When the law establishing the Rivers State Traffic Management Agency, TIMARIV was passed by the 6th Assembly of the Rivers State House of Assembly, RSHA, people received the news with mixed feelings. While some saw the development as positive and capable of easing the hectic traffic situation in Port Harcourt city and its environs, others regarded it as one of those useless attempts at conferring unnecessary powers on another mindless taskforce to undo the motoring public.
Their fears were not farfetched, as the good people of Rivers State and visitors alike have had it rough with previous heartless groups who claimed to be taskforces. The most recent of the nightmares was the dreaded Ministry Of Transport Taskforce, popularly known as MOT. There was nothing this defunct group did not do apart from turning a man to a woman and vice versa.
There are records where people’s cars were snatched in broad day light by people believed to be MOT officials and such vehicles were never recovered. You can now appreciate why fears heralded the birth of TIMARIV. Suffice it to say that the early days of TIMARIV were tolerable, as the group displayed a level of average professionalism, possibly because the traffic marshals were still fresh from their six month’s training at Nornwa Gbam, in Khana Local Government Area, courtesy of the Nigerian Police. As soon as the training died down the real taskforce surfaced.
Nigerians as law abiding citizens have been trying to cope with the situation, but the last straw that has almost broken the camel’s back is this indiscriminate blocking of major roads within Port Harcourt metropolis. First it was Garrison roundabout, followed by G.R.A Phase II junction and later Presidential Hotel junction and who knows the next place. Ordinarily people would not have bothered about how many roads or junctions that were blocked, but the consequential traffic jam occasioned by this unnecessary show of power by TIMARIV has brought public attention to this ignoble act.
This has even drawn the attention of the State House of Assembly which summoned the management of the Agency for questioning. As to whether the interrogation yielded any result, only time will tell. What is clear however is that the road blocks are still there and the endless hold-ups are worsening by the day. The question now on the lips of everybody living in Rivers State is whether the briefing of TIMARIV really extends to blocking roads that were professionally designed by experts for easy flow of traffic.
We therefore call on the State Government, Ministry of Transport, the House of Assembly and all well-meaning Nigerians to look into the excesses of TIMARIV, with a view to calling them to order. A stitch in time they say saves nine. ###
