The visit to Apapa last week by the Senate committee on marine transport may be the last opportunity to fix the seemingly intractable problem of traffic gridlock into and out of the port city.
It is cheery to note that one of the first pronouncements of the committee is that the abandoned Tin Can port bridge and truck park will be on course again.
The visit by the Senator Sanni Yerima-led committee is its first official assignment outside Abuja since it was inaugurated. This is clearly a demonstration of the importance that the upper legislature attaches to the Apapa traffic logjam.
The Tin port bridge and truck par contract was awarded by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works to Messrs Borni Prono Construction Company in 2009 at the cost of N8.6 billion, to ease the traffic congestion around the Tin Can Port. It was expected to have been completed within the first quarter of 2012. It has been abandoned for a long period and the Senators assured that it would soon receive attention.
The Senators later met with stakeholders to proffer solution to the seeming intractable vehicular traffic problem that has been the lot of Apapa for so many years.
There is no over emphasizing the fact that Apapa is very strategic to Nigeria’s economy. Apapa is home to Nigeria’s two foremost ports which are currently being managed by nine terminal operators. Between the two ports (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 45 tank farms (and still counting). These are in addition to the many banks, shipping companies/agencies, licensed customs offices, factories 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 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).
One major stakeholder in Apapa are the tank farms, which have become an unwelcome feature in the port city, they receive several tankers which also load petroleum products daily from different depots to different parts of the country. 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.
Certainly, the presence of these tank farms has brought untold hardships to residents, owners of businesses, motorists and workers in the port city.
Apart from the tank farms and the tankers, the other contributor to the menace is the various articulated trucks that come in and out of the ports daily. Of course, the number of these trucks has increased tremendously since the ports were concessioned in 2006. Volume of cargo has increased significantly, so also is the means of conveying the cargoes out of ports.
Sadly however, just like with petrol tankers and the tank farms, these bulk cargo bearing trucks have also brought pains, sorrow and even deaths to Lagosians.
There have been so many accidents linked to container-laden trucks. A few examples will suffice here. In June, a container truck crushed bus load of students in Lagos.Another one happened also in June at Anthony Oke, container fell on vehicles. Yet, another occurred along the Sagamu-Benin expressway, when a container truck crushed a fully loaded bus, killing 12 occupants of the vehicle.
We see reason in the arguments of the various truckers association, they complained about the risk of moving at night. In a state where day and night robbery and other vices are rampant, safety of the truck drivers and the cargo can never be guaranteed.
We think that, rather than restrict the trucks, government should ensure that the roads are motorable, not only for articulated trucks, but for all vehicles. The state of Nigerian roads is terrible.
Also, the state of the trucks is equally terrible, and we suggest that, rather than insist on night trips, there should be stricter enforcement of enforcement of rules on standardization of trucks coming into load goods in the ports.
There have been many attempts to seek an end to the pains that Apapa residents and those who have businesses to transact in Apapa go through, to no avail. Prior to the recent visit by the Senators, the Lagos state Governor; Mr Akinwumi Ambode and his predecessor; Mr Babatunde Fashola had tried albeit with varying degree of successes to put an end to the menace.
Similarly, the Nigerian Ports Authourity had galvanized stakeholders, the latest being the effort of its general manager in charge of Western ports; Chief Michael Ajayi to rally truck owners as well as the Federal Road Maintenance Agency and the private sector operators in the port.
All said, it is our hope that stakeholders will rally behind the Senators to solve the problem that Apapa traffic represents. Of course, we are very much conscious of the fact that, it is not the duty of the legislature to award contract; it is also not its duty to release funds.
However, the intent of the Senate committee on maritime transport can provide a fresh launchpad for our collective attention to the headaches that we have suffered all these years.
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