Extortions Policy of the Governor Ayade’s Administration by Daniel Agbor

By Daniel Agbor 

Our past has seen monumental waste in resources and the steady flight of human development. Our past has witnessed an inexorable slide in social development and an entrenchment of economic hardship now taken for granted and taken as normal.

The evil of the past has given birth to the present existence of instability, insecurity and social injustice.

The present administration came on board with so many promises and had promised to be people friendly, yet within the first year of this administration, the level of taxation and extortion is frightening.

It is indeed true that Nigerians are very difficult people to manage but then, this difficulty might have stem from somewhere, and hence it will be absurd to completely put the blame on Nigerians. The truth is that Nigeria is fast approaching a time zone where generations which were neither actors nor witnesses to the cleavages bedeviling the land will inherit a nation piled up in a heap of past hurts, hates and resentments. 

The result therefore which affects Cross River as well is that there are as yet neither tangible solutions to, nor substantial amelioration of, the harsh conditions of the Cross River’s masses, thanks to a conniving and self-serving leadership that overturns statistics to justify the palpable distress in the land. The all-embracing truth is that there are precious few Cross Riverians with the interest of Cross River as Cross River. And flowing from this truth is the unarguable assertion that we as a state have no genuine common purpose.

How else will we explain the unwholesome tutelage with which the state as played an extortionist role in exploiting the very people they were to govern and serve? This is so funny that every piece of material sold in the market is now a paramilitary uniform for one form of paramilitary or another. 

So funny is the situation that every offence violated in every facet of the society attracts one form of kangaroo litigation or the other. Government is the prosecutor, the defense council and the judge. So funny is the situation that mobile court is synonymous with every means of livelihood and every uniform wearing paramilitary has a mobile court attached to it.

There is mobile court for NO PARKING, and this is one area that is so funny with the agents being the uneducated lots such that they can’t distinguish between no parking, no waiting, stopping etc. At a no parking spot, one can’t even stop.

DOPT has a mobile court attached to it and the same applies to the much revered 100 Marian. The Civil Defense are not left out, let alone the Police, Army, Airforce and Navy. For the Road Safety, they are not in any way different from the Mobile Court as their rising and ending the day is also called mobile court. 

The V.I.O. on the other hand are mobile court in themselves. Their exploit is similar to the military term call combing. They impound everything on wheel and have recently been booking and collecting fines themselves. Government cannot deny non-involvement in this particular area of interest. Before now, the Motor Licensing Office had the sole responsibility of issuing vehicle particulars, the duty they have discharged assiduously. It beats my imagination that the insurance papers issued by the licensing office is branded as fake up to the point that vehicles have been impounded for operating with fake insurance certificate which is yet another area of which government exploit the masses. 

This is so because, government and her agent does insure any vehicle so to say. This is the same situation motorists are experiencing in the hands of the Road Safety. Driver’s license issued by the Road Safety is today branded as fake by the same officials of the Road Safety. In a turnout of events, a new driver’s license goes for close to twenty thousand Naira if not more.

Today, mobile courts operates almost on daily basis except when it rains heavily. They operate from morning till 6pm. Sometimes, the officials make a meal of defaulters. No one is saying they should not operate but amidst the batting economic realities, they should have a human face as even they said officials have turned motorists into milking machines.

Until we confront these truths, we remain trapped in our web of falsehood. Until we courageously confront our past, dissect and digest or disgorge the cankerworms of our political history, our quest for true peace and stability may remain an illusion. Until we vent our long-standing resentments, candidly expose and concede our ethnic divides and cover-ups, until we justly address the material poverty in Cross River and the moral poverty of Cross Riverians, we deceive no one but ourselves. If we hear only the bells of sycophancy and think that we can achieve the much needed reconciliation, then we will only subject ourselves to stagnation, defeat, apathy and resignation, and peace will continue to escape us.