Every adverse situation, no matter how messy it may be or seem, creates some sort of socio-economic advantage, and that is the kind of situation the grim gridlock coupled with the degraded and suffocating Apapa environment has presented to the clan of individuals who, in street parlance, are known as ‘maiguards’.
This is not, however, justifying the mess that Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city, has turned into because of the unwholesome activities of a few businessmen who have shut down the city with their trucks, messed up the environment and rendered it uninhabitable and desolate. Because this otherwise ‘city of aquatic splendour’ can no longer support or guarantee safe and comfortable living for its residents and businesses, they have run away, leaving behind empty homes and business premises, creating a haven for the ‘maiguard’ community who are now landlords and kings in choice homes.
To many, Apapa has become a wasteland where businesses especially are not only marooned, but also disillusioned, unsure what next best step to take and get it right. A recent BDSUNDAY report captured the chaotic state of affairs in Apapa in the following terms: “The thought of driving through the roads leading into Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city, located to the west of Lagos Island, now elicits the same kind of feeling you get contemplating a root canal operation. There is a special kind of temperament required to drive on the roads in Apapa – the kind you need to stand up to a baying mob.
“The air in Apapa is foul, thick with plumes of smoke from tankers long past their sell-by dates. There are also billows of smoke from industrial generators louder than angry thunders. Apapa has the ambience of chaos, rich in rancorous disorder, a city both hostile and confining. Apapa is the elegy that never stops.”
The repercussions are not far-fetched. A walk through the major connecting roads including Liverpool, Creek Road, Wharf Road, Point Road, Child Avenue, North Avenue, etc elicits pain in the head as virtually all the buildings have estate agents’ boards advertising vacancies for rent or outright sale. People’s investments, made with hard-earned income, are now in ruins. Businesses are not any better.
Joe Akhigbe, an estate surveyor and valuer, confirmed what BDSUNDAY reporters already know from just walking around the major streets of Apapa, that “most of the houses in Apapa are empty”.
“We have seen about 60 percent vacancy rate in that part of Lagos. People are dropping rents to attract tenants, yet nobody is taking up residence there; there are residential buildings where landlords/agents are dropping as much as N1 million-N1.5 million, but no tenants are coming forth,” Akhigbe said.
As a result of this unfortunate situation, property value in this area has dropped by as much as 50 percent. This is the same Apapa whose property market in its good days was ranked alongside Ikeja GRA, according to Chudi Ubosi, principal partner at Ubosi Eleh +Co. Now the market has taken a dip.
“Because of the present situation, where a parcel of land sells for N200 million in Ikeja GRA, same size of land in Apapa will struggle to sell for N100 million,” Ubosi said.
Of greater concern arising from the diminishing property value and rising vacancy rate in Apapa is also the impact of all these on other locations in Lagos such as Ikeja GRA, Ikoyi and Victoria Island which are the next destinations for businesses and home seekers leaving Apapa. The implication is that what is lost in Apapa will be gained in these other locations. Apart from piling pressure on the grossly inadequate infrastructure there, house rents and prices will go up.
Calculating the loss
The story of Apapa in the last 24-36 months when it came into its present siege has been that of economic loss, business failure and health risk. Long hours on traffic that is not only choking but also life-threatening have led to loss of quality man-hour on the road, poor mental health of workers, poor and delayed output, low productive capacity and almost zero-competitiveness of products.
It is no wonder, therefore, that on weekly basis, the Nigerian economy loses close to N140 billion which translates to N20 billion daily loss because of the situation in Apapa. The explanation is very simple. Apapa is home to Nigeria’s two busiest seaports which account for over 80 percent of all import and export activities in the country. The two major routes to these ports – Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Apapa-Wharf Road – are simply shameful and embarrassing. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway particularly is a messy metaphor for tedium, drudgery, pain, waste, and suffering of monumental proportion.
“Apapa-Wharf Road is both an embarrassment to the country and a huge loss of close to N140 billion to the government on a weekly basis; the economy loses more than N20 billion daily because the state of this road affects businesses across the country. All our operations in the hinterland in Ilorin, Kano, etc are operating at 40 percent maximum capacity,” revealed Aliko Dangote, president, Dangote Group, who spoke at a media parley in Lagos recently.
