Apapa gridlock: Task force lamentation blame game to no avail

Perhaps, the best of efforts to address the long years of chaos in Apapa was in 2012, when Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then minister of finance and chairman of the Federal Government’s Economic Management team, alongside other federal ministers visited the area to personally assess the situation.

The federal authorities upon the visit had liaised and agreed on a task force with the Lagos State Government wherein the military, police, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) would jointly undertake the sanitisation of the roads leading to Apapa, particularly, the Oshodi-Mile2-Tincan Expressway.

It turned out useful, as over 800 trucks parked indiscriminately on the expressway were reportedly towed in an operation that started about 3:30am and lasted several hours. The Lagos State task force on environmental and other offences would subsequently complement the operation, as it deployed armed security personnel to remove all manners of shanties, kiosks and makeshift shops that sprung up in and around Apapa.

What followed were accolades and commendations from stakeholders including port users, business owners and residents of Apapa. But it became obvious that the solution to the challenge goes beyond task force, as the trucks after the operation, one by one, started coming back to the roads and eventually took over the dual carriageway.

Ever since, several task forces at different times had been set up towards finding a solution to the Apapa imbroglio. Asides those by the state government, efforts by resident association in collaboration with Apapa local government, the police and the military have proven inadequate.

Events over the past years have shown that the constitution of task forces to handle the perennial gridlock around Lagos and Apapa amounts to addressing symptoms and not the cause of the problem. The latest task force constituted on Thursday, by the Lagos State government, like several others in the past, will only address the traffic menace momentarily.

Going by stakeholders’ view, an estimated 2,000 trucks comprising petroleum tankers and carriers drive long distances from different parts of the country into Lagos, daily. Over 90 percent of the trucks are headed for Apapa where two of the nation’s most utilised and money spinning ports- Tin can and Apapa ports are located. Within the ports, areas designated as holding bays for trucks and other complementary facilities had been sold out to various interests alongside the ports concession.

Within the Apapa precincts are several petroleum tank farms operating with government’s permits. Not done, the Federal Government over the decades had abandoned the development of critical infrastructure within and around Apapa from where it earns trillions. It is no secret that the Federal Government generates over N1 trillion annually from the ports via import duties, charges, and royal duties paid by the concessionaires and terminal operators.

In the build-up to the 2015 general elections and the heat of the presidential campaign, the neglect of Apapa and its socio-economic consequences featured quite prominently. Then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) had a swell time, as it pounded then ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) for failing to act responsibly. The kernel of the campaign as it related to Apapa was that a Federal Government controlled by the APC would work together with an APC-controlled Lagos to salvage Apapa and breathe new life into the dying environment.

But if the accusing finger being pointed at the federal by the Lagos State government is anything to go by, it is worrisome that nothing has yet changed almost four years into the ‘political marriage’ between the two governments.

“It is indeed pathetic that private firms seeking to make profit from legitimate commerce would continue to subject the citizens of Lagos to horrendous pains,”

“If the power of the state is inadequate to force these powerful merchants to obey the law, shall we also say that the Federal Government with all the forces at its command is unable to protect residents of Lagos against this common threat?” says Kehide Bamignetan, Lagos State commissioner for information and strategy.

According to Bamigbetan, while reacting to the current gridlock on Oshodi-Apapa expressway, and its damaging effects on the economy, the congestion is also a result of the recalcitrance of owners and drivers of tankers and trucks to comply with the subsisting directive that restricts their movement within Lagos.

“The state government had hoped that, with the unfortunate loss of lives and property to destruction caused by tanker explosions and truck mishaps, the conscience of the haulage stakeholders would be pricked sorely enough to save Lagosians from the threat of carnage on the highways by adhering to directives and also investing in truck terminals themselves.”

But beyond the seemingly lack of political will by the federal authorities and the lamentation by Lagos State, stakeholders believe that the creation of container depots/holding bays outside the ports, exploring the practicality of a pre-documentation process that would result in accommodating only a fixed number of trailers that the port operators can handle would in the immediate bring about a relief.

They suggest that for instance, tallies indicating specific day of the week for dropping off empty containers should be obtained ahead. They also suggest the review of the present documentation process within the ports as the immediate steps, while the long lasting solution would be haulage of fuel and other imported goods out of the ports by rail as opposed to road transportation.

According to Paul Gbededo, group managing director of Flour Mills Plc, whose company is partnering with the Dangote Group to repair a section of Ijora-Wharf road at about N4 billion, trains can go riding to the ports to evacuate goods.

“Even if we make the existing rail service to take just 10 to 15 per cent of the logistics, it will make some difference and it can be dedicated to conveying tankers and containers only and this will ease congestion on the roads. While the long term solution is to pipe fuel to somewhere outside Lagos entirely.

So we can have a network of pipes, but meanwhile, why don’t we dedicate railway to take containers or trucks out of Apapa by rail? It cannot really be quantified, the impact of these challenges on the operations of the business community in Apapa, says Gbadebo.

JOSHUA BASSEY

The post Apapa gridlock: Task force lamentation blame game to no avail appeared first on BusinessDay : News you can trust.