Commuters to the Apapa area of Lagos, which is home to Nigeria’s two economic gateways (the Tin-Can and Apapa ports), have been caught in the grips of nerve-wrecking traffic gridlocks for three days running, from last Monday up till yesterday, with no end in sight.
This makes worse the traffic situation into Apapa which had reached harrowing dimensions over the past few years.The situation has resulted in yet unestimated losses in manhours and revenue and has exposed thousands of commuters and others to health hazards posed by automobile fumes and prolonged sitting in cramped automobile cabins.
Commuters are also known to have been robbed, maimed and killed by armed thieves who occasionally attack vehicles in the traffic jams, especially at night.
The cause of Apapa’s notorious traffic jams are the poor state of the Tin-Can Island end of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and the hundreds of trailers and trucks which park on the road, blocking it. This forces other drivers to divert to the alternative Ijora-Apapa route, which then becomes overburdened and is also encumbered by an overflow of parked and moving trucks.
The gridlocks see the average commuter coming from eight kilometres away spending four hours to get to Apapa, the last two hours being spent on the final two-kilometre leg, and much of that often within view of their destinations.
The journey typically takes two hours on weekdays and 40 minutes on weekends.
Lagos State traffic management authorities occasionally tow away wrongly parked trucks en-masse to free up the roads, but have not done so since May 2012.
Informed sources say the Lagos State government is being cautious in its handling of the situation so as not to rile the Federal Government which has jurisdiction over the ports and the tanker drivers who often resort to downing tools.
When contacted on the issue, Paul Nwabuikwu, the special assistant to Ngozi-Okonjo-Iweala, coordinating minister for the economy and minister for finance, said in a text message that the minister was attending the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa.
He, however, advised our reporter to contact Sylvester Monye, special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on project monitoring and evaluation, who also doubles as the head of the Presidential Committee on Port Reforms.
Monye, in response to a text message sent to him, said there were plans by government to clear the Apapa road and that work was going on.
Apapa residents, however, say there is currently no work going on in that direction.
While he declined giving details of what the government was working out, Monye added, “I’m in a meeting now, I will talk to you later”, but never got back to our reporter till the time of filing this report.
Babatunde Fashola, the state governor, speaking with journalists last week, said the state government was playing its part in the Apapa regeneration programme. He said the government has begun the phase II of the rehabilitation of Apapa inner roads including the GRA where contracts had been awarded for the construction of seven roads, explaining that the Oshodi-Tin-Can-Apapa Road and the bridges belong to the Federal Government which should take responsibility for them.
The Federal Ministry of Works had started the construction of a parking lot to accommodate about 460 trucks as one of the ways to ease the traffic on the road, but the project sited opposite the Tincan Port is stalled, as the contractor, Borini Prono, is not on site. BusinessDay gathered that the ministry owes the contractor over N150 billion for other jobs executed and this amount is likely to go up this year. For instance, out of the N140 billion budgeted for the ministry last year, only N68 billion was released and this makes it difficult for the ministry to deliver on some of its projects.
Remi Ogungbemi, the national president of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), said that freeing Apapa of its encumbrances would require a far-sighted and thorough approach, pointing out that towing the trucks would not bring a lasting solution to the problem.
He blamed all stakeholders, including the federal and Lagos state governments for the menace. According to Ogungbemi, the federal government which owns the ports must particularly be blamed for leasing out sections of the ports meant for trucks to other businesses.
“The planners of the ports knew there would be need for trucks to park within, but unfortunately that section has been leased out to other businesses, and there are not enough parking spaces for trucks within the ports,” Ogungbemi said. He also blamed Lagos State for converting an open space near Ijora to a housing estate where stakeholders had wanted to build parking lots for trucks.
Tunji Bello, the state commissioner for the environment, accused the federal government of reneging on its promise. According to him, since the May 2012 operations which saw several illegal shanties destroyed and over 85 trucks towed within the Apapa axis by Lagos State officials, the federal government has reneged on its promise to support Lagos in the Apapa regeneration plan, which includes creating alternative parks for trucks. “It takes a lot of resources human and material to enforce the dislodgement of the hundreds of trucks parked on the road,” he said, adding that while the state government was not insensitive to the pains of motorists, it did not make money from the ports.
“All the money from the ports goes to the Federal Government, yet Lagos as a state bears the burden of fixing the Apapa environment, which ironically, is daily desecrated by the huge activities emanating from the ports,” he said.
JOSHUA BASSEY, AMAKA ANAGOR, Badejo Ademuyiwa & Onyinye Nwachukwu
