bad. But unfortunately, the Federal Government does not have a good record on tolling, mainly because public corruption never allowed the essence of toll payment, which is to keep the tolled roads in good shape, to be realised. The goal of delivering top quality and well-maintained roads was largely unmet, perhaps because it was implemented through the civil service with  its many shortcomings. And if the Federal Government plans to tread the old path or contemplates being the major partner, dictating the pace in whatever arrangement is in the offing, then the outcome may not be different from the one Nigerians had experienced before. It is, nonetheless, hoped that the Federal Government has learnt useful lessons from the failure of the previous scheme of toll payment. It needs to come up with more innovative arrangements that will rein in the pitfalls of the old scheme and reflect the current dynamics in public infrastructural financing.

The point should be made that even though  the provision of roads is a social service within the ambit of government duties, the working formula in some jurisdictions for building physical public  infrastructure is Public Private Partnership (PPP) or concessioning arrangement. Indeed, it is under such an arrangement that tolling has a greater chance to meet its objectives of building and maintaining top quality arterial roads by opening up the road infrastructure sector to local and international investors. The investors put in their money which they recoup over time from tolling and in return deliver quality and safe roads while adopting international best practices in road management.

In this era of lean national receipts, concession arrangements offer an opportunity for government to meet the demand for good and well-maintained roads while freeing resources to deliver other social goods and services. Road maintenance is a major and regular cost item that requires a huge amount of resources that tolling the highways can easily help to defray. The need for regular maintenance of road infrastructure in Nigeria does not derive from the construction of poorly-built roads alone. There is also the issue of harsh weather and the pressure of use. The amount of economic and social activities that involve plying Nigerian roads is estimated at 90 per cent, and this puts tremendous pressure on the roads.

This situation necessarily requires a well-articulated road maintenance programme and, of course, the development and sustenance of other means of transportation through private sector participation. It is strongly urged that the concessioning contract the government plans to enter into must not put the civil/public servants at the driver’s seat. This is very important in order to obviate the likely public sector sleaze that may sabotage the tolling scheme, and also because in Nigeria, the government has always been the exact opposite of what an astute businessman should be.

Nonetheless, while tolling the highways to fund road maintenance, the government should consider the provision of alternative routes for those who do not want to pass through the tolled roads, however slow moving on them might turn out to be. The government owes this duty to the citizens who have paid their taxes for the purpose of provision of social goods and services, including roads. In addition, we urge that the toll s to be charged should take due cognizance of the struggling national economy and its implications for the disposable income of the citizenry and, as such, should be relatively affordable.

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