By Steve Agbota [email protected] 08033302331
Although the protracted gridlock that had made life unbearable for the residents and business community in the Apapa corridor of Lagos State may soon be a thing of the past with the launch of the e-call system, not many would forget in a hurry the nightmare its brought to the life of those working or living around the nation’s two premier ports of Tin Can Island and Apapa ports.
A mere mention of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway reminds one of the horrendous traffic jam that often lasted for 24 hours of the day.
This situation was so bad that most companies and business concerns operating in Apapa had to either relocate or close shop.
Ironically, efforts by the Federal and state governments to stem the menace only worsened the gridlock. This was because all such efforts, including a presidential task team were blighted by corruption.
According to stakeholders, a cabal benefitting from the traffic jam thwarted all measures put in place to clear the gridlock. For years, nobody was able to undone the cabal or identify them publicly because of their strong and powerful link with people in government.
For many stakeholders, Apapa gridlock created an illegal economy where few powerful people are benefitting from while Nigeria continued billions of Naira daily following the numbers of petrol tankers and containers that are trapped daily in the gridlocks.
But with the implementation of the electronic call-up system for all trucks calling at the nation’s ports by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has vowed to expose the cabal behind the Apapa gridlock should they continue sabotaging government’s effort at ensuring free flow of traffic in the axis.
The governor said his administration is committed to ridding Apapa axis of the prolonged gridlocks.
Since making the statement, stakeholders have started naming the cabal behind the Apapa gridlock.
Some stakeholders who spoke with Daily Sun recently, emphatically named shipping companies among the cabal behind the gridlock, with their refusal to have functional holding bays for their empty containers.
Investigations by Daily Sun revealed that aside shipping companies, many tank farms owners in Apapa are against rail transport of petroleum products including getting products from Atlas Cove through the pipelines, which are among the reasons laid pipelines have been erupted and vandalised.
However, port users said the introduction of the electronic call-up system has scuttled heavy racket of security agents and their accomplices, urging the Federal Government to relocate tank farms around the ports especially the Tin Can Island port access road to permanently put an end to the problem of gridlock.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Vice Chairman, National Association of Road Transport Owners, Dry Cargo Sector, Abdullahi Inuwa, said what is going on in Apapa is something that has been on for many years.
According to him, the issue has been deepened into some people’s blood, as many fed from the bad system.
“We have a cabal who are benefitting from the gridlock. And one of them are those shipping companies because 80 per cent of this problem arises from the issue of empty containers. As I’m speaking with you, majority of them don’t have functional holding bays and even if they have, it is filled to capacity. As we report to the relevant authority to take care of that and if authorities like Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Shippers’ Council can handle the situation well, the problem would be a thing of the past.
“On the issue of contractors being part of the problem, I cannot say no because in a system where a contractors have not been coming to work, blocking roads and having some slots for him to pass some number of trucks. There is technical delay because of what they are benefitting from because if not, I don’t see a reason why a contractor would not put efforts to ensure that he finishes a portion of the road to make things easy for people operating at the port access roads,” he said.
With the present introduction of e-call up, he said if managed well, as along as stakeholders want to cooperate fully, it would succeed. In the nearest future, he said if the system can be sustained, it would revive the ports.
“We have enlightened our members on the benefits of the e-call up system and they have agreed to support the system. I believe that in the nearest future, the e-call up would be a solution to the gridlock,” he added.
Also speaking, a former member of Presidential Committee on the Nigerian Customs Reforms, Lucky Amiwero, said that the problem of gridlock was created by human beings, to make money for some people. “And when they are making money from it, it is very difficult to dislodge them. There is need for government to take a look at it and bring experts to put things in order around the port corridors.
“Government agencies and personnel alone cannot put that place in order. There is need to bring in experts to really reappraise it and put it in order because everything the government is doing is going to be in futility because that place is creating money for some few and those few, it is very difficult to dislodge them,” he said.
According to him, shipping companies and other operators are making money from the gridlock and government continues to pay lip service to the issue Amiwero said government has not been able to address the issues that have to do with shipping companies and other operators.
He said the only problem in Apapa is human factor because people are making money from it seriously when moving containers from place to place and all the rest.
“The problem of Apapa gridlock initially has to do with the concession, which was wrongly done. The concession is not a concession but it is a lease agreement.
As I’m talking to you, there is no law on concession. They are calling it concession; there is no concession in Nigeria because Nigeria does not have a concession law. What we have is a lease agreement, which was used to midwives the concession.
“As at now, shipping companies and terminal operators must be reinvestigated because they are taking care of what does not legally belong to them. Once they are reinvestigated, the issue of gridlock would be addressed once and for all.
Apapa ports have so many factories that are contributing to the problem of the gridlock as well because they are taking over spaces that are supposed to be for containers.
“The concession was made without holding bay, trailer and lorry parks. You find out that the terminal operators and the shipping companies have no holding bays. Now the roads are now being used as trailer parks and holding bays.
“When the call up system introduced, they have not addressed the issues of those things that inhibiting trade that has to do with shipping companies and terminal operators. We have trailers and we also have tankers on the ports access roads. There is need to bring in experts to look at the problem from the root cause in order to reposition the ports,” he lamented.