All too soon, Apapa is back to the trenches, pointing to the simple fact that in that premier port city, which is arguably a major cash cow for the government, joy has very slender and fragile skin.
Only yesterday, the whole world celebrated a Presidential Task Team set up by the Federal Government and led by Kayode Opeifa, a former commissioner for transport in Lagos State, to deal with the gridlock in Apapa that was becoming a national embarrassment.
Unlike many other similar arrangements before it, the task team did its best to cage the monster called Apapa gridlock. For the first time in many years, motorists had pleasurable driving experience on both Apapa roads and bridges and other adjoining ones.
Now, the success recorded by the task team has become a mere flash in the pan. Things, according to Chinua Achebe, the great fiction writer, have fallen apart, and the centre can no longer hold. In Apapa of today, the falcon no longer listens to the falconer. It has become business as usual with all the pain and stress that define Apapa as a destination.
Apparently, the Task Team is overwhelmed. They are handicapped and this, according to some stakeholders in Apapa, is because the team is not getting as much co-operation as it should.
“There are too many vested interests in Apapa as a port city. Many of them are very powerful and highly connected. There is only so much the task team can do and, don’t forget, members of the team are human beings. All around them they perceive the smell of money,” said an Apapa resident who did not want to be named.
According to the resident, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) which is a major stakeholder is not cooperating fully with the task team, adding that they tend to work at cross purposes with the team.
Afolabi Olawale, NUPENG’s general secretary, agrees, blaming the gridlock on the unpatriotic activities of key institutions and individuals within the maritime sector.
He specifically highlighted the failure of NPA, the concessionaires and security personnel deployed to manage the situation in Apapa and within the port for the return of congestion in the port city.
The situation in Apapa, according to him, was a result of NPA and port concessionaire not allowing containerised trucks easy access into the ports, thereby causing backflow of traffic snarls to the bridge.
“There is no running away from the truth. NPA is not in control. It does not have parking for trucks yet unable to come up with appropriate schedule for the trucks to enter Apapa,” said Olawale.
A critical look at the situation in Apapa as it is today shows that the task team is at its wit’s end. While the team and NPA play the ostrich and trade blames, motorists are dying inside choking traffic; businesses are suffering and the Apapa economy, which is estimated at N20 billion a day, is losing value by the day.
The question on every lip now is, when will the present situation improve? Who is going to make the improvement happen? If the task team withdraws or is forced to withdraw in the present milieu, who takes over from them?
The task team is coming from the highest level of government. It was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari himself with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as the chairman? What is the federal government going to do after the task team? Set up another task force? Or return the military to the road?
From all indications, the federal government must be at the end of its tether as for as Apapa problem is concerned. As the Bible would say, “here goes the Presidential Task Team, whence comes another?”
The Opeifa-led team was well constituted with members drawn from the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), NPA and the Nigerian Shippers Council.
Other members include a special unit of the Nigeria Police Force led by a Commissioner of Police, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), representatives of the Truck Transport Union, the Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), etc.
“This team succeeded because they did it differently—trying the impossible and daring the red devils everywhere on the roads who are preying on the truck drivers and gaining from everyone else’s pain,” said the anonymous resident, wondering where government would get a more formidable team from if it has to replace the present team.
The military option may not fly again because, according to Opeifa, “when the military was brought to control Apapa traffic, I warned them against that. I told them that what was needed was a traffic management to complement what was being done on port reforms.
“But they went ahead and brought the military and when they came, they shut down everything rather than use a traffic management plan. They were just enforcing and controlling misbehaviour while traffic situation was getting worse,” he added in an interview.
According to him, the team has been able to achieve what everybody can testify to because they have a clear traffic management direction which they followed and are still following, adding that they have a manual call up system which is transparent to the stakeholders so they believe in it.
The journey has not been easy because Apapa is ant-infested. There are food particles here and there for the ants to pick. Additionally, as Opeifa puts it, “Apapa is a highly militarised environment where a lot of people come from different military formations to make fast money. There had been too many tasks force and they are yet to leave the scene. When they come, they come with aggression and are very vicious.”
Another major challenge, he says, is that they see corruption fighting back, because the people the task team has prevented from the regular ‘chop-chop’ are busy spreading wrong information about the team and trying to frustrate their efforts. Those acts of mischief seem to be succeeding and account for the present situation that is aggressively returning Apapa to the status quo ante.
In the beginning, Apapa was one of the foremost Government Reservation Areas (GRAs) in Lagos along with Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA. The port city had thriving businesses; fun places such as the popular Amusement Park. Night life in Apapa was legendary and the operators made a lot of money from that.
But due largely to sheer neglect, Apapa degenerated to a level where it became a loathsome destination. It became a near-wasteland where the residents and businesses had the option of either remaining in the furnace or relocating with great impact on their bottomline. Many chose to leave.
This is why many houses are empty. Ayo Vaughan, chairman, Apapa GRA Residents Association, explains that “you do not expect somebody to come and live in a house of N5million per annum and right in front of his house, somebody is frying ‘akara’ or doing other forms of business. So, we have houses that are not rentable, leasable nor even sellable.”
Beyond frying ‘akara’ and doing other businesses, before the task team came, Apapa was impenetrable because of the activities of truck drivers who made every available space their parking lot. Their unwholesome activity literally destroyed the Apapa environment, leaving it unfit for living or business.
On most streets, there are as many as 10 houses which have been empty in the last 5 years. “So, if you multiply five years by N5 million by 10 houses, it gives you an idea of how much rental income that has been lost on one street alone on annual basis.
“About 40 percent of all the houses in the GRA are empty. Many of us who are retirees depend on rental income from our houses for our daily living and most of our houses are empty; so, it is as bad as that for many of us,” Vaughan said.
With the way the task team was going, hope was returning to these residents. Some businesses that relocated at the peak of the congestion and gridlock were already mulling coming back to their old premises. Not anymore because some people put personal gain above public interest.
CHUKA UROKO
