The Federal Road Maintenance Authority (FERMA) recently established a body known as the Federal Roads Committee on Surveillance and Action Against Roads Abuse (FERCSAARA) with a clear cut mandate of decongesting major highways in the country. The body recently warned container trucks to vacate the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi expressway or risk their trucks being confiscated. In this interview with Shipping Position Daily correspondent, Dapo Olawuni, Chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO) Chief Remi Ogungbemi condemned the setting up of the body, even as he threatened that failure on the part of the government to repair the port access roads may lead to truck drivers withdrawing from their services from the port.
What do you make of the traffic congestion in Apapa?
The traffic situation within the port environment has become a national problem and the truckers are at the receiving end of it, it is unfortunate that most of the blames are being laid at the doorstep of the truckers whereas truckers are not the cause of the problems. I must tell you that the problem started right from the era of port reform, they were doing the concessioning of the port without carrying the truckers along; during this time, they removed the place earmarked as the truck terminal within the port environment, and the truth of the matter is that the port cannot operate without the trucks. If this is the case, then why not make provision for a place the trucks will be coming from, the place will serve as a marshaling yard where a call-up system will be used to call the number of vehicles required at a particular terminal at a time. As per the condition of the roads, it has got to a climax whereby on daily basis, trucks must definitely fall on the road, and the falling of trucks has an economic effect on the truck owners. The public and the authorities are crying that the condition of our trucks are not in order, this is why it is even better for us to keep our trucks away until the roads are better, we are part and parcel of the call for the roads to be better, if the authority concerned does not wake up, we have no choice but to remove all our trucks from the roads until the roads are okay.
Are you going on strike?
I will not say we are going on strike, we can only withdraw our services, but this is not sure yet, we are still waiting for the authorities.
Till when? Because it appears the authorities are less-concerned
We believe in round table discussion, we believe in dialogue, even personally, I have called the Federal Controller of works, he referred me back to the Federal Road Maintenance Authority (FERMA) that they are coming to do some palliative jobs, but I don't know how soon.
FERCSAARA has threatened to start arresting trucks on the road, how do you react to the coming of this body?
I do not see any magic that this body can perform, it could have been better if they had made arrangement for where trucks will be coming from, when you have a place that you can pick the trucks to, it is only then that you can have sanity and orderliness, but if you say you are towing the vehicles now, where will you be taking them? It is better that FERCSAARA told us where they want to be taking the trucks to; so that we can we can even take them there by ourselves.
Why have your members disobeyed government directives for them to work at night?
There is no how working at night can be the solution; the problem has to do with the fact that the environment can no longer accommodate the volume of activities they are giving to the environment. For example, the road we have been using for the past 40 years are still the same, the facilities are still the same, but the population is increasing, business activities are increasing, the volume of goods coming into the port are also increasing, then you want to tell me that by working in the night this will change. Apart from this, the terminal operators signed an agreement with Nigeria that they will be working 24 hours, it is part of the agreement, so if government should revert to only night operations they can sue the government because it is not part of the agreement they reached with the government, since the port operates for 24, there is no way only night operations can be conducive.
So what FERCSAARA is doing now is an effort in futility?
Let me bring you back, formerly we had a joint task force put together by Federal and State governments, they came and now they are gone, I told them that what they were doing was not a solution, it is just a mere cosmetics that cannot heal wounds and they agreed with me. Before FERCSAARA we had LAPAMU, they came and left because they couldn't do anything, after LAPAMU we also had LAPARC, they have all come and gone, they are all task forces but they could not achieve anything, now they said FERCSAARA is coming, it would have been better for them to create a place where the trucks will be coming from and this is the solution, if you come and say you want to tow a vehicle, I am afraid that they just want to come and shut operations of the port because the port cannot operate without the trucks. So FERCSAARA must go back to the drawing board, put their house in order, provide necessary infrastructure that will make it easy to achieve their aims and objectives. If this is not done, I see FERCSAARA as a group of people that are just coming to exploit truck drivers, because if they tow a truck they will be demanding payment, where and who do we pay the money to, let them tell us where we they want to tow the trucks to and we will gladly tow it there by ourselves.
Petroleum tankers have indicted container truck drivers of being major culprit of the traffic congestion
They are entitled to their opinion; to my own understanding whoever wears the shoe knows where it pinches. I want to say that even the tank farms are the major contributing factor to the traffic gridlock that we are experiencing today in Apapa, I will not even blame the tankers, I will blame the people that sat down somewhere and approved the location of these tank farms in the first place, ordinarily we are not supposed to have these tank farms where the ports are, it has choked up all the environment, they should have used a pipe to direct the product outside Lagos, either Ibadan express road or any other place, but to allow the tankers start coming to Apapa is not the best, so I am putting the blame on the people that approved the tank farms within the port environment, pipes would have been used to pipe the products outside the port environment, so that tankers can go there and lift their fuel.
Are you aware the product is being imported? So how does pipe come in?
They can use pipes to pipe it directly from the ships, when the ship arrives, they’ll just connect the hose to the ship and through the pipe it can even go to Epe, it can go to Badagry and anywhere else within the suburb of Lagos, it’s like we are just putting all our eggs in one basket, if the person carrying the basket should fall, then all the eggs will fall-off, people in authority should consider the operation’s impact before they site any project at any particular place.
Do you think the ‘fly-over’ bridge will ameliorate Apapa traffic
Either it is going to be fly-over or low-over or underneath, all I know is that there is need for expansion that will correspond with all the increases that we are having. For example, 40 years ago, I was a bachelor living in one room, now that I am married I am still there, probably if my religion permits me to marry two or three wives, there is no way I can expect a bachelor’s room to accommodate everyone of us. What we need is to expand by looking for a three or four bedroom flat so that there will be sanity and comfort, but if I rely on making strict laws it will not help matters, that family will definitely hate themselves. We need expansion of necessary infrastructures to bring sanity and orderliness on our road, it’s not by setting up task force and arresting vehicles, it’s not by putting fines; today within the port environment you see authorities coming to tow vehicles and collecting N100,000, this is not the solution, rather they are compounding the problem of the truck owners because the money we are supposed to use in taking care of the trucks are being taken away directly or indirectly under the pretense that they are trying to bring sanity on our road, sanity cannot come in an environment like that; we need expansion of necessary infrastructures.
What is delaying the truck park project along the Badagry expressway?
An individual in his own volition decided to give us the offer of that place, we have received the offer and the project is on course, but there are so many hiccups, for example, the only way that entered the terminal is also the only road that people inside the market are using, we have Aspanda market, we have Balogun market and other activities, if all the trucks should go there now it will amount into solving a problem somewhere and creating it at another place. So the investor is working on how to create a separate entrance and exit for the place so that there will be no commotion with Aspanda market and Balogun market. Apart from this, we have another suggestion which we have also muted to authorities; the Signal barracks at mile 2 has been handed over to the owner of the land, we have gone to the owner, we have collected the document and forwarded it to the authorities for them to acquire the place and let it serve as a truck park. I believe the space can accommodate all the trucks operating in Apapa and Tin Can, this is what I know can be the best solution; it’s not by bringing punitive measures that can compound the problem for the truckers.
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