Residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, have expressed their disgust at the decision of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to re-introduce toll-gates on the country’s highways, saying the government is bent on adopting obnoxious policies that causes more harm to the citizenry.
A respondent, Mr Ephrain Arisukwu in an interview with The Tide observed that the Federal Government under Buhari is over-stressing the people rather than alleviating their problems.
“Instead of bringing back toll-gates, which were disbanded by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Federal Government should focus on the construction and rehabilitation of the several dilapidated federal roads across the country, including the East-West and Port Harcourt-Aba Express roads that connect Abuja and other parts of the federation, he said.
Arisukwu, who is a shipping consultant, said “it is quite unfortunate that the Federal Government is not helping matters in Nigeria. The people are under bondage and suffering. There is no independence in this country and the toll-gates will do more harm to Nigerians.”
He also condemned the planned duty charge on users of Gms, saying the move would further increase the challenges of the citizens, stressing the need to adopt policies and programmes that would improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
In his reaction on the proposal, another respondent, Chief Chidi Muonanu urged the federal government to rescind the ideas of re-establishing toll-gates on roads and taking users of GSM to pay for it, saying the actions would bring more hardship and hunger as well as increase fuel price in the country.
“The Federal Government should discard the decision and concentrate on the provision of infrastructure across the nation and stop concentrating on the development of the North and South-West while neglecting the South-South and South-East regions that are contributing greatly to the economy of the country”, he said.
According to him, “the government under Buhari is not doing well. His change agenda is a failure and he has nothing good for the people”.
He, therefore, called on governors of other states to emulate the New Rivers development agenda adopted by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
An anonymous respondent also said “anything to further impoverish Nigerians is not welcome. Nobody is happy with the way the present government of Nigeria is going. We are suffering and crying and the Buhari-led government wants us to spend more even when we don’t have the money to spend.
“For us to pay for any service now is bad. The government should create avenues to establish industries to create jobs for the growing population instead of creating more problems for Nigerians. The government of Buhariu has no sympathy for the citizenry”, he declared.

Shedie Okpara