It looked scary and awesome; it had the aura of a graveyard; it all sounded incredible, yet true. Only one truck was on the three interlinking bridges that lead to Apapa from the National Stadium. That is today, Saturday, March 9 2019. It is, indeed, a day to remember.
All the way from Ojuelegba through Stadium Bridge up to Eko Bridge, branching off to Funsho William (Western) Avenue onto Ijora Bridge, there was only one spoilt truck on the way to Apapa.
That was the day Nigerians went to the polls to elect their governors and representatives at state houses of assembly. It was a dismal outing all over Lagos as voters stayed away from the polling units, citing intimidation and lack of faith in the electoral process.
Approaching Apapa, it was clear that even the trucks were also angry with Nigeria, its managers and the way elections in the country are incrementally degenerating into the precipice, moving from bad to worse as years roll by.
It was surprising that even the overzealous security agencies were not on the bridges. Commercial motorcycle (Okada) riders were not on the roads or bridges either. The whole environment which has garnered notoriety for congestion and suffocation from one million trucks oozing voluminous fumes looked mournful, unusually quiet and deserted. It is a day to remember
Nigeria has had six election cycles since its return to democratic rule in 1999. It is on record that each new election cycle is worse than the one before it, meaning that the electoral process managers are not learning anything new; the contestants (politicians) are becoming more desperate and vicious and the contestation itself is becoming messier each passing day.
Nigerians who do the voting are, increasingly, becoming disenchanted and losing interest. Everybody is angry and disappointed that rather than improving, the country is getting worse almost on all fronts. Apapa trucks seem to have joined this fray, but from history they may not be patient for too long.
So, expectation is that when work resumes fully on Monday, and Nigeria returns from the long hibernation induced by the elections, the trucks will come back forcefully, taking over all available spaces and squeezing other road users to a tiny and precarious corners of the roads and bridges.
Trucks have done unimaginable things in Apapa. They are the reason residents have left their houses built with their life savings to become tenants and strangers in other corners of Lagos. Trucks have despoiled the Apapa environment; rendered investments useless and killed many businesses.
Trucks are the reasons house rents have gone down by over 50 percent, property values have depreciated and vacancy rate is in the region of 50 and 60 percent. This is why pensioners are groaning for lack of rental income on their property investment. Trucks are, indeed, reasons over 40 percent of houses in the erstwhile burgeoning Apapa GRA are empty and deserted.
Before now, Wharf Road and Commercial Road used to be the ‘Central Business Districts’ of this port city where high net worth firms and banks had their offices and branches respectively. Today, a walk through these ‘districts’ shows that most of the banks have either relocated or have the number of their branches reduced.
Because of the invasion of Apapa by these trucks, on Wharf Road alone, more than 10 banks and two eateries have shut down their branches due to the pain and difficulty in accessing these branches, leading to loss of substantial customers in the area.
Unity Bank, for instance, which used to have four branches, now has two, Ecobank with eight branches has reduced to four and Access Bank with seven branches also cut down to four.
Eateries like Tetrazini has shut down, Tantalizer with three outlets has reduced to one and the only Mr Biggs eatery in Apapa on Creek Road is now out of the market. Film House Cinema inside Apapa Mall has also shut down. Even the famous Apapa Amusement Park which used to be a source of joy for the kids has been shut down due to low patronage.
The popular Eleganza complex that used to house over 1000 offices is virtually empty because the tenants have relocated or are out of business. The few tenants, who are still hanging on, owe several months of rent. The complex which used to be the centre of activities is now a ghost of itself, empty, deserted and dilapidated. And to the owner of the complex, it has become an investment gone awry.
CHUKA UROKO
