Hours after President Muhammadu Buhari, his presidential campaign entourage and chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) visited Lagos to canvass votes ahead of Saturday’s presidential polls, petroleum tankers and container-carrying trucks have again been unleashed on Lagosians.
The return of the trucks on Lagos roads shows the hypocrisy and self-deceit of the current government, which was able to keep the tankers and trucks off the roads for the duration of the president’s visit.
Days to the APC rally which held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, the trucks which usually line up the long stretch of Ikorodu Road, Eko Bridge, Ijora Olopa, Apapa-Iganmu Road, Eric More Road, Iganmu Bridge and part of Lagos-Badagry Expressway had all disappeared.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Lagos State government had barred the trucks from entering Lagos between Friday and Saturday to guarantee free movement for Buhari and his entourage.
The presence of the trucks on Lagos roads puts the national economy at great risk. The worst-hit is Apapa, which harbours the country’s two busiest seaports that account for about 75 percent of all the export and import activities in the country.
Apapa in the last five to six years has garnered notoriety for its congestion and gridlock caused by heavy influx of tankers and trailers which have, within this period, occupied all bridges and roads leading to the port city with spillover effect on the surrounding areas such as Surulere, Yaba, Lagos Island, Oyingbo, etc.
Many businesses in Apapa have died. Others strong enough to cope with the excruciating pains of staying back are doing so at great cost. Many importers now prefer to clear their cargo in neighbouring countries because doing that through Apapa ports is no longer profitable and sustainable.
Yet government, which rakes in stupendous revenue from the ports and collects tenement rates from residents whose houses have lost their value, looks away. The impression the federal and Lagos State governments have always given to the Apapa residents and business owners in the port city is that their case is helpless.
One task-force after another has been set up to rid Apapa of its breath-taking gridlock without success. Everything seemed to have come to a head when Acting President Yemi Osinbajo flew into Apapa in July 2018 and gave a 72-hour presidential order to the trucks to vacate the roads and bridges, but the trucks remained adamant and nothing happened.
But as the nation’s commercial capital prepared for President Buhari’s visit, Apapa wore the look of sanity as the trucks totally disappeared from the roads. Trucks already in Lagos were forced to leave while others still on their way were barred from entering the city.
BusinessDay checks on Friday showed that from Maryland through the whole stretch of Ikorodu Road into Apapa through Western Avenue or Eko Bridge, the roads were completely free, with Lagosians asking where all the trucks went to and what made them vacate.
On Sunday, a day after Buhari’s visit, however, BusinessDay checks showed that the trucks had returned to the roads, especially around Alaka inward Eko Bridge.
By Sunday afternoon, the trucks were taking over both lanes inward Eko Bridge leading to heavy traffic build-up on the axis, forcing the residents to ask why the sudden appearance of the tankers and containers if they could be kept away from the road ahead of the visit by the president.
Observers say the sanity that returned to Lagos and specifically Apapa roads on Friday and Saturday showed it is possible to make Apapa a sane environment if government really wants to make that happen.
“By getting the trucks off the roads on Friday and Saturday, the government demonstrated that it can be done. It smacks of hypocrisy that the trucks are returning after Buhari’s visit and government people don’t seem to care,” said a Lagos resident on condition of anonymity.
Ayo Shola-Vaughan, a retired brigadier-general and chairman, Apapa G.R.A Residents Association, described the latest development as sad and deliberate.
He also accused the Nigerian Ports Authority and the task force put in place to regulate how the vehicles access the ports of complicity in the whole issue.
Shola-Vaughan vowed that the residents would take legal action against the NPA and the owners of shipping companies after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum on the matter.
JOSHUA BASSEY & CHUKA UROKO
