Precisely on February 28, 2021, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) introduced what can be described as the game–changer for chaotic Apapa traffic. By the explanations that were given by the NPA, an electronic call-up system would be deployed to direct truck movement into Lagos ports of Tin Can and Apapa.
The NPA had rested the implementation on five pillars, which were supposed to hold the operations of the electronic call up via the eto app.
According to the agency, trucks must be called upon using the Eto electronic call-up system before they could gain access into the ports. Therefore, all trucks and their owners are expected to download the Eto App and sign-up in order to become part of the new system.
“It would be done transparently on a first-come-first-served basis. We have also requested for the operator to have a dashboard in front of port locations where the movement of trucks would be displayed for truckers to see their daily schedule,” Hadiza Bala Usman, the then-managing director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), had explained and assured.
Ordinarily, this ought to have removed human intervention in the process of managing truck movement in and out of the ports. It was also expected to put an end to the problem of extortion of truckers by security operatives and non-state actors in charge of traffic control within the Apapa corridor.
Another pillar of the electronic call up is that, trucks must stay at designated parks; and to achieve this, some truck parks were selected. This means that, under the e-call up system, trucks that are not parked within the approved parks would no longer gain access into Lagos ports to pick cargo.
What this clearly meant was that, with the electronic call up, trucks should cease to park indiscriminately on Apapa roads and bridges. This is expected to eliminate the ugly perennial traffic gridlock that have been the lot of Apapa for so many years.
One clear condition with the use of eto and the e-call up is that a fee of N10,000 only will be paid. According to NPA, truckers are expected to pay a token of N10,000 for utilising the eto app and to park in the truck park. The download of the App is free and truckers are only expected to make payment when they want to exit the park.
By the initial arrangement, there is no other fee to be paid by truck owners to access the port or park at the transit park.
At the onset of the e-call up system in February 2021, the NPA made it clear that consignees should drop empty containers at the holding bay of shipping companies, from where the shipping lines are expected to be responsible for taking the empties into the port.
The electronic call-up system was expected to restore sanity within the Apapa port corridor by removing the daily traffic congestion.
This looked good on paper, and the arrangement actually worked in the beginning, then the unexpected began to happen, thus threatening the start-up success of the e-call up.
Added to these, is the extortion that resurfaced on the Lagos ports corridor, where the various personnel of government agencies who have been drafted to the ports corridor started compromising on a larger scale.
Almost five years down the line, the Managing Director of Trust Transit Park, Mr Jama Onwubuariri opened up recently with lamentation about the challenges his form is facing in the operation of the once-novel eto call up system.
During a visit by a group of journalists about two months ago, he alleged that individuals, who benefitted from extortion of truckers before the implementation of the electronic call up system are frustrating the system.
We lack the space to re-echo his frustrations here, but the summary of them is that, the system had failed and require a complete overhaul and upgrade. The eto call up system has been uncontrollably compromised, and that is the painful fact.
As much as industry stakeholders, including truckers acknowledge that there is great improvement in traffic in and out of Apapa, they none-the-less criticize the unbridled abuse and extortion on the part of the security personnel drafted to the approaches to the ports.
But by and large, the electronic call up was been a revolution. It changed the traffic management landscape of Apapa. No longer do we have articulated vehicles perpetually on queue on the approaches to Apapa.
However, both the NPA and the operators of the eto should go back to the drawing board and re-strategize. The take-up point may be to meet with stakeholders who are critical to the operations of the new truck call up system.
Thereafter, the NPA should look at the proposal from TTP about upscaling the technology behind the eto call-up system.
It will be appropriate to take a second look at the promises made at the onset of the new system in February 2021 and how well the system has fared since its introduction.
Those who are calling for the unbundling of the electronic call-up system by bringing new actors, may have a point.
In all honesty, the handlers of eto, that is, Messrs Truck Transit Park (TTP) Limited have not done enough to get the buy-in of truckers, who are their first-line stakeholders. Their attitude is perhaps a build-up from the manner in which the eto call up system was flagged off by the NPA.
The call for an overall id not misplaced, it is also a confirmation of the fact that Messrs TTP has not done well. This is true, because most of the promises that were made have not been fulfilled. If eto had worked well, there ought not to be any truck on the approach to Apapa port, and Tin Can port.
There is no doubt that there is a gross abuse of the ticketing and payment system, as well as the excesses of personnel of government agencies who have turned their assignment to a lucrative business of extortion. They have been joined by some non-state actors and a plethora of transport union officers.
The electronic call up system is an IT-driven initiative, which requires regular upgrade. Apart from promises to upgrade, this newspaper is yet to see or hear from stakeholders that the eto is a top-of-the -range app.
All of the above have collectively made a mess of the NPA electronic call up system. This is certainly not the intent of the call up system.
