Public and private sector leaders have called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency at the port city of Apapa, in Lagos, as part of ways of addressing the persistent traffic chaos in the critical gateway.
Speaking at the infrastructure policy commission break out session, at the just ended economic summit in Abuja, the stakeholders agreed that a new thinking was required to address the Apapa traffic crisis.
They called for urgent steps to decongest Apapa by putting in place an emergency plan, including the use of rail and the inner waterways, with a view to easing the situation within a three-month time frame.
The stakeholders, including government policy makers, managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Usman, as well as the company CEOs and consultants, also agreed that going forward ports in the country especially those in Apapa should be linked with multiple transportation corridors.
Nigeria’s inland container depots (ICDs) are sub-optimal as a result of poor transportation links and the stakeholders said this has to change and that the inland container depots should be well served with rail links.
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Another suggestion agreed upon, was for government to engender healthy competition among the nation’s ports in the west and east of the country and that by so doing, the significant advantage now enjoyed by the port in neighbouring Cotonou can be tackled.
Apapa ,remains locked-down, making it impossible for many offices to open, with motorists and school children unable to get to their destinations.
The port community and its environs have been neglected by successive Nigerian governments, resulting in the collapse of major infrastructure, including road networks and the environment.
The situation in the last decade has been compounded by hordes of box trailers and petroleum tankers, travelling long distances to evacuate goods or lift petroleum for distribution to other parts of the country.
Several of the tank farms in Apapa where imported petroleum products are stored, lack parking lots. Similarly, parking spaces within the ports were said to have been concessioned to private use by the previous government. As a result, roads and bridges leading to Apapa have become alternative parking spaces for tankers and trailers. Over 1,000 of these articulated trucks arrive Lagos every day and head for Apapa.
The last three months have been particularly hellish for businesses, residents and motorists within and around Apapa, as a result of the ongoing rehabilitation of Wharf road, stretching from Area ‘B’ Police Command, towards Apapa port. The rehabilitation is being financed by the Dangote Group, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc and NPA.
JOSHUA BASSEY
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