Private sector intervenes
Dangote, Flour Mill Nigeria and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have elected to intervene on the Apapa-Wharf Road because, according to Dangote, “It is very embarrassing; we can’t just sit and have a road like that in the heart of the trade of the country. More than 60 percent of our country’s import and exports come through the port and we leave it un-attended. That is why we started on our own. Flour Mills said they will join us, but now government has changed the design because they want all the cables and pipes underground and to have a more robust solution.”
Indeed, noting could be more embarrassing than the Federal and Lagos State Governments’ neglect of the roads infrastructure in Apapa from where they rake in hundreds of billions of naira revenue annually. The Federal Government has very strong presence at the two ports with its revenue-collecting agencies which collect money for it in form of import duties and levies by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS); royalties, rents and dues by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); dues and levies by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); certification levies by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), among others.
Report has it that in 2016, NCS alone generated N898 billion as revenue for the Federal Government, and this was even less than the N904 billion collected in 2015. The reduction, according to a close source at the NCS, was because of the difficulty in accessing foreign exchange and removal of the 41 items which forced down the level of activities within the ports. “The target given to the service was indeed N937 billion in 2016 and it would have surpassed that if the business environment had been favourable,” the source said, pointing out that the bulk of revenues generated by the Customs every year comes from the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
In 2009, Lagos signed into law the controversial ‘Wharf Landing Fee’ through which it generates millions of naira revenue from the ports. By the provisions of that law, a 40-footer container exiting the ports pays N1,000; 20-footer N500, while other small containers pay N300 into the coffers of the state government. The state government explained that the fees were imposed to enable the government maintain the roads which bear the pressure from the many tankers and trailers that move in and out of the state on daily basis, leading to the wear and tear of the roads.
The Dangote, Flour Mills and NPA intervention is estimated to cost N4.34 billion while the rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway is estimated to cost N100 billion. So, altogether, the two major routes require just N104.3 billion to make them motorable. It beats the imagination, therefore, that the Federal Government is finding it difficult to put those two routes in good shape even with the huge revenue it raked from the ports in 2016 alone can repair the roads 10 times over if the will to do so is there. This is a simple but sad case of the Federal and Lagos State Governments dancing on the graves of residents and businesses in Apapa, the hen that lays golden eggs for them.
In saner jurisdictions where governments are accountable to the people, when people perform their civic duties, government takes up its responsibilities. Here, it is a different narrative. Though it is good that individuals and institutions are helping the government to do its work, how far they can go is another question. Again, how much can they do, especially in the case of Apapa where the rot is so deep?
Abandoned Apapa regeneration plan
In June 2012, a pact for the regeneration of Apapa was sealed between the Federal and Lagos State Governments. The well thought-out plan tagged ‘Apapa Regeneration Plan’ was geared towards rebuilding the Central Business District of Apapa to enable it regain its former glory.
The regeneration plan was drafted at the heat of the notorious Apapa gridlock that resulted to loss of reasonable man-hour, goods on transit due to incessant cases of accidents, human lives, and practically crippled business activities around the port city. The gridlock drastically reduced the level of port efficiency and increased the difficulty in the process of doing business at the port as time of clearing and delivering cargo to importers’ warehouses elongated. All these also came with their cost implication on doing business at the port.
Those horrible experiences prompted the then Babatunde Fashola-led government of Lagos State and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala-led Federal Government Economic Management team to set up an ad hoc committee saddled with the responsibility of drafting a 64-page report stipulating the role of each government in the rebuilding project, estimated at N11.60 billion at that time.
It was recommended that the Federal Government be responsible for 75 percent of the total cost of the project while the Lagos State government would bear the remaining 25 percent. The plan was to help rehabilitate the dilapidated bridges and roads in Apapa; remedy the degraded areas; complete the abandoned trailer parks; dualise Wharf, Creek and Tin-Can roads; acquire monitoring and heavy duty equipment; and landscape and beautify the reclaimed lands.
It was also estimated that the sum of N56.50 million would be used for bio-remediation of degraded areas; N1.42 billion for public lighting of the roads around the port city; N2.11 billion for landscaping and beautification; N97 million for dislodging illegal habitants; N585.25 million for the acquisition of heavy duty vehicles for monitoring; N466.91 million for security personnel; N33.24 million for sanitisation of cleared areas, and N108.95 million for wire mesh fencing.
