Truckers under the auspices of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO), have lampooned government for always introducing taskforce as a means of addressing the traffic gridlock in Apapa, describing that as a cosmetic approach which can never heal a wound.
The President of AMARTO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, who said this in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Apapa last week, also lauded the Apapa-Oshodi expressway reconstruction work which was flagged off on Friday.
He explained that although the association is happy with the road reconstruction exercise, the trucks cannot be totally taken out of the roads except the ports are shut down, even as he reiterated that setting up a task force will not bring a solution to the persistent traffic gridlock on the axis.
“The trucks cannot be removed all from the roads excepts if they want to close down the ports, if they can close the ports, it is then that we can say that the trucks will be out of the roads, but in as much as the ports are still open and operating there is no how trucks can be totally off the road. But there is urgent need for government to come and acquire a place or places that will serve as truck terminal that is the solution. Task force is never and cannot be the solution, we have had multiplicity of task force, all the agencies have been used as taskforce, it is only Customs, Immigration and Prison Warders that have not been used as task force”, he noted.
Ogungbemi advised that the best way to tackle the problem is by acquiring a place that will serve as a truck terminal for trucks, even as he said that truckers are unhappy with the level of dehumanization being meted on their drivers.
“If we want the best, we should go for solution, the task force is in comatose, it is just a cosmetic that cannot heal wounds, we should go for solution, we have a place or places that can be acquired and use to serve as truck terminal. Even truckers are not happy seeing their trucks on the bridges and the roads; you can imagine the suffering the drivers are passing through. Several days and weeks they will be on the queue, they are human beings and they are dying, they can not sleep well, eat well and rest how you expect such a person to behave well”, he added.
The AMARTO president who lauded the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) for introducing the Truck Transit Park (TTP ) , he also urged the agency to introduce the TTP first in Lagos as the state accommodates the highest number of trucks.
“The government should stop all these cosmetic approach they call task force, they can only be part of the solution, they cannot be the ultimate solution. The Nigerian Shippers Council are trying because they flagged off this Truck Transit Park, but I have advised that they should make the park to start from Lagos because it is here that the trucks converge, we have a lot of trucks here in Lagos, because of the ports. All the trucks in Nigeria are coming to Lagos to load because of the ports. There must be a place where these trucks should be parking, and the people in authority, are saying that truck owners should go and look for where they can park their trucks, forgetting that there is no truck owner that doesn’t have where he parks his truck. But they cannot come to Lagos with their garages or parks. How come we don’t have a place where all these trucks that come to Lagos can park”, asked.
Also speaking a separate interview with our correspondent at Tin Can Island Ports on Friday, the Dry Cargo Chairman, of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa, charged the Nigerian Ports Authority, to make use of Lilypond and Brawal terminal as holding bays for shipping companies with no functional holding bay, even as he maintained that the main issue is having a functional holding bay.
Inuwa, also pledged the support of the association in the road reconstruction exercise going on in the area.
He advised that using the two terminals as holding bays will also serve as another source of revenue to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
“Talking about how prepared we are for the flag-off, I will say that we are in full support of the construction and we will give all our maximum support to see that they succeed. But mind you, don’t say that we will get our trucks off the roads, what you should ask is how prepared are the shipping companies to accept the empty containers, by providing where the empty containers can be dropped. It is not the trucks that are the problem, it is the empty containers because 85% containers are empty, it should be how the NPA and shipping companies take back the empty containers, because NPA is the landlord of the ports. And these two terminals that I mentioned, Lilypond and Brawal, if NPA makes good use of them by dedicating them to shipping companies that have no functional holding bay, the NPA will as well make money”, he concluded.
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