Economic activities in and around Apapa, home to Nigeria’s major seaports, were once again grounded on Wednesday as trailers and tankers took over all available spaces on both roads and bridges leading to this business hub, preventing other motorists, workers, business men, port users and even residents from getting to their offices, shops and homes.
Traffic from Mile Two, Surulere and Lagos Island inbound Apapa was brought to a standstill leaving thousands of motorists and commuters caught in between trapped for hours with attendant man-hour and economic losses.
This has heightened concerns about the Trailer Park on Apapa Oshodi Expressway which is not just in perpetual construction but also appears to be jinxed as both the contractor handling the project and the Federal Ministry of Works supervising it have resigned to fate with all eyes on the incoming government.
“There is nothing I can tell you on that project; we are still on site but you should speak to the ministry which knows what government wants to do about that project. I can’t even tell you when that project is to be delivered because I don’t know. You can find out from the ministry”, Borini Franco, a top official at Borini Prono told BusinessDay in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Borini Prono, an Italian construction firm, is the contractor on the Trailer Park that is planned to take away about 400 trailers off the Apapa Oshodi Expressway, freeing it for other motorists, but has had its progress on construction dogged by politics and rudderless governance.
“There is not much I can tell you about that park now”, Godwin Eke, zonal controller, Ministry of Works, told BusinessDay, adding, since the campaigns for the just concluded general elections started, that park has been on the back burner. Right now, everybody is looking up to the incoming government for work to pick up again. What we need from the public is patience”.
Emmanuel Ameke, a port operator who spoke to BusinessDay on the crippling gridlock, said that what port users and businesses in Apapa were suffering from was a fall out of misplaced priority. “This is a sea port from which government rakes in a great deal of revenue, yet it does not see the need to construct good roads or build new bridges that can ease movement to and from the port”, he lamented.
“If you ask me, I would say it is not rocket science for the Federal Government to construct a rail line that will make haulage on the roads and bridges unnecessary”, he added, hoping that the Buhari government would be the messiah the expressway had been waiting for.
Commenting on the development, Remi Ogungbemi, president of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), said the hope now lies in effective collaboration between Lagos State and the incoming Federal Government of Buhari in view of the fact that both will from May 29 operate on the same political platform. Stakeholders are hopeful that a robust relationship between both governments would address the mess in Apapa.
Aloga Ogbogo, general manager (Admin) of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), submitting on how to address the problem, said Buhari would need to revisit the port concession, particularly the area which traded off the parking spaces within the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, resulting in trucks entering the ports staying on the roads and bridges with consequential gridlock and loss of valuable man-hour.
Buhari must revisit the concession of the ports, that is part of the solution,” Ogbogo submitted.
