Lekki Toll Gate: Residents Should Dialogue With Fashola

Editorial

The calm which has pervaded the Lekki landscape in the last one year is about to be disrupted following the threat by the residents to resist collection of toll on the Lekki-Epe expressway.


This threat is coming on the heels of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s decison to formally lift the suspension on the collection of toll on the modernised expressway.

The governor who announced the lifting of the suspension of toll on the expressway while presenting the 2012 budget had posited that government could no longer bear the huge financial outlay on the expressway and that there is need to generate money to offset the billions of Naira use in constructing the road.

According to the governor, his administration had spent N4 billion this year alone to pay part of the toll which road users refused to pay.

“The politically motivated resistance to the commencement of toll collection on the Eti-Osa, Lekki-Epe expressway means that your government had to part with N4 billion this year.,” he stated.

The governor posited further that the money could have been used to provide more schools, inner roads, hospitals and social needs in Eti Osa, Ibeju-Lekki and Epe areas.

Concluding Governor Fashola said he was lifting the suspension on toll collection and directed the Lekki Concession Company, the concessionaire, to announce the date for commencement of collection of tolls on the expressway.

This announcement by the governor, we must say, did not go down well with some interests in the area and have started sensitising their supporters to resist the governor’s move.

As a stakeholder in the greater Lagos project, it is our opinion that this is not the best time to stir rancour in any part of the state. It is not because the state needs all the goodwill it could garner to sustain its current tempo of development. It also needs peace to be able to execute all the developmental projects.

With the current insecurity in the country as signposted by the Boko Haram threat, Lagos can hardly afford to give envious enemies of the state the opportunity to wreak havoc in its domains.

This is why we are pleading for caution on the part of the government and residents of Lekki opposed to the introduction of tolls on the expressway.

We feel the best solution to resolve the disagreement is for both parties to show understanding and initiate a dialogue towards resolving the differences betweeen them.

Residents of Lekki should remember that the Fashola administration is their government and they contributed in putting it into power. They must not be seen to be doing  anything that will undermine the stability of the government to fulfill its promises to them.

They should realise that government meant well for them and the introduction of toll was not meant to increase their burden but an avenue for the government to generate revenue to be ablle to fulfill its promises to them.

We also want the government to tread softly, softly in reintroducing toll on the expressway. Maybe what the government should do is to embark on an enlightenment campaign to educate Lekki residents once more on the imperatives of collecting toll on the road.

The governor can grant some concessions to commuter buses plying the route to prevent them passing the burden of toll to commuters in form of higher transport fares.

The government should also embark on the construction of hospitals, maternity centres, schools and provide potable water for residents to reassure them that it means well in the introduction of tolls on the expressway.

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