The plan also earmarked N100.45 million for rehabilitation of Kirikiri trailer park; N114.40 million for rehabilitation of drainages and culverts, and N6.49 billion for rehabilitation of Creek, Wharf and Commercial roads including the Marine Beach service lane.
According to the plan, the state government was to bear the cost of N97 million to dislodge the illegal occupants and dismantle shanties; landscape the spaces that were reclaimed under the Marine Beach bridge; and provide a recreation centre that would have facilities like basketball court and football pitch for residents of Ijora and Ajegunle areas.
Also contained in the plan was the expectation to create gardens and parks around the Apapa area; put streetlights from Ijora to Apapa, and create other basketball courts and boxing rings where residents of Oyingbo, Ebute-Meta, Iganmu and Alaka areas could come and relax at their leisure.
Also, it was expected that as the project was ongoing, the port would make effective use of barges for the movement of cargoes through the inland waterways and the railway to move cargoes going to the hinterland, to reduce the congestion on the roads. Here, cargoes for the eastern part of the country were designed to be taken to Onitsha River Port while that of the north were to be cleared from Baro River Port and Kaduna Inland Container Depot (ICD).
Expectedly, the Lagos State government immediately mobilized to work and dislodged the illegal occupants under Marine Beach Bridge and Ijora areas after which some fencing and tree planting followed suit, and that seemed to be the last time the regeneration plan was ever mentioned by both governments.
Five years down the line, the bulk of the job as contained in the regeneration plan has been left unattended to. This prompted the return of the notorious Apapa gridlock as the situation of the roads in and out of Apapa worsened and also inflicted more hardship on port users, commuters, businesses and residents.
Plaudits for Dangote, Flour Mills, but…
Industry close watchers say the public private partnership in Apapa road rehabilitation project is a noble idea, especially at this austerity time when government revenue has declined following the fallen crude oil price in the international market. However, they say there is a need to revisit the earlier drafted regeneration plan.
The industry watchers say this is based on the premise that a holistic approach is needed in solving the problem of Apapa and that approach lies with the regeneration plan. The plan, when implemented, will help return the roads and the environment that had deteriorated to their original state and reduce the gridlock in Apapa.
“Federal Government needs to key into this funding from the private sector to complete the needed funds for the regeneration plans by taking immediate action on the execution of the plan as presented in the report so as to forestall the recurrence of the Apapa problem in the near future,” said Tony Anakebe, managing director, Gold-Link Investment Limited, a clearing and forwarding company based in Lagos.
Businesses and government agencies in Apapa, Anakebe said, generate more than enough revenue that would enable a sincere government to fund the regeneration project if there is the political will to give back to the city that generates trillions annually into the Federal Government coffers.
Jonathan Nicole, president, Shippers Association of Lagos State, said the government’s approach to solving the problem of Apapa is very unfortunate.
“Since 2012, the whole of Apapa was almost sacked such that inside Apapa GRA, there are more vacant houses because people do not have access to and fro the area. As such, the occupants vacated. We believe that government needs to revisit the Apapa regeneration plan of 2012,” said Nicole.
According to him, the port is self-serving, which means the port is an area where government makes money daily and judging from the recent Senate investigation, Nigeria has generated close to N37 trillion from the port sector over the years.
“Sadly, this amount of money does not show or reflect in the infrastructure around the ports. Senate investigation shows that the port industry can actually finance Nigeria’s budget conveniently for six years without interference. Customs alone generates over N800 billion annually but the government finds it difficult to use N11 billion, which is a meagre part of that revenue, to repair the road or execute the regeneration plans as drafted,” he said.
Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO), who described the current Federal Government repair works on Apapa as a temporary measure, agrees there is need for a holistic approach in handling the problem of Apapa. Government, he said, needs to pay attention to the issue of building a functional trailer transit park as contained in the regeneration plan or completion of the abandoned trailer park in Tin-Can Island area of the port.
CHUKA UROKO & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
Additional reporting by CHUKS OLUIGBO.
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