With the gap between government and the governed growing wider by the day, it has become common to see people helping to repair public highways – young men shoveling soil into potholes in the name of communal labour, and then blocking the road thereafter to collect toll for service rendered. Everyone agrees that it is primarily the duty of government to build roads and maintain them, but then when the chips are down and that faceless fellow called ‘Government’ is nowhere to be found, the question ‘Who is Government?’ becomes one that nobody is able to give the right answer to.
‘I don’t know whether government now expects us to be carrying our vehicles on our heads,’ lamented Mr. PB, a resident of Fortune Street, as he was discussing the deplorable state of their road with a neighbour, Mr. X. ‘The other day when the Commissioner was being interviewed on TV about the road, he had the face to tell the public that the government was “on top of the situation”.’
‘That’s just it!’ said Mr. X. ‘Government is always “on top of the situation”. I wonder when these lying government officials will ever admit that a particular situation is on top of government and not the other way round. I can’t recall how long this road of ours has remained like this, and yet there’s still no light at the end of the tunnel. All we get from government are empty promises as we continue to hear that “government is on top of the situation”. It’s very bad! And I feel sorry for your new jeep, Mr. PB. Ours is not the kind of road for that kind of vehicle at all.’
‘Precisely!’ agreed Mr. PB, shaking his head. He had recently bought himself a brand new Subaru SUV, and driving through the potholes on Fortune Street was an experience that always nearly brought tears to his eyes. ‘If I were not living in my personal house, I would just pack out of this part of the city because of this bad road.’ ‘That’s just the point, sir,’ Mr. X pushed on. ‘Since government has become the “Invisible Man”, why don’t we help ourselves? When rainy season sets in again, you and I know that no magic will enable you to move your vehicle in and out of Fortune Street anymore. If the road is this bad in the dry season, we will definitely be cut off from the rest of the city when the rains come, and then someone like you will just have to look for a place far from here to be parking that sleek and beautiful jeep of yours. Ah-ha! Did I hear you say “God forbid”? Yes, God forbid, sir. But since we have an absentee government that has decided not to look our way, let us do something for ourselves.’
And so Mr. X sold the idea to Mr. PB to use his own money to repair the bad road and demand for reimbursement afterwards from other car owners on the street. Then, without further consultations, Mr. PB set to work, ensuring that he kept receipts of all the purchases he made of laterite, chippings, tar and other materials. The project swallowed quite a chunk of the money he had set aside to boost his business. While the work was in progress, Mr. X got the co-operation of a number of the residents of Fortune Street and they moved round to inform the people that every compound was to contribute N10,000 each to reimburse Mr. PB who had single-handedly financed the road-repair project. As a form of self-help to ensure that the people complied, Mr. PB set up a toll-bar across the road and hired some rough boys to mind it, with the instruction that no vehicle would pass the road between 6a.m. and 8p.m. without a receipt showing that the particular vehicle owner had paid the levy. There were many who appreciated Mr. PB’s effort and paid up without demurring; but then in every street the nitpickers would always outnumber the cooperators… ‘That’s complete nonsense! I’m not paying a dime!’ Lady Gee fumed when Mr. X and his men came to her. ‘Mr. PB and I never entered into any Agreement concerning this matter. In the first place, the road is a government road and so any private citizen who decides to repair a government road, or any publicly owned facility for that matter, is just doing charity. Simple! And if you must give charity to government, my dear, you can’t turn around to hold private citizens to ransom – you just have to wait for your reward in heaven. Oh yes! As for me, I will never contribute a kobo of my hard-earned money to repair roads for government. What’s bringing that nonsense? Mr. PB is probably a millionaire and probably a philanthropist, too. So, God will bless him for the good work he’s done, and he will surely go to heaven. Okay? But go and tell him to remove that toll-bar that he is using to block that road, in his own interest, because that’s PUBLIC NUISANCE in law. That road does not belong to him: it is a government road and he has absolutely no right to collect toll on a government road. Oh, yes, I know the law!’
‘Don’t speak like an ingrate!’ Mr. X fired back at her. ‘What government road? Where was the government all those months that the road was a death-trap, destroying our vehicles? Let me tell you, Lady Gee, if you refuse to pay your share of the levy, then be prepared to turn your car into an aeroplane, or be parking it at home while you go to work on foot, because your pass to use that road henceforth is the receipt of your payment.’ ‘That’s rubbish!’ raged the lady. ‘What do you think, that I don’t know my rights? Very well! We shall see in court!’
And so they did. Lady Gee first brought an Application for Interlocutory Injunction against Mr. PB, his agents and representatives, praying court to restrain them from further causing PUBLIC NUISANCE by barricading the main road of Fortune Street for the purpose of collecting illegal levies. Her Substantive Suit (main case) against Defendant was for: (1) an Order of Perpetual Injunction restraining Defendant, his agents, privies, representatives, etc., from further placing a toll-bar across Fortune Street main road, being a public thoroughfare; (2) an Order declaring as illegal the levy being collected by Defendant and his agents on the said road; and (3) an Order on Defendant to pay Plaintiff N500,000 General Damages for constituting a Public Nuisance and depriving her of the use of a public road which by law she had the right to use.
Court took Plaintiff’s Application for Interlocutory Injunction timeously and granted it, ordering the Defendant, Mr. PB, to immediately dislodge the said toll-bar that he had erected across the said road, being a public thoroughfare. Thereafter, hearing on the substantive suit was commenced. At the end of the hearing, judgment was also given in favour of Plaintiff, Lady Gee, as court refused to be swayed by sentiments but held that Defendant’s action of barricading the said road and refusing Plaintiff Egress and Ingress amounted to Public Nuisance… By the by, the court gave its judgment a human face by awarding only N50,000 General Damages against Mr. PB in favour of Lady Gee.
