If there has ever been a time when the federal and Lagos
State governments need to tackle the perennial traffic gridlock on road network
in Nigeria’s port city- Apapa, Lagos, it is now.
Experts estimate that the gridlock that makes almost the
entire stretch of the Apapa-Oshodi road, linking the Murtala Mohammed
International and Lagos Domestic Airports, impassable on a daily basis due to
the long queue of fuel tankers, costs the nation’s economy about N5 billion
daily in man-hour losses.
According to Dr. Emeka Enebeli, a maritime expert and
President of Apapa Club and Prof. Bamidele Badejo, a former Lagos Commissioner
for Transportation, the situation has heightened inflation in the country as
businesses attempt to pass on the man-hour loss to consumers.
Neither the Federal nor Lagos State Government has been able
to proffer answers to why the Apapa traffic gridlock has become intractable
over the years, despite all manner of committees set up over the years to
address the menace that is gradually crippling businesses in Lagos, the heart
of Nigeria’s economy.
In a chat with Daily Independent, Enebeli wants haulage
trucks off the road and some of their cargoes put “on the rail and others on
the water, then the traffic situation will be solved.”
He also urged government to set up a Presidential Committee
to decongest Apapa roads as well as the ports. The committee, he observed
should not include civil servants, but journalists, lawyers, transport experts
to fashion a solution to the traffic menace.
“Lagos economy is losing N5 billion daily already because
nothing is moving. Businesses are trapped in the traffic,” Enebeli told our
correspondent.
Keen observers of events in the area recall that before
1985, over 85 per cent of cargoes coming through the ports in Lagos were moved
by rail, while the 15 per cent were freighted by road. At the time, Lagos had a
population of 5.8 million.
Over the years, cargo throughput has more than quadrupled
just like the population, which was estimated at 21 million last year.
In 2014, a total of 5,541 ocean going vessels bearing
147,852,920 gross registered tonnage (GRT) called at Nigerian ports. Of the
86,603,903 metric tons of cargo discharged in Nigerian ports; Liquefied Natural
Gas shipment accounted for 21,679,330MT.
General cargo trade recorded 14,502,263MT, while dry bulk
stood at 9,843,199 metric tons. Refined Petroleum was 20,736,699 metric tons.
Laden Container Throughput was 1,063,380 TEUs. Empty Container Throughput was
790,586 TEUs. This shows that Nigeria remains a significant hub of
containerized goods in the West and Central Africa.
The Lagos Ports Complex (LPC) recorded a 36,969,456 GRT,
showing an increase of 7.2 per cent over 34,466,291 gross tons achieved in the
same period of 2013. But Tin can Island Port recorded a 17 per cent increase in
the gross registered tonnage, achieving 50,011,289 gross tons in 2014 as
against the 42,758,161 gross tons recorded in 2013.
APM Terminals, concessionaire of the Apapa Container
Terminal in the Lagos Ports Complex, Apapa, alone, handled 650,000 twenty feet
equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014, representing 53 percent of containerized cargo
imports through Lagos.
All these cargoes are being moved road, coupled with the
human traffic which has overwhelmed the roads that have become dilapidated,
worsening the already bad situation.
Enebeli noted that the first thing that should be done is to
decentralise the cargo system in Nigeria by spreading the cargoes to different
ports.
For him, there no “reason why cargoes going to neighbouring
countries in the West Coast should be moved on road. Put the cargo on even a
1,000 ton vessel and that takes about 120 trucks out of the road.”
By means of legislative Act, he believes government can
direct that discharge of reefer vessels (frozen cargo) be done in Koko Port
(Delta State), and steel at the Port
Harcourt port. By so doing, a significant chunk of the cargoes are removed from
Lagos to ease the already chaotic situation.
He said the colonial masters used rail to move agricultural
products 60 years ago, wondering why the country should find it difficult to do
even more now. The worsening condition of Apapa roads, causing nightmarish
traffic gridlock continues to take its toll on business activities within and
around the port town from where government realizes significant portion of its
revenue.
Access to Apapa, a port town in Lagos, hosting two of the
busiest seaports in Nigeria has become a persistent nightmare for commuters,
residents, port users and workers whose offices are located within the area,
who now spend at least three hours to access the town either from Mile 2 or
Ijora, the two main access routes which ordinarily take less than 10 minutes.
Indiscriminate parking of trucks and tankers on the roads,
failure of portions of the roads as well as activities of policemen and other
security operatives within the port city are blamed for the worsening traffic
situation in the area.
Speaking at a separate interview, Prof. Badejo told our
correspondent that “the traffic (gridlock) has ripple effects on the economy,
as it brought about additional inflation because a container that takes about
N85,000 to lift now goes for about N180,000 because of the cost implications of
having to wait for hours. Nigerian railways have stopped operating from the
port and what led to that decision is a mystery to me, because in 1985, the
railway evacuated 85 per cent of goods at the port while road accounted for 15
percent.”
He expressed concerns “for security, safety, pilferages and
robberies. So, if we are able to analyse social cost, there is need for drastic
action to resolve the quagmire on that road.”
Residents of the area and other adjourning towns such as
Festac and Amuwo Odofin also lamented the worsening traffic situation in
separate chats with Daily Independent. According to them, for anyone to arrive
at work in Apapa on time these days, he or she must leave home at 4.00am. On
the average, workers arrive at their desks between 11 am and 12 noon, by which
time they would be tired. Apart from that, by 3pm or 4pm, they close work to
wade through the traffic. Many residents of Festac, Satellite Town and the
Jakande Estate around the Mile 2 axis, are known to have relocated as part of
efforts to arrive their workplace on the Lagos Island axis in good time.
In all, 56 tank farms (for storage of imported petroleum
products) are in Lagos State alone, with 35 located along the Kirikiri
Town-Trinity junction axis on the Wharf/Tin Can Island road.
This is where the condition of the road is most deplorable,
causing extreme inconvenience to residents, tanker drivers and other road
users, lamented Comrade Adebayo Atanda, Public Relations Officer, Petroleum
Tanker Drivers (PTD), an affiliate of the National Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), recently.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government awarded a
N6 billion-contract in November 2010 for the rehabilitation of the expressway.
The contract involved the rehabilitation of the road from Km 0 to Km 15. While
Borini Prono started from Km 0 and ends at Km 7 (Apapa-Tin Can Island Port to
the Sunrise Bridge/Beach Land Estate junction); Julius Berger, took off from
that point to Cele Bus-Stop (Km 7 to Km 15).
Whereas Julius Berger has pushed the rehabilitation work on
the Oshodi-bound carriageway to an encouraging extent, Borini Prono seems to
have gone to sleep.
Almost Five years after the contract was awarded, commuters
and businesses on the Apapa and Oshodi-bound carriageways have tales of woe to
tells as this portion of the expressway has gone from bad to worse, leading to
the endless and life-threatening gridlock.
Perhaps, the solution to the gridlock that has defied
several government intervention committees over the years may just lie in the
redistribution of cargoes to various ports in the country, in addition to a
sincere revamp of the rail system and inland water transport. The experts agree
that the multiplier effects of the solution on the economy would indeed be
mind-blowing.
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