Apapa: Call-up system fails to bring reprieve one month after

The introduction of an electronic call-up system to control movement of trucks in Apapa is one month-old today (Saturday). But the reprieve which the new system was expected to bring has failed to come.

Like other solutions that had been experimented on Apapa traffic problem, the electronic call-up system, a brain-child of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), was off to a good start within the first three days of its implementation. For once in several years, Apapa experienced what was truly a return of sanity.

While Apapa residents and businesses celebrated the return of sanity to their terribly degraded environment, Lagos State government went to town beating its chest for what it considered a landmark achievement, and threatening to deal with whoever might sabotage the system.

A political dimension was even brought into the ‘success’ story in Apapa as demagogues in the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) appropriated the success, counting it as one of the many wonders Nigerians have seen from the ‘visionary leadership’ of President Muhammadu Buhari.

But, in the manner of what the Christian Holy Book would say, it turned out that “all have sinned and come short of the glory”. Indeed, all have got the calculation wrong, be it Apapa residents now miffed with the turn of events, or Lagos State government and NPA who now appear overwhelmed and helpless with the resurgence of trucks on Apapa roads and bridges—everywhere!

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Experience in the last one month of the call-up system must have sent the message loud and clear to NPA and the Lagos State government, which is providing the necessary logistics for the implementation, that the system is not succeeding or, put blandly, the system has failed.

“The system is not working; perhaps it worked in the first five days of its introduction, but as it is now, the system is not working; it has failed woefully,” Ayo Vaughan, chairman, Apapa GRA Residents Association, fumed in an interview with our correspondent.

“There were people who were benefitting from the chaos. Those people are still around fighting to ensure that the system does not work. This is where I blame Lagos State government and NPA for not having a good plan for such people who can be found even within their ranks,” he said.

Vaughan noted that Apapa problem goes beyond giving empty threats, explaining that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu should not hesitate to name and shame those who are sabotaging the system.

“He should have named and shamed those people long ago because this system is not working,” he stressed.

Vaughan’s views corroborate the ones earlier expressed by Kayode Opeifa, executive vice chairman of the disbanded Presidential Task Team, another failed experiment on Apapa gridlock, who from the onset of the team’s stint in Apapa screamed that “corruption is fighting back”.

“Those who were feeding fat from the chaos don’t want us to do our work; they say we have come to take over where they are ‘chopping’ from. So, they are fighting back and are doing that from all angles,” Opeifa told our correspondent.

Emma Ameke, an agent at the ports, described the new system as a waste of time. For him too, the system is not working.

“We were told that no truck would be seen near the ports except those on call. But just take a look; this is all over the place; this expressway (Apapa-Oshodi) is the worst; nothing shows you that there is a new system in place here,” he noted.

A truck driver on Mile 2 Bridge, who identified himself simply as Raheem, told our correspondent that he did not even understand what “government” was telling them.

“Look, I have been here since yesterday with my paper. Now, it is past 11am; they tell us they have not started, but you see some trucks moving. Abeg, wetin dem dey do dere?” he asked rhetorically.

It may not be a fair assessment, however, to conclude that the call-up system has not achieved anything. It has. At least, it has reduced the number of trucks on Apapa roads and bridges at any given time.

But a disquieting aspect of this achievement is the transfer (or distribution?) of the Apapa gridlock to other parts of Lagos. The Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Festac, Ikotun, Ejigbo, Ikorodu Road, inner streets of Surulere, Okota, etc are now difficult terrains due to trucks-induced gridlock.

This means that, though trucks have left Apapa, they are not gone in the real sense. This is another message to the promoters of this system, especially the Lagos State and even the Federal Government, that in Apapa, the “beautyful ones are not yet born”, to quote Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Arma.

The problem of this premier port city, from experience and reality on ground, is beyond task teams and call-up systems in a society where integrity of virtually everything is suspect.

When, in 2018, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited on assessment of the true situation of things in the port city, what he identified as the major problem there was collapsed infrastructure, especially ports access roads. To a reasonable extent, these access roads have been fixed. But the problem persists.

NPA, as the ports landlord, reasoned that the problem was the uncontrolled movement of trucks. It made all the consultations for total stakeholder buy-in and thereafter introduced the Eto App which is believed to have capacity to reduce human influence and manipulation of the system.

Last week Thursday, the system implementation team came up with a statement, announcing new measures that will help the system to work efficiently.

“We have noted attempts by some people (truckers) to use forged tickets to enter the ports,” the statement said.

“For that reason, the entry barriers at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) are now fully automated. The barriers do not recognize fake tickets and will deny entry to any truck whose booking is not valid,” it said.

To many, this was a tacit acceptance of the failure of the Eto App.

In the face of all these, experts and sundry stakeholders are saying that time is now for the Federal Government, working collaboratively with the Lagos State, to look beyond task teams and call-up systems for a more lasting and efficient way of solving Apapa problem.

“We may be succeeding piecemeal with these quick-win solutions, but the way to go is to build a rail system that can do the work of 1,000 trucks in 10 minutes. No port anywhere in the world, except Apapa, functions without a good rail system. So, that’s the way to go,” said Bode Karunmi, an Apapa resident, while reacting to the introduction of the new call-up system in February.