Pat Utomi, a professor of political economy and management expert, speaks to DAYO ADENUBI on the recent approval of tollgates for some federal roads and the potential impact of the decision on the Nigerian economy

Last week, the Federal Executive Council approved the reintroduction of toll collection on some selected dual carriageways across the country. What are your thoughts on this?

Nigeria is not a place where we often have rational conversations. I speak about this and people are always complaining. The idea to scrap the toll gates in the first place was a very unwise one. I said so at the time and I wrote opinion pieces about it. Not only were they scrapped, the government spent tens of millions of dollars knocking them down. Now, they’ll spend hundreds of millions getting them back up. I’m not sure what point was proved when the tolls were stopped and then the structures bulldozed so they can’t start again.

Now, 23 years later, we realise that we can’t maintain the highways, saying we have to bring back toll roads again, shamelessly. It is not right; it is an unreasonable use of scarce resources in a country where people are so poor, even if the elite live recklessly on public resources. In principle, I have no problem with tolls; they should never have been removed. Secondly, tolls money should not go into the treasury; it should be specific-use tax for maintaining the highways. And there should be a monitoring committee of users of the highway; for example, members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the association of drivers that ply that highway, among others. Their business is to make sure that every kobo paid on that highway is used to make sure the highway is maintained.

Based on last week’s announcement, many of the entities exempted from paying tolls are government-controlled; do you think the government is trying to shield itself from responsibility, while imposing an additional tax on a population with shrinking disposable income?

In Nigeria, there is a culture of some people being above the law. In many ways, it is an assault on the rule of law, but they don’t realise it; they think it’s the privilege of power. And we must begin to change these things. Let the government departments budget for their toll payment. Let them buy e-tags so that they won’t be disturbed when blowing their sirens. But the tag immediately makes sure that the tolls are deducted from their payments; if they want special discounts or volume consumption, that is a commercial consideration. But creating this privileged thing is what creates a mess every time, everywhere. And people have an entitlement mentality, because they’re in government, they can do whatever they like. Let them have a budgeting department for their tolls; let them go and buy e-tags and use them to ply the highways.

Some people are worried that they may have to keep paying tolls for a long time due to the nature of the contracts. What’s your take on this and what advice will you give the government in structuring the deals?



In the United States, highways have existed for long. I lived in a small town called Bloomington in Indiana, a few miles away from Indianapolis, the state capital. A fantastic beautiful road that I used to drive on then is still there. But it has been sold by the state government to a bank, not even an American bank, an Australian bank.

This allowed the road to become even more motorable; the bank collects its tolls, makes profit, and everyone is happy. Of course, there are a few moral laws that go to tolling roads. If you’re going to have a toll road, there must be an alternative. The thing is that those who want to go more quickly can pay their toll and go. Those who don’t have money will suffer the slighter indignity of traffic delays on the freeway. These are some of the basic principles that we can use to confront these issues if we act logically.

Public-private partnership is a viable way to fund public infrastructure. But there are fears in some quarters that some of these agreements were not in the interest of the public. What do you have to say about that?

Firstly, we need to understand that lives are riding on these big policies and judgment, and part of the problems we have in Nigeria is because we don’t rigorously engage the subject. When we talk about institutions, I refer to what are called institutions of complex redundancy. The US decision-making process in Congress looks like this: Before taking a decision, the House first has a conversation around it, sends it to the House committee to go and debate it thoroughly. That committee, after some debates, sends it to the sub-committee, which holds public hearings, where experts from around the country come and give their positions.

These congressmen then develop such knowledge about public policymaking. When the policy now comes out of this process of complex redundancy, committees and sub-committees, House, and plenary hearings, it would have been thought through rationally, compared to our own here where people just talk and talk and the next thing we hear is that policies are out. And that’s how we waste billions.

Before the telecoms licensing, it was almost impossible to own a telephone line. There were less than 280,000 telephone lines in the whole of Nigeria, and less than 50,000 or 60,000 Nigerians who had them in the whole country. Now, it’s a matter of choice whether you want it or not. And it was because of open transparent bidding that was nearly sabotaged, thank God for the late Ahmed Joda and Ernest Ndukwe. Ahmed Joda was a friend to President Obasanjo and this enabled him to defy the minister, who wanted to interfere at the last minute to stop that bidding. We might have missed the telecom revolution if not for that timely intervention. When they did that bidding, most of the big telecoms companies around the world did not come, because they didn’t take Nigeria seriously. But those two men enabled the process not to go the Nigerian way, and today, tens of millions of Nigerians are enjoying that benefit. Compare that to electricity that they didn’t do transparently; we are still suffering the consequences.


So, the proof is there. All we have to do is have some rational conversations, but people will throw emotions at you, saying, ‘Oh, they don’t trust the government; they’ll do it opaquely’. You have to force them not to do it that way. Show them examples of the results when they did it wrongly and right, and put pressure on them to do it right; it will benefit everyone.

https://punchng.com/if-were-going-to-have-tollgates-there-must-be-alternative-roads-utomi/

Lekki Epe self, the Oniru dem call alternative na rubbish. We dem no toll oriental hotels too?

Dem wan toll Benin by pass, I no fit laff, de holdup go reach Agbor. Dem go still do same for Asaba-Onitsha bridge.

Lalasticlala