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Abuja is the city of the moment. The melting pot of all impossibilities and cynosure of all eyes. The moment anybody steps into Abuja, you ‘ve that deep sense of equanimity across all spectrum.
But Abuja is not all rosy. It is also hard and biting. Indeed an average Abuja inhabitant is caught in between the affluence of the rich and aristocratic city dwellers and the wretch of the poorest of the poor in the city. To find a middle point in between the two extremes is like climbing the Kilimanjaro. That is the Abuja i know.
Abuja is the Federal Capital Territory FCT of Nigeria. Indeed the nation’s seat of power where who gets what,when and how finds ultimate expression. And so Abuja is highly stratified by all standards politically, economically and indeed in all endeavours.
The prevalence of taxis of all sizes, shapes and colours also gives credence to the social stratification and disequilibrium prevalent in the nation’s capital territory. From Mararaba in nearby Nassarawa State to Nyanya in the city centre it is the same story. Moving up to Gwagwalda council area and down to Abaji an outskirt of the city taxi the scene is the same and drivers are everywhere.
One thing that now seems like a challenge in Abuja is that taxi cab operation has become the major occupation in the city. It has also become very nauseating, the payment of daily ticketing fee for taxi driving in the city which the Abuja Municipal Area Council AMAC has forced down the throat of each cab operator in the city centre.
On daily basis taxi owners and drivers who use taxi cab for business for daily income are forced to pay an obnoxious ticket fee of two hundred Naira (N200.00) to AMAC. Investigation by this newspaper has also revealed that the payment had commenced as early as May 2015.
Upon interrogation, one of these drivers a serving Police corporal Emmanuel Bamaiyi who said he used taxi to support his income also hinted that there are other ticket fees that each of the taxi drivers on Abuja road is compelled to pay to the local government authorities which add up to as much as four hundred Naira (N400.00) on daily basis
To enforce this inhuman law, any taxi operator who is caught for defaulting in payment of this fee before 12.00 noon each day is penalized with a penalty of thirty-five thousand Naira (N35,000.00) to serve as a deterrence to others.
How did we get in here i keep on asking? Has taxi ownership become a status symbol? Who and who introduced this wicked law into Abuja the nation’s capital and for what purpose?. Who are they accountable to? How have they used the funds generated in the past three and half years to better the lot of Abuja inhabitants? These questions keep coming up with no responses.
No wonder an erudite professor late Claude Ake once wrote and i quote: “from the moment a Nigerian get up from bed, he is threatened by every conceivable danger, bottomless potholes, mad drivers driving in rickety vehicles, shortage of food, shortage of shelter, shortage of water, shortage of clothing, shortage of fuel, shortage of kerosene and indeed shortage of everything except trials and tribulations”.
That is a perfect dirge for the taxi ticket fee in Abuja metropolis. As always, it tilts towards kind; a highly organized fraud, yet to no one dare raise voice. A city without adequate social safety nets for all classes of citizens with different economic means of survival is akin to a time bomb waiting to explode with unimaginable fatalities. The AMAC authorities must rise up to the challenge posed by this obnoxious ticket fee imposed on taxi drivers in Abuja metropolis.
Only in doing this can Abuja be said to be the nation’s capital territory in the strict sense of this appellation. If right to freedom of movement is a fundamental right of every citizen in his or her country is enshrined in the constitution the supreme law, then such rights must be protected and not unnecessarily encumbered in any way by anyone or group of persons.
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