Recently, while being interviewed by the Sunrise Daily crew of Channels Television on the controversial pension for past state governors, Governor Godswill Akpabio was asked by the TV anchormen to use his good offices as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum to get the governors to ban the harassment of motorists by agents of the local government areas collecting one tax or the other. They noted that it was the issue that agitated the audience of Channels TV most.

While promising to table it before the governors, Akpabio recounted his ordeal while driving through Edo State from Lagos to Akwa Ibom as a lawyer. He said he was always harassed and delayed by these LG agents, demanding all manner of documents. He said he was angry and frustrated over such harassment. And when he became the governor of Akwa Ibom in 2007, he banned it in his state.

A similar thing had earlier happened in Lagos State. Before Bola Tinubu became the Governor of Lagos State on May 29, 1999, it was a risky affair to drive your car in Lagos. Almost every street had thugs acting on behalf of each local government area. If you had a flat tyre and parked by the roadside to solve the problem, they would spring out from nowhere and pounce on you like a clan of hyenas. Those in the Lagos Island Local Government Area were the fiercest. When Tinubu became governor, he banned them. Some would argue that he replaced them with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, but even though LASTMA officials can sometimes be a pain in the neck, those LGA thugs were no way comparable to LASTMA operatives, as they control traffic and can even help you push your car in time of need.

Why is the case of Edo State different? Given the pedigree and antecedents of Governor Adams Oshiomhole as someone who fought for the welfare of workers and the masses, one had expected that the first thing he would have done upon becoming the governor of the state was to ban all the LG thugs that stand by the expressways and harass those who are passing through the state. In 2008, shortly after his legal victory, I wrote to him on the same matter. Many people have published articles in newspapers on the same issue, but sadly, all that has not yielded any fruit.

The completion of the Benin Bypass in 2002 was greeted with an air of relief, because travellers would no longer have to drive through the city of Benin because of the traffic jams and other encumbrances.

Not long after, a group of vicious boys emerged on the loop leading to the Benin Bypass, as well as the loop connecting the bypass to the Benin-Asaba Expressway. They are armed with wooden poles spiked with six-inch nails. A sentry with a flag would stand some metres away to slow down motorists. Once you slow down, they throw the nail-filled planks before your vehicle, daring you to drive over them and lose your tyres. Even before you halt, they force the door open, jump into your vehicle and seize the car key. Your initial thought would be that they are armed robbers or kidnappers.

Then, they introduce themselves as local government officials, and demand to see your radio permit, environmental permit, and the like. If you don’t produce them, they slam you with a fine of about N30,000. You start wondering what you have run into. Then the contest of nerves would start. Whether you have children in the car crying, or aged parents or a sick person, these vicious men are not moved. State police patrol vehicles would drive by and leave you to your fate.

While you are with them, you would observe that they don’t stop vehicles with Edo State number plates. They don’t arrest Edo indigenes: once they speak the language, they let them go. A drive through Benin City shows that they are not stationed anywhere within Benin City. They don’t stop commercial buses and trucks. They don’t stop motorists travelling towards Lagos, since those have exhausted their money at home and would not have money to pay.

One had expected that as a fighter for the masses, Oshiomhole would have banned this ugly practice immediately he came into office, but regrettably, after six years in office, he has allowed this to continue.

It is shocking how such a practice that portrays Edo State negatively has been allowed to fester for many years. How much revenue do these boys rake in for the state to warrant allowing them to continue to tarnish the image of Edo State?

Of all the states on the route from Lagos to Port Harcourt, Edo State is the best positioned, because it is at the end of the Sagamu-Benin Expressway and the beginning of the Benin-Asaba Expressway. It is the link between the West and East. It is the state that should take the most advantage of that corridor in making travellers stop by and experience its rich culture and hospitality.

Commercial buses travelling from Onitsha to Lagos usually take a meal break in Ore, Ondo State, while those travelling from Lagos to Onitsha take a meal break in Umunede in Delta State. If you ask the drivers why don’t they stop by in Benin for such, they would tell you: “I don’t want the wahala of Benin people.”

Benin has a traditional heritage which most cities envy: a heritage that goes back many centuries. Edo should not just have filling stations for motorists to top up and continue on their journey. The entire Benin Bypass and the parts of Edo State on the Lagos-Onitsha corridor should be littered with hotels, restaurants, parks, etc. Imagine children in vehicles seeing beautiful bouncy castles by the roadside on their way home! If their daddy fails to stop by on his way home, it would be hard for him not to stop by on the return trip. When everyone knows that there are wonderful parks and sites in Benin for children and adults, they would plan for it before leaving Lagos or their home town in Enugu or Ikot Ekpene.

Benin City should seize the opportunity of the mass movement through its land during the Yuletide to start a one-week carnival or festival that would compel travellers to stop by for a day or two to witness and enjoy before continuing on their journey.

With the traffic jam on the Niger Bridge during festive periods, which makes motorists to spend four hours or more in Asaba, Benin should be a stopover city for travellers who would want to have fun, rest and continue on their journey early the next morning, so as to cross over the Niger Bridge when the traffic is low. Delta State has that advantage too.

Benin has a rich history that travellers should be eager to stop by, even when there are no festivals, to see the artefacts and ancient sites. The Benin traditional regalia with its beads is gorgeous and should be like the Ghanaian kente which visitors should be able to buy during visits and take photographs wearing them at sites where great Obas like Ewuare the Great, Akenzua, Ovoranmwen, etc, lived or displayed their bravery.

Edo should have a film village that is second to none, attracting foreign and local film producers, directors, and actors.

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has been able to package itself as the place to visit as well as the transit to many countries. It is reaping the dividends. And it has ensured that every religious, cultural, political or financial inhibition that will stand in the way of visitors is removed. One is not sure that Edo State realises the strategic position it occupies in Nigeria as a result of its location and history.

Edo State must stop searching for crickets with its toes while it has a cow on its head. Let it nurture that cow so that it would provide never-ending meat for its people rather than concentrating on the crickets that will only whet its appetite and leave it hungry.

http://www.punchng.com/opinion/viewpoint/who-will-save-us-from-edo-road-bullies/

the Government should provide jobs for them and stop looting and implementing policies that are not ordinary man friendly.