Comrade Keshinro Sylvester [RTEAN Chieftain]
Comrade Keshinro Sylvester [RTEAN Chieftain]
The Lagos state new road traffic law concerning container trucks and trailers is an eyesore and I am sure that his Excellency, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola will re-think about the law because it is not about congestion alone, but he want to paralyse the economy of the whole country .As a result of the new law the whole ports in the state will experience hyper congestion .For example if a truck enters the ports before the restricted time may find it difficult to come out for transaction and at a time the traffic situation at the port cannot be addressed therefore activities at the ports will remain at a standstill. Thus instead of working for 24 hours in the ports the traffic congestion can make the operators to work for lesser hours and as a matter of fact vessels will find it difficult to offload their consignments at the ports due to the congestion, thus they will have no other option than to transfer their goods to neighbouring ports in West Africa and that is why I am saying that it will ruin the economy of the country; which you and I know we import dependant.
Mr. Frank Aliako [Member ANLCA]
Definitely the new law will lead to congestion at the ports in Lagos state,al though the intention of the law is meant to sanitize the roads but that may not be the exact answer to the problem and as a result of security issues in the country as par the movement of goods at night without policemen on the highway then the possible has been defeated. In my own opinion, to allow container laden trucks to move at night is not acceptable in the maritime industry, because it is going to have negative effect on stakeholders. Even before the law, there has been congestion at the ports talk less of a situation when their movement will be restricted. If they were in good shape, then it would have been fine, but the roads are not motorable for the trucks to ply at night.
Chris Sadoh [Stars Maritime Academy]
Nigeria is a country where we have haphazard implementation of policies and implementation of most of our policies happens to be the area where we have erred. The new traffic law would have been a welcome development if infrastructures are in place, but those amenities are not there. For instance if the ports are well equipped with human and machines, there will be no congestion at the port because of the effectiveness of all the resources but when there are no provisions of such in the seaports in the state, then we will expect hyper congestions. I think it is better for the governor to provide more amenities for the state to complement the new law.
Dan Williams [PRO FFAN]
It all depend on how one tends to analyse the law, though the bill was hurriedly passed into law because there was no due consultation most especially from those of us In the maritime industry because we are the people it is going to affect directly, but again if you look at the law, it is for the safety of live and properties because the level at which laden container trucks are causing accidents on the road alone is something else but coming to look at it from the port perspective I will say it has nothing to do with congestion at the ports in Lagos state, because before now we still notice congestion at the ports ,rather it will help to decongest the ports
Cosmos Ndimkora (PTML NAGAFF Chairman)
I strongly believe so. Apart from this, the roads without the trucks will still be blocked, so I don’t think the issue should be about the trucks in the first place, the Lagos State government and the Federal Government should give the port access road a very good attention, they are both trying to shift the blames here, if the port access road is up to standard I believe there will be free flow of traffic, the problem in the state is mainly due to bad roads, you can never hear of containers falling on the road in America. With the new law now, it’s like creating more problems because there will be so much congestion, containers will not be loaded in the morning, even if they load, the terminals do not have the parking space where these trucks can stay until a certain time, government have not given the trucks a holding bay, so where do you expect a container laden truck to stay? I advice that the port access road should be given maximum attention and upgraded; if this is done; I think all will be well.
Alhaji Akanni Balogun (ANLCA, Tin Can)
It all depends on the way they carry out the law, if well organized and trucks leave the port from 6pm or 7pm, the traffic would have disappeared because all the private car owners would have gone back home and the trucks will be able to move then, I believe this will be convenient for Lagos residents unlike when we use five hours on the way before getting to your office, this is not helping anybody, it’s not helping the nation. If well monitored I believe the law will not lead to any congestion, it is a matter of monitoring how many containers leave the port in a day, I believe any container coming out does not do so until around 5pm, sometimes the trucks load by 6pm and 7pm, so I don’t see how it will lead to congestion. If you go to some of the terminals you will discover that some trucks that go into the terminal will not be loaded until 7pm.
Sir Jude Maduka (NAGAFF, Tin Can Chairman)
The traffic law is going to lead to congestion because the government did not provide any alternative facility to cushion the effect of the law, the law should have come up after other facilities must have been installed like the rail and the waterways should have been perfected to provide an alternative for easy movement of cargoes, but now that these are not there, the law will cause impediments. The Lagos government has to revert to status quo and put facilities in place for the law to achieve maximum result. Talking about night movement of containers, most of the consignments and the trucks do not have insurance, even for the drivers there is a lot of risk involved. On our own side when the issues start coming up we will start having problems with our principals because when consignments start getting missing and we are not in control of the situation, it will definitely have effect on our operations.
Ubakanwa Donatus (Freight Forwarder)
It will lead to port congestion simply because if the movement of container trucks will have to be restricted from day time to night time only, there must be a place that must allocated for them for parking, whenever they want to load their consignment they will just move directly from there into the port, this will ease the expressway from congestion of the trucks, if a place is not provided for them to park, by the time the enforcement of this law starts you will see them lining up on the expressway and all over the access roads again. I support what the Lagos government is trying to achieve with the traffic law but the proper thing has to be done before implementation can commence.
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