The Big Story: Apapa traffic gridlock - Treating the symptoms, Romancing the causes

Funso Olojo with Seun Abiola , Dapo Olawuni and Segun Oladipupo. |.

The Apapa Traffic gridlock has become an enigma, an intractable phenomenon with a human live which is difficult to exterminate.

Over the years, it has defiled all the canons thrown at it , coming out stronger and more stubborn from every engagement with government and other relevant agencies meant to wrestle , weaken and probably exterminate it.

Its notoriety for defiance to government efforts has become legendary and disturbing.

The effects have been colossal.

Apart from making nonsense of the often-mouthed ease of doing business at the ports, it has also castrated the concept of trade facilitation at the ports as well as wiping out the social lives of the host community of Apapa and its environs which now lie prostrate at the mercy of the rampaging man-made monster.

The Genesis:

The genesis of the Apapa traffic monster could arguably be traced to the port concession programme of 2006 and the indiscriminate citing of tank farms at Tin-Can port axis.

These were compounded by the intransigence of shipping companies to obey the rule of engagement by their refusal to construct holding bays as well as the gradual decay of port access roads.

The whole port facilities were concessioned without adequate provision for space to accommodate the trucks which are the major cause of the gridlock.

Perhaps, it was in realisation of this vital error that made the present management of Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) to revoke the lease agreement on Lilypond Terminal and converted it to the Trailers Transit Parks.

In addition, the activities of the terminal operators were said to be instrumental to the traffic nightmare on the ports access road.

Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate past Minister of Transportation, last year at a stakeholders’ meeting threatened to table the excesses of the port concessionaires before the Federal Executive Council with the hope of revoking the lease agreement.

“Concessionaires are not sticking to terms of agreement. We might have to go back to the FEC to ask for a revoke of the concessions. We are currently reviewing the concession agreement.”, Ameachi had then threatened.

Also, the indesciminate citing of tank farms for petroleum products which was exercabated by the collapse of the nation’s refineries that led to massive importation of the products has turned the ports into a sort of Mecca where petroleum tankers all over the country daily pay homage, thus compounding the heavy vehicular movements in and out of the ports.

The matter got to a head that the immediate past Governor of LagosState, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, had to stop issuance of permits for allocation of land to cite tank farms.

However, the deed had already been done.

Directly connected to this problem is the intransigence of the shipping companies to play by the rules, especially their disregard to the holding bays policy and big appetite for money that gives rise to indescriminate charges.

Hadiza Bala-Usman, the Managing Director Director of NPA put this succinctly.

“The attendant disregard by shipping companies to patronize holding bays cannot be tolerated.

“Shipping companies are not above the law in Nigeria and they must act in accordance with the law.

“We have sanctioned three shipping companies, which are among the largest operating in Nigeria. We withdrew their licenses for 10 days. Upon the review of their 10 days suspension, it was extended to additional five days. Presently, they do not have vantage services within Nigeria.

“We have noted the concerns about empty containers. What we need to do is ensure that the same volume of containers that come into the country go out.

“Shipping companies have over the years, made Nigeria a dumping ground. They have also instituted a fee where by, every importer is rushing into the port to drop their containers or risk losing their money.

“Shipping companies are refusing the operationalisation of holding bays. Ordinary, when you import goods, the empty containers should be returned to the holding bays of the shipping companies. It is their responsibility to move it from the bays to the port.

“The shipping companies are not above the law. We will keep sanctioning them until they comply and operationalize their business. The container repositioning fee they newly introduced is not acceptable.

“The Vice President has written to us demanding clarity and we have cleared that nobody should pay for empty container repositioning. We need to define a location and day, possibly Saturdays and Sundays, where empty containers are moved into the port locations in preparation for them to be taken out to the vessels.

“Nigerian government would not continue to absorb the cost of your none operationalisation of holding bays. Sixty percent of the trailers on our roads are empty or hawking. They come out without having any business and hope to secure one.

“So, NPA is working on licencing trailer parks. In fact, only trailers from such parks can come into the port. We have received four proposals on that and we are working in collaboration with Lagos State Government. The trailers would be at the parks and only come out when called upon”, the NPA boss explained.

But the intervening events have shown that the Shipping companies are immuned to NPA sanctions as they have continued to defy the guidelines and instructions of the agency.

Lastly, the dilapidated ports facilities, especially the collapsed port access roads, has helped to toughed the resolve of the traffic monster to linger.

Government onslaught on the monster :

On several occasions, government, through relevant agencies, especially the NPA, has taken several measures to resolve the problem.

The NPA committed a whopping sum of N2billion to the rehabilitation of the Ijora-Wharf road.

The agency, in collaboration with the Navy and police, instituted a call-up system to manage the traffic.

Rather than mitigate the problem, the gridlock assumed a monstrous dimension due to the serial abuse the system was subjected to by the concerned agencies, especially the Navy whose personnel were accused of bare-faced extortion until they were later chased away by the federal government.

Not even the Lilypond Terminal which was hurriedly converted to trail park could do much.

The Senate Committee on Works , in April, issued a two-week ultimatum to truck owners, NPA and other relevant agencies to clear the port access roads of any inhibiting truck.

The Senate order was heeded in the breach as the gridlock persisted.

Last week Wednesday, the problem caught the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari who gave a 72-hr ultimatum for all the trucks to vacate the roads.

To give vent to his order, a presidential committee headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, was mandated to enforce the order.

As expected, the ultimatum went unheeded as the trucks stayed put on the road, leading to the enforcement of the order which commenced last Monday.

