Serious traffic disaster in Lagos

Lagos roads have been bedevilled with traffic gridlocks as a result of dilapidated roads and impassable routes and exits especially the ones linking the two major ports in Nigeria, the Tin-Can Island port and the Apapa Quays. No doubt the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway is a bottleneck to and from the aforementioned seaports in Lagos. The Ojuelegba-Ijora-Apapa axis is the proverbial needle’s eye which the head of a camel cannot sail through given the deplorable state of the damaged roads and the bridges linking Apapa and its environs.

Now talking “traffic disaster” in Lagos is like one passing a herculean task on a daily basis where one cannot effectively, efficiently and in a suitable process use the roads. Commuters, okada riders, commercial buses, and of course private motorists are involved in this because of the presence of articulated vehicles, such as heavy carrier trucks, flat-bodied trailers, and lorries which are used in conveying non-containerised and containerised consignments from the seaports.

The flat-bodied truck or trailer as it were is commonly used for transporting both the 20ft and 40ft containers laden with heavy iron-rods, iron plates, and non-containerised consignments for industrial constructions.

These articulated vehicles have become most significant on our major roads, expressways, domestic and access roads just en-route the seaports, thereby making road transportation cumbersome for motorists of all other categories in Lagos and other vehicles seeking entry into Lagos from upcountry. However, “ignorance” has made it for traffic managers in the state to see that these articulated vehicles have become the most viable means of logistics for taking delivery of these concealed consignments and personal effects to their various destinations in Lagos nay Nigeria. These traffic managers do also not see the menace these articulated vehicles have constituted around Lagos and the dangers it poses to pedestrians and others alike.

Most haulage companies in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and its suburbs operate the way they do because the seaports location have demystified other suitable possible system of transportation which  encourages the boom of the road transportation system which invariably had created death traps for all road users including the trucks operators, whose trucks have no good tyres, no side mirrors, dilapidated bodies, worn out engines and broken windscreens without wipers and signage; coupled with the bad conditions of the roads that have made free-flow of traffic form one kilometre to the other, a snail movement.

In most cases you find out the volume of trucks from “Second rainbow” or “Cele bus-stops” of the Oshodi-Apapa axis to the ports are very massive from one bus-stop to the other. These vehicles are stuck without movement for weeks or months. Same applies from the Ojuelegba axis to the ports, trucks will be stuck in massive volume on top of the bridges posing so much danger to commuters and other road users. This situation on its own is an aberration of traffic laws and management.

It is also a common knowledge that these articulated vehicles don’t have strobe lights in case of transporting goods at night, inner mirrors, traffic indicator lights. Most of them emit carbon monoxide as a result of worn-out piston and rings, an indication of mechanical defect. The emission of carbon into the atmosphere begs the question of climate degradation and health hazard to the populace.

In this light, it will be noteworthy to commend the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Hajia Hadiza for initiating the mode of water ways transportation using barges and tugboats for the purpose of decongesting the ports of cargoes and containers. And as a result of this laudable initiative with on the stream action plan, all the actors of the sector will heave a sigh of relief with an improved economy as an alternative remedy and concrete solution towards ending the traffic disaster on our roads especially the routes linking the seaports.

In this regard therefore, “traffic disaster” is real in Lagos and until we approach it with a radical solution because it has failed all recommended approach by some experts of traffic management in various seminars and fora. Having said that, the President of “Khafnas Global” President MK Ahmed had said in this piece that there are five modes of transportation system; and until we acknowledge these facts and utilize them maximally the dragon eating up our ports handling system; foreign exchange; the inefficient and ineffective haulage mode will remain a phobia overloading the road mode which is just one amongst others; which in essence has compounded our haulage system.

MK Ahmed the president of Khafnas Global, is a chattered member of CILT, a seasoned investment analyst, risks, management expert and a renowned logistician stressed that service industry contributes 65% to the global economy and that when logistics suffer in a country like Nigeria; then, there is a serious challenge. Ahmed however said that Khafnas Global in conjunction with stakeholders and regulators will adopt a scientific approach towards this plaguing traffic disaster; hence we are looking at the three modes of transportation comprising of road, waterways, and rail as the case may be.

Therefore, Khafnas Global will partner the Federal Government; Lagos State Government; the NPA; NIMASA; NIWA; terminal operators; and of course the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN); inspection agencies; Shippers Council; Freight Forwarders Associations; corporate importer/exporters; and captains of industries within the oil and gas sector towards achieving the targeted objectives (traffic disaster) in Lagos.

Ahmed, he emphasised on alternative transportation mode using the waterways through barge operations as the fastest solution to the said traffic disaster in Lagos. “The barge operations through the waterways are indeed the safest and fastest solution to exterminating the traffic disaster on Lagos roads”; Khafnas Global president re-assured.

Ahmed is president of Khafnas Global, Lagos.