By Stephen Gbadamosi
A chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, has called on governments, both at the federal and state levels, to stop collecting road worthiness charges until they make roads under their control motorable.
Speaking on the state of roads in major cities in the country , Oguntoyinbo said the roads were impassable and had been causing damages to vehicles on daily basis, wondering why government was forcing motorists to “cough out huge money as road worthiness fee, while in actual fact, the roads are terribly bad and are not adequately maintained by governments.”
In a release issued on Sunday, Oguntoyinbo said the current rainy season had exposed most of Nigerian roads as impassable.
He cited the penultimate Saturday experience on the Lagos – Badagry expressway and the Lagos – Abeokuta expressway, all in Lagos, “which were flooded and constituted hindrance to vehicular and human movements after early downpour.”
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The politician said he appreciated the demand for vehicles to be road worthy before plying the roads, adding that it was aimed at providing lasting solutions to the historical antecedents of dangers posed by having vehicles that were not road worthy on the roads.
He, however, insisted that for governments to have moral right to collect road worthiness charges, they ought to make the roads smooth and well maintained.
“Governments must ensure the roads are motorable. Governments cannot be demanding road worthiness charges from vehicle owners, whereas it is the bad roads that makes motor vehicles not being road worthy.
“It is like vehicle owners are suffering from two ends. The bad roads damage their vehicles and government also collect fees from them as a way of certifying that their vehicles are road worthy.
“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. For a government to collect road worthiness fees, it must make roads very smooth and motorable,” he said in the statement.
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