Apapa is very strategic to the nation’s economy. The port city of Apapa is home to Nigeria’s two foremost ports which are currently being managed by nine terminal operators. Between the two ports called; Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port, more than 65 percent of dry cargoes and about 90 per cent of the nation’s liquid (petroleum products) are handled. This is because it hosts about 32 tank farms (and still counting). These are in addition to the many shipping companies/agencies, licensed customs offices and numerous other businesses that are located in this port city.
On a normal day, Apapa is a busy city, with heavy vehicular and human traffic; this is in addition to other human endeavours that take place there. The port city of Apapa equally plays host to countless number of banks and several port- related activities.
The port city is sandwiched in between highbrow residential areas like Apapa GRA, Beachland estate, and low income residential areas such as Ajegunle and Ijora, it also shares boundaries with a couple of riverside settlements.
Apapa is linked to the rest of the city by two major highways; the Apapa – Oshodi expressway and Apapa-Ijora road. Of course, it can also be approached by water from Mile Two (on the mainland) and Marina axis (on the Island).
These trucks come into Lagos empty, but they leave fully loaded with products, thus contributing their quota to the poor state of the roads and the already debilitating vehicular traffic in and around Apapa and indeed the metropolis.
The debilitating traffic in Apapa has been linked to the heavy presence of articulated vehicles, either laden with petroleum products or container laden trucks.
Agreed that some portions of the stretch from Oshodi to Apapa is in a bad shape, a sizeable portion of this ever-busy expressway has been fixed, especially approaching Apapa from Mile 2. The stretch from Ijora isn’t as bad.
It is also a known fact that there are more rickety container-laden trucks in Apapa than we have petroleum products tankers. And apparently worried by the state of these trucks, the management of NPA, Western Port introduced a compulsory verification of the state of these trucks.
We are quite aware that prior to the introduction its General Manager; Chief Michael Ajayi had met with virtually all stakeholders in the road haulage business, including the various unions; namely: NARTO, RTEAN, AMARTO, among others. A communiqué was said to have been signed by all and a take-off date for the ban on rickety trucks was introduced.
Surprisingly, after the date of commencement had been agreed upon, some sub-elements within the road haulage family raised alarm about what they called high cost of implementing the new directive. We recall that a fixed administrative cost of N10,000 is being collected by the NPA.
We commend the NPA for taking the bull by the horn and doing what had appeared undoable. On many occasions, attempts had been made in the past to ensure that rickety trucks are not allowed into our ports, but all have failed because of lack of political will on the part of those that were expected to implement it.
Now that the March 1, 2016 deadline is here, all we pray for is for the Western Port of NPA to see this latest effort as an opportunity to prove a point that sanity can indeed be restored in the type of trucks that load cargo from our ports.
It is risky to load a multimillion Naira consignment on a truck that is of no worth and not road-worthy. On a wider not, often, these trucks break down and sometime, containers fall off them while transiting from Lagos ports to other parts of the city and the country. There have been instances of lives being lost to these avoidable accidents.
While it may be argued that the accidents can also be caused by bad roads, our main concern as a maritime media outfit is the state of these trucks that come into the ports to load consignments.
Rather than put up the usual Nigerian ‘notice me’ attitude, we think those opposing the new policy should comply and get their trucks fitted with all that is required to make them roadworthy.
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