The presidential order as a temporary relief:

Due to the Federal might, the presidential task force on the evacuation exercise, recorded a partial success of getting a sizable number of trucks off the roads.

This gave a temporary breather to the users of the access roads.

Findings by our correspondents this Friday revealed that it was not yet uhuru, as most of the trucks were still on the roads, almost one week after the enforcement exercise commenced.

It was gathered that access to the Apapa port through Western Avenue was still partially blocked by the trucks.

The situation along Mile two-Oshodi axis is still complicated.

However, Bamidele Opeifa, the vice-chairman of the committee said it was work in progress

“It is an on-going job and we are going to make sure we move all the trucks you still see on the roads to truck parks..

“They should all go to the truck parks, as you can see there are still many of them on the road.

“As some are leaving the park, others will be going in there to make sure that the roads are not littered.

“But you should know that it is not an easy task that we can easily accomplish like that and don’t forget that we just commenced operations on Monday” he stated.

A LASTMA Commander on the presidential task force simply called Peter explained that the call up Centre will be provided by NPA and it is only the trucks that have call up that will be allowed to go in.

“Don’t forget that these truck drivers don’t want to leave the roads because they are their jobs on the roads. We will continue to chase them.

“We are going to take them off the road within two weeks and they have to comply within the two weeks. They will leave the road”he assured.

The Lagos State Sector Commander of FRSC, Mr. Hyginus Omeje claimed that tremendous progress had been made in clearing the Apapa traffic constituted by the tankers and other articulated vehicles, a position shared by Bisi Kazeem, the Lagos State FRSC spokesman.

“We are making tremendous progress in clearing the gridlock along the corridor.

He said that a total of 54 private parks were identified where the trucks were expected to move into before going to the port with the assistance of manual call-up system that NPA was practising now.

But despite these claims made by the members of the evacuation committee, the situation was a shade better than what it was before the presidential intervention.

Stakeholders believed that it would take more than presidential directive to clear the access roads of these trucks.

The founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Dr Boniface Aniebonam said the order has not been very effective since it was given as trucks are still queuing up along the port access road.

He insisted that the port does not need a presidential order before things can function.

He said there is need for special truck terminals to service the port.

The NAGAFF founder said that most of the traffic challenges in Apapa area are created by human elements.

“You should know that I don’t believe in propaganda, the subject matter is physical, if you go along the road, you would see whether they have achieved or not”

“The Executive powers of Mr President under Section five of Nigerian constitution is very clear, that power has been delegated to heads of government, because President would not be everywhere”

“The point is that people should learn to do what they are supposed to do, the gridlock is caused majorly by human elements and it is most unfortunate”

“It is about those who have responsibility to do the needful, this must also be a collective action, people should be seen to do what they are supposed to do. We don’t need executive order of the president before we can understand simple things on traffic control, they are human element problems”

“Look at the access roads leading to the port, are we saying there are no budgets?

I heard some people blaming the Navy, but we asked for it, Navy cannot be completely separated from the society”

“The overhead bridges leading to the port are not built for static load, the load must be in motion, but today the bridges are being used as a parking lot” he said.

Olufemi Olabanjii, truck owner and clearing agent said that before trucks could be taken away from the road, government should fix the roads and also constitute a committee to look into how APMT is working.

“APMT does not have enough handling equipment and this is causing delay inside the terminal”, he declared.

The way forward:

Most respondents lauded the efforts of the Federal government at restoring sanity on the port access roads but believed that a more holistic approach to solving the problem should be taken.

It was their unanimous views that the present efforts will offer a temporary relief before the situation relapses to the old order.

They said that until adequate numbers of Trailers Transit Parks are built where these trucks could be accommodated, any other effort will be scratching the problem on the surface.

“The traffic situation will not reduce in Apapa unless there is a concerted efforts in providing trailer parks”, Hadiza Bala Usman declared emphatically.

“We need trailer parks and loading bays to enable us manage traffic. We cannot have a situation whereby all the trailers do not have designated parking” the NPA boss emphased.

This seems to sum up the solution to the problem.

This perhaps has informed the determined efforts of the NPA to resolve the problem through this lasting method.

Apart from converting the Lilypond Terminal into truck park, NPA has appealed to the Federal Government to hand over the Tin Can trailer park which has been under construction for over 10 years so that NPA could complete it.

In addition, Miss Hadiza Bala-Usman has appealed to both the Lagos and Ogun state governments, to provide land for the construction of Trailers Transit Parks for overriding public interest.

Stakeholders urged the Federal government to support the efforts of NPA in this direction to put permanent end to the malignant traffic gridlock.

The new governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo Olu, during his surprise visit to Lagos ports Thursday gave what industry operators considered as permanent solution to the traffic nightmare.

The governor has appealed to the Federal Government to develop other ports that will take pressure off the over -stretched Lagos ports.

He however said that the state would collaborate with the Federal government to expedite action on Lekki and Badagry deep seaport project.

It was the consensus of most industry operators that NPA should give incentives to importers to use the Eastern ports in a bid to further decongest the Lagos ports.

Equally, it was agreed that government should muster the necessary will to beat the shipping companies to line so they could comply with the rules of engagement by providing holding bays to take off the containers from the roads.

“Their intransigence and larger than life attitude on the issue of compliance with NPA’s directive on holding bays has further compounded the traffic gridlock”, a customs broker based in Tin-Can port observed

It is the belief of stakeholders that until these far-reaching measures are taken by Federal Government, the Apapa traffic gridlock will continue to defile any ad-hoc arrangement which they said the current presidential intervention represents.