Safety Threat From Street Touts Increases In Lagos

There is something increasingly disturbing about moving around Lagos. It is no longer just the notorious traffic, the endless gridlock, the reckless driving or the potholes that motorists must contend with. There is now another threat lurking in the middle of the chaos: groups of street touts popularly known as Agberos, who have turned traffic congestion, roadside stops and even vehicle breakdowns into opportunities for intimidation, extortion and, in some instances, outright robbery.

In Lagos today, getting caught in traffic can mean more than losing an hour of your day. It can mean having strangers bang aggressively on your car windows, demand money, threaten you, vandalize your vehicle or make you feel unsafe in a city where you should ordinarily be able to move freely.

Imagine driving home after a long day. You are stuck in traffic, barely moving, when someone approaches your window. Before you can understand what is happening, there is aggressive banging, shouting and a demand for money. You are not buying anything. You have not committed an offence. You are simply trying to get home. Yet you must negotiate your safety with someone who has appointed himself the unofficial tax collector of the highway.

Welcome to Lagos, where some people have apparently mistaken public roads for privately owned revenue collection centres.

The situation becomes particularly frightening on major highways and bridges. The Third Mainland Bridge, for instance, is one of Lagos’s most important transportation corridors. Yet motorists have repeatedly expressed concerns about the vulnerability of vehicles that break down along sections of the bridge. A mechanical problem that should ordinarily require roadside assistance can quickly become a security nightmare. Instead of receiving help, stranded motorists may encounter individuals demanding money, intimidating them or taking advantage of their vulnerability. There are also reports of motorists being robbed in such circumstances.

Even more disturbing are accounts of people being compelled to pay before assistance can be rendered to move or repair their vehicles. Since when did emergency roadside assistance become a protection racket?

And this problem is not confined to motorists. Traders in markets, commercial bus operators, motorcycle riders and Marwa riders are equally exposed to the activities of street touts who impose unofficial levies and operate with an alarming sense of entitlement. For many small business owners and transport operators, these daily payments are not voluntary contributions. They are the cost of avoiding confrontation, harassment or disruption to their livelihoods.

The economic implications are significant. Every unofficial levy increases the cost of doing business. Every act of intimidation discourages investment in the informal economy. Every frightened commuter becomes another person questioning whether Lagos is still a city where ordinary people can move, work and earn a living without negotiating with street-level enforcers.

But perhaps the most troubling aspect of this situation is the apparent inability or unwillingness of the Lagos State Government to confront the problem decisively.

Lagos has invested considerable resources in infrastructure, transportation modernization, urban renewal and tourism promotion. We hear ambitious announcements about a smart city, a 24-hour economy, a world-class transportation system and positioning Lagos as Africa’s leading commercial and tourism destination. Yet, on some of our busiest roads, citizens are subjected to intimidation by people who behave as though they possess sovereign authority over public infrastructure.

One wonders what kind of smart city we are building when a motorist cannot safely wind down a window in traffic.

Government cannot selectively define public order. It cannot celebrate infrastructure development while ignoring the people who make that infrastructure unsafe to use. It cannot talk about a modern transport ecosystem while traders, commercial drivers and commuters remain exposed to unofficial taxation and intimidation.

There is also a tourism dimension that deserves serious attention. Lagos wants to attract international visitors, business travellers, investors, conference delegates and leisure tourists. Yet the tourism experience does not begin and end at the airport, a hotel reception or a beautifully branded event venue. It includes the journey through the city, the roads people use, the markets they visit and the sense of security they experience.

Imagine a foreign visitor arriving in Lagos, hiring a vehicle and becoming stranded on the Third Mainland Bridge, only to encounter intimidation or robbery. What impression does that create? How does that visitor describe Lagos when they return home? How many potential visitors might reconsider their travel plans based on such experiences?

Tourism is built on more than attractions. It rests on safety, accessibility, confidence and the quality of the overall destination experience. A city cannot market its nightlife, beaches, restaurants, culture and entertainment while allowing its highways and public spaces to become intimidating environments.

And there is an important distinction to make. The activities of these street touts should not be confused with the legitimate work of transport unions or the millions of hardworking people earning honest livelihoods within Lagos’s transport ecosystem. The issue is the existence of parallel structures of intimidation that operate beyond the boundaries of lawful authority.

The Lagos State Government must move beyond occasional crackdowns and public statements. It needs a sustained security strategy involving the police, traffic management authorities, local governments and relevant transport regulators. This should include intelligence-led enforcement, visible highway patrols, emergency response mechanisms on bridges, prosecution of offenders and a transparent framework for legitimate transport-related collections.

The government must also demonstrate that political influence, union affiliation or connections to powerful interests cannot provide immunity from the law.

Ultimately, the right to move freely and safely through a city should not be a privilege reserved for those who can afford private security or an armoured vehicle.

Lagos is too economically important, too commercially vibrant and too internationally visible to surrender its roads to intimidation and extortion.

A city that wants to attract the world must first make its residents feel safe in it.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that Lagos does not need another slogan, another campaign or another tourism promotional video to communicate its ambition. It needs to make sure that when someone gets stuck in traffic, the biggest problem they face is actually the traffic. That should not be too much to ask of a government.

WRITTEN BY GBENGA ONITILO