Policy somersaults, ill conceived programmes and lack of continuity are the bane to development in Nigeria as the federal government is planning to reintroduce tollgates few yew years after millions of naira was used to dismantle them. Successive governments continue to formulate antithetical policies in place of pragmatic ones.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, on Thursday stated that tollgates would be reintroduced on the highways across the country at 38 points, adding that a software would be used to monitor movement of vehicles at the tollgates.
Fashola made this known during an interactive session with the Senate Committee on the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, chaired by Senator Magnus Abe. He said the reintroduction of tollgates would start after the completion of the highways. He informed the Committee that the tollgates would be managed by the private sector and the Ministry has concluded the design of the tollgates, which would be located at the old spots of the demolished ones.
The Minister added the software would enable the road users to pay for toll on their phones, adding that the money realised would be used for the maintenance of the roads.
“We have concluded plans to reintroduce tollgates across the country and we have finalised the design. “It will be managed by the private sector and it will be located in the old places. “Thirty-eight point across the country. “We are only waiting for the completion of those roads before we introduce the toll gates.”
On the budget of FERMA, Fashola revealed to the committee that out N25 billion earmarked for the agency in the 2017 budget, only N800 million has been released so far by the government. He begged the Committee to revise the procurement law in order to fastback contract approval by the government.
The Committee Chairman slammed the government for its poor release of 2017 budget for FERMA, wondering how the country expects the agency to perform effectively when N800 million was released out of N25 billion.
