Apapa Trailer Park: Construction site sleeps as everyone awaits Buhari’s cabinet

Stakeholders fault award of contract for constructing the park

In more ways than one, President Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in appointing ministers to work with him in the various sectors of the economy is hurting not just the economy, but also the people of Nigeria who are increasingly getting confused with the thinking in government circles.

In Apapa where busines owners, port users, sundry workers and residents take a daily dose of stress arising from the unwholesome activities of tanker and trailer drivers on every route to the port city, Buhari’s delay in setting up his cabinet is reason for the non-completion of the Trailer Park on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, the construction of which was aimed to take the trucks off the expressway.

Contract for the construction of the park which is expected to bring respite to motorists and other road users by providing parking space for about 500 trailers, was awarded in 2010 and work has been at snail pace on the site until early this year when it literally came to a halt during the general elections.

When BusinessDay visited the construction site recently, no work was going on, though the contractor maintains ‘presence’ on site by leaving behind a few equipment and a couple of workers who, like the equipment and the entire site, were also sleeping at the time of the visit.

Worried by the unending traffic gridlock on the expressway which seems to have defied solution, stakeholders say it is high time the presidency took decisive steps towards the completion and handing over of the park to the public.

CHUKA UROKO & JOSHUA BASSEY