When traffic management is outsourced as a key source of revenue for a state government instead of a social service to help road users, the result is that citizens become a victim of capitalist greed. When the Traffic Management Authority was established in 2009, it seemed to many that government had got the sometimes crazy Port Harcourt traffic in check, but just two years later, the agency has become a dysfunctional institution fraught with corruption, right violations, extortion, and very poor management.

What happened to TIMARIV? The once very disciplined and organized dispatch of traffic marshals has become a company of touts and rudderless collective of revenue scouts and collectors. Port Harcourt residents have had to deal with the excesses of this PPP model of traffic management in the state. I gather that TIMARIV staff have not been paid for over six months with no explanation from their employers. It is also shocking that traffic marshals are given revenue targets. What this means is that a TIMARIV officer must impound a certain number of cars in a month to meet his/her target. The effect of this can best be imagined.

The selective nature of their 'attacks' is also worrisome. They have made women, corporate vehicles and commercial drivers their targets, maybe because they consider them easy preys. I can't tell but I know, TIMARIV has become a desperate set of freebooters.

A driver at the Agip junction area of Port Harcourt, a few months ago, set his taxi ablaze after a TIMARIV belligerent forced the taxi open, and in a commando style dispossessed him of the vehicle keys. Caught up in the frenzy from the assault and the thought of the sequestration of his taxi, he simply emptied the gallon of petrol in his car trunk and set the sedan ablaze. Stupid action you may think, but "when you have it up to here," like Nigerians say, the unthinkable is sometimes spontaneous.

This is a call on TIMARIV to respect citizens, and stop being predators, especially to the most vulnerable on our roads. It is also a call on the state government to pay these young workers their salaries, for a labourer deserves his/her wage. Finally, I call on the police to call TIMARIV to order.