Lagos may be Nigeria’s business capital but it’s port city, Apapa has morphed into an orderly mess with nightmarish traffic gridlock, dilapidated roads and onslaught of unruly oil tankers. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the new governor is matching his intention to tackle the problems with action, writes Isaac Anyaogu.
Since his inauguration as governor of Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos, Babajide Sanwo Olu has visited Apapa twice, which clearly indicates an intention to assess the situation and seek a resolution to the problems.
So, as far as intentions go, many will agree that the new governor has demonstrated it. But intentions alone are not enough to fix the mess, Nigeria’s premier port city has become. Apapa is a crying shame, a slaughter slab for good intentions. In its current state, it is unbefitting to be associated with a state that says it wants to be known for excellence.
Ordinarily, the fact that a governor visits a community in a state, he presides should not be news any more than he had breakfast, but the situation in Apapa has morphed into a living nightmare, too critical to ignore yet ignored for far too long that any form of official attention makes headlines.
Residents and businesses have fled Apapa in droves because the air is foul, thick with plumes of smoke from tankers long pass their sell-by dates, who queue on roads that are worn and weary, with potholes deeper than gullies. Smoke from industrial generators louder than angry thunders fill the air. Apapa has the rich ambience of chaos, a city both hostile and confining. Apapa has become the hymn that accompanies insanity.
Beyond the bridges whose joints groan every time a vehicle is driven across, the inner city roads inside Apapa are in a state of disrepair. Some parts of Creek road will pass as an open sewer and Point Road has lost its charm. Unlike in the past, officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority officials have been deplored to Apapa roads but the volume of vehicular traffic is overwhelming.
The Federal Government has run out of security agencies to intervene in curbing the traffic in Apapa. Before they were disbanded, the army, police and the navy have played a role in keeping Apapa roads sane. They often started off well and gently peter off into resounding failure. Following accusations that security agencies were profiting from the mess, the president disbanded the teams.
However, Sanwo Olu’s intentions towards Apapa is igniting hope. During his visit, two days after inauguration, Sanwo Olu said his administration would work with the Federal Government and other stakeholders to achieve the June deadline for the completion of the 1,000-capacity Tin Can Ports Truck Terminal to resolve the crisis.
Sanwo Olu said major tasks required to complete the terminal have been accomplished. “What is left to complete is the water system, toilet facility and power supply, which is the aspect left to fix. Once they do that, all the trucks on the Ijora bridge and others within that axis can use it,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu, has met with port operators who listed challenges confronting them at the Nigeria Ports Authority and Lilly Port Terminal. From these interactions with these interest groups including the Federal Government, the governor is recognising the full scale of the problems.
“We have discovered that the problem of Apapa is multi-faceted; one agency cannot resolve the issue. We have met with security officers and operators on ground. We have seen that the problem is more than what one company can solve,” he said.
A contributor to Apapa’s problem according to Sanwo Olu’s diagnosis is that there is disconnect in the activities of picking and dropping off containers in the Ports. He plans to engage with NIMASA, shipping councils, NPA, the Federal Government and others to resolve the issue, “especially on how they can push the commencement date for the collection of demurrage,” he said.
“The final solution is around the corner; we are hoping in due course; we will get all these issues behind us. “We need to build another port. We will take it upon ourselves with the support of the NPA to develop the Lekki and Badagry ports,” the governor said.
Following the governor’s visit and the setting up of a task force to contain the problem, the 400-truck capacity Tin Can Trailer Park has been opened to trucks even though it is not completed. Truck drivers say there is no water, electricity and toilet facilities and officials manning it say the drivers are unruly and uncouth.
“I don’t know why the government is forcing open an uncompleted park with little or no logistics in place,” one traffic controller told our reporter. “We don’t even have toilets here.”
Kayode Opiefa, executive vice chairman on the presidential task force on Apapa gridlock says it is working to fulfil its mandate. He told BusinessDay that while the contractor works to complete the park, the roads needed to be cleared to allow ease of movement.
“Our mandate is to ensure that there are no trucks on Apapa roads and bridges and I am happy we are delivering on our timelines. The trailers have to move into the park even though work is still going on there.”
While these federal interventions are on-going, port workers interviewed told BusinessDay that the Lagos state governor must continue to intervene.
“I am happy tankers have left the road,” says Hassan Ibrahim, a port worker, “It is good the governor is showing interest in Apapa, but the problem is not over.”
Recall that last month, the Lagos state government through the permanent secretary, ministry of transport ordered a restriction of movement of trucks into Apapa through the Mile 2 Tin Can route from June 28 to July 1 to enable contractors carry out repair works on collapsed sections of Oshodi-Mile 2-Tincan expressway.
The contractors had already begun some palliative works on Creek road, Apapa linking Liverpool towards the Tincan area of Apapa. The Lagos state government secured a 12-day demurrage period extension and charted a route for trucks coming into the ports empty and departing after it is loaded with goods.
However, fixing Apapa requires sustained effort.
Final solution
Sanwo proposed that the final solution to the Apapa situation is to build another port. The governor says his government will support the Nigerian Ports Authority to develop alternative ports at Lekki and Badagary.
But Hadiza Bala-Usman, Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, is still considering the viability of the Badagry deep seaport when there are plans to construct another one in Lekki. Usman has engaged consultants to draw up a new masterplan after the initial one was cancelled.
“If you look at the Badagry and the Lekki deep seaport projects, they are all within the Western ports. The port master plan will guide us on whether it is okay to have two deep seaports in close proximity to each other,” she told journalists while announcing the cancellation of the contract.
The task before the Lagos state government will be to present a compelling case for alternative ports in the State. The priority for the NPA is to prioritize the construction of deep seaports that will have the required draft for larger vessels.
The Apapa port complex which handles 80 percent of Nigeria’s cargo is 14m in depth and today’s vessels require a depth of 17m making a case for an alternative port.
