Come end of this September, Nigerians will be forced to change their vehicle number plates to new ones.
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Failure to do this will be an offence punishable either by imprisonment, or fines, or the impounding of the said vehicle with payment of penalties.
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Knowing Nigerians, the first challenge of the Federal Roads Safety Commission, FRSC, will be to find space to keep impounded vehicles, employ companies to administer release of vehicles after owners paid the penalties, etc.
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This is big business for the FRSC and company. Their next challenge will be when best to attack offenders; naturally during work hours, and festivities; at such a time when they can inflict maximum pain on Nigerians of all professions.
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They are used to it. They stop and arrest mostly during working hours in big cities and they show no respect for any profession. They delay and embarrass lawyers, journalists, doctors, engineers, you name it.
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I have witnessed this at Mile 2 area of Lagos. Only recently, I came to the aid of a young journalist as the officer protested a publication by his paper against the Commission.
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One wonders what could be driving this law other than greed and lack of conscience in those who rule us. First, the new plate which contains no extra features than the old one, except the map of Nigeria, and reversal of the old numbers will come at a price of N35,000 per car, and here is the deal: Assuming we have 70 million registered vehicles in Nigeria, and we have more, we are looking at an income of over N2.45 trillion! Penalties will range from N10,000 to N15,000, another income of N525 billion assuming only 50 per cent of Nigerians will be able to get the new plates before October 1, 2013.