Apapa traffic gridlock: Finding lasting solution to national malaise.

It would be a gross understatement to state that the malignant Apapa gridlock has become a big national embarrassment.

The Apapa port city in the South-West town of Lagos hosts the two biggest and most viable seaports in the country, which are Tin-Can and Apapa ports.

The port city also harbours scores of tank farms, private jetties and bonded terminals.

This thus makes the port city contribute more than 65 per cent imports into the country.

Similarly, it accounts for revenues which rank second only to the one being realised from the oil and gas industry.

Sadly, despite being the cash cow for the federal government, the access roads to the Lagos ports have over the years being bogged down with avoidable traffic logjam which has continually defiled solutions.
However, the latest frenetic efforts of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Lagos State government have restored a semblance of sanity to what has become a daily traffic jigsaw puzzle.

It would be convenient to attribute the Apapa traffic lock down to deplorable port access roads which hampers smooth traffic flow.

This may not be far from the truth.

It is also plausible to explain that the traffic logjam was as a result of the intransigence of the shipping companies to comply with the directive of NPA to have holding bays in which they would keep their empty containers believed to be the cause why trailers daily block the road in their bid to return the empties back to the terminals.

Nigeriamaritime360.com shares these sentiments as well.

That explains the latest efforts of the NPA to check mate the traffic monster.

First, the ports Authority created a unique traffic management system involving its staff, Navy and Lagos State Transport Management agency (LASTMA) who deployed the use of call up card system to control the traffic.

Also, NPA directed all the shipping companies to get their holding bays outside the port as only containers which originate from these places would be allowed into the port.

This was in addition to the tough stance of the agency to enforce compliance when it suspended some erring shipping companies, an action it later rescinded.

However, all these efforts, as commendable and daring as they are, may not make lasting impact on the Apapa traffic malaise.

The Lagos State government went a notch higher with its bold and audacious intervention which calmed the situation.

In as much as we wish to commend the efforts so far taken to tackle the traffic crisis, we make bold to say that they will remain cosmetic which can only give a momentary succour to the depressed port users.

As long as government still shy away from enforcing the guidelines governing empty containers transportation to their countries of origin, any other effort taken at tackling this problem will amount to chasing shadow.

This platform believes that at the core of the Apapa traffic gridlock was the subtle way the shipping companies have turned the country into a dumping ground for empty containers.

It was claimed that one out of every six vessels which come to Nigeria goes back with few empty containers. The rest are left in the country.

They have always hidden under the guise of lack of substantial exports for which these empties could be utilised and taken back.

We do not share this excuse which sounds as empty and hollow as those empty containers they refuse to transport back to their countries of origin.

Statistics show that the first half of 2017, NPA recorded 223,168 empty containers in all the ports while a total of 101,717 empty containers were stacked at the port in the first three months of the year 2018.

121,451 empty containers were recorded between April and June last year 2017.

The Lagos Port hosted 53,937 empty containers, while a total of 133,115 empty containers were stacked at Tincan Island Port in the period.

These are outside the several thousands of containers abandoned on roadsides in different parts of the country.

Some of the liners operating in the country include Maersk Line, Arkas, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), African European Lines, Hull Blyth, China Shipping Company (COSCO), CMA-CGM and Pacific International Lines (PIL).

Others are Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), ZIM International Shipping Line (ZIM) and SDV among others.

Apart from the fact that few of these shipping companies were compelled to have holding bays which capacities are grossly inadequate, majority of them have continued to defile the order.

For us, having holding bays will not completely solve the problem.

Even if the whole of Apapa and its environs are converted to holding bays, it will get to a time that the capacity will become inadequate as long as more empty containers come into the country while insignificant numbers of them are returned to their countries of origin.

However, we find it disheartening that the relevant agencies such as NPA and Nigeria Shippers Council have always treated with levity the issue of evacuation of empty containers by the shipping companies to their countries of origin.

We are also aware that the Federal Ministry of Transport had in 2011 issued a regulation, which made it mandatory for these shipping companies to load empty containers on board their vessels as they lift the few exports out of the country to reduce the pressure at the stacking areas in the various seaports.
But this directive has been complied with more in the breach.

Rather than complying with this directive, shipping companies put layers of huddles on the way to frustrate the return of these containers by shippers.

We are saddened by the impunity of these foreign shipping companies in their operations in the country.

Their intransigence in keeping to the rules of engagement was at the core of the traffic malaise plaguing the Apapa port access roads.

It was more appalling to discover that most of the vessels which come to the country prefer to take empties from the neighbouring countries of Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana than taking empties from the country, thus making the nation a dumping ground.

This platform notes with sadness that the shipping companies are emboldened by the indecent collaboration of some powerful Nigerians to treat our law with ignominy.

What they dare not do in Europe and other countries is what they indulge in here in the country with glee.

If government is truly desirous of ending permanently the embarrassing Apapa traffic lock down, it must muster the necessary political will to enforce all the rules of engagement with these shipping companies.

Firstly, the holding bays requirement must be strictly enforced and heavy sanctions applied against any defaulter.

Secondly, the exploitative container deposits should be scrapped as the money is hardly refunded due to several dubious and clandestine ways shipping companies frustrate early return of these containers by shippers.

It is our belief that if this illegal charge is scrapped, the shipping companies will be compelled to facilitate the return of their containers.

Why they are not willing to take these containers back or frustrate their return is in two fold.

One, they do not want to get bogged down with the maintenance and handling expenses of holding bays.

So, they impose an exorbitant container deposits and make the return of the containers difficult so the shippers could lose the deposit, which is as high as N350, 000-N400, 000, enough to cover the cost or partial cost of these boxes.

So either way, the shipping companies gain while Nigeria loses, having become a dumping ground.

Also, the fact that Europe does not take back damaged containers is another disincentive for the shipping agencies to take back these boxes, most of which may have got dented due to the bad Nigerian roads.

They are contented with collecting the deposits which they don’t refund and allow the shippers to hold on to the containers with the excuse that they are damaged which eventually got dumped along the roads.

It is our beliefs that unless government puts its foot down on these salient points and make the shipping companies comply with all the extant rules and guidelines on containers handling, evacuation and transportation out of the country, the commendable efforts it is making on curtailing the monstrous Apapa traffic gridlock are going to be short-lived.

Rehabilitation of port access roads, building thousands of holding bays, stopping construction of new tank farms around Apapa -Tin-Can axis, demolishing illegal bonded terminals and discouraging conversion of residential buildings to bonded terminals are all laudable steps of government to stem this malaise, but they may not be enough if government continues to treat the recalcitrant shipping companies and terminal operators with kid gloves and regard them as sacred cows.