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 23 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). Apapa also services as a good link for motorists going to Lagos Island and beyond, serving hundreds of such from many local governments.
There are also scores of articulated trucks which on daily basis freight containers and millions of tonnes of bulk cargoes to different parts of the country.
As for the tank farms, which have become unwelcome co-stakeholders 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 also 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. Apapa expressway is too strategic to the nation’s economy, because, it also links the port city to the popular Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Ikeja.
These are the obvious reasons for the debilitating traffic which anyone who has business in Apapa or who lives there have had to contend with for more than 10 years.
The losses incurred by individuals, corporate organisations and importantly the government are better imagined than calculated. Similarly, a lot of man- hours are lost daily as motorists are trapped in traffic to and from Apapa.
But, the recent intervention which has created a respite is very commendable, and we hope that it will be a permanent solution to the problem.
Prior to the latest intervention, stakeholders, including government agencies and ad hoc bodies had introduced various means to tackle the problems; all to no avail. At a point, some even suggested relocation of the tank farms and the conversion of the military facilities in Apapa to a truck terminal.
While commending the Professor Sylvester Monye-led presidential committee on port reform, greater appreciation should go to the Lagos state governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola for being decisive on the unacceptable traffic situation.
We also hope that the tanker drivers will not sneak back on to the expressway. One of the ways to ensure this is that government should work hard to see that the articulated vehicles are provided with holding bays. This can be in the form of public-private partnership.
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