Apapa Gridlock: Ambode takes case to Buhari for the rescue.

Experiencing the traffic gridlock and associated ruin to infrastructure and business during a visit to Apapa, which is home to Nigeria’s two busiest sea ports, Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos Sate governor, says he will be reaching out to the Presidency for the rescue.

The governor is also setting up a new taskforce to drive the enforcement of traffic rules  against indiscriminate parking of petroleum tankers and other articulated trucks within and outside Apapa, in what he said would bring immediate relief to businesses, residents and commuters entering Apapa.

Ambode would be telling President Muhammadu Buhari to fix the federal roads leading to Apapa, consider the need to relocate some of the tank farms from the community and complete the abandoned trailer park opposite Tincan Port, among others.

There are about 57 tank farms scattered all over Apapa, most of them having no parking lots, while the trailer park being built by the Federal Government with Borini Prono as contractor has been abandoned. 

“We’ve seen that the gridlock in Apapa is multifaceted. We have examined things that relate to activities of trailer drivers and tanker drivers. It is totally unacceptable that we would be having tankers and trailers on our bridges. It is also not acceptable that they would decide to block all lanes that lead to Apapa.

“We must do something immediately to alleviate the challenges that the residents and businessmen are facing.

But again, you’ll also realise that the roads that lead to Apapa Wharf and Tincan Island actually belong to the Federal Government.

“We’ve come to this bridge (Tincan), it has been under construction in the last six years, we’ve also seen a trailer park that can actually contain about 500 trailers at a time that has been abandoned by the Federal Government.

“What we want to do now is firstly to appeal to the Federal Government and most especially Mr. President that the contractor construction this particular bridge should come back to site and once we are able to open the trailer park, we would be able to allow other trailers and tankers to use the park. 

“But the greater part of this challenge is posed by the tank farm owners. As we speak we have 57 tank farms around Apapa alone, that’s a major security challenge for the state government. We have to start to look at the security issues relating to these tank farms. All trailers across the country come to these tank farms. We are going to direct the tank farm owners in the next few days, they would be summoned to a meeting and they have to tell us what is their remedy to this menace that we are having in Apapa,” Ambode said. 

The governor said as an immediate palliative, “we would set up a task force that would involve most of our security agencies, including the police and we would  do a 24/7 monitor of the traffic. We would pay more attention to enforcement. We are going to give incentives to our law enforcement officers to ensure that the traffic law is obeyed.”

Retired Army General, Ayo Vaughn, President of the Apapa Residents Association who was with Governor Ambode during the visit told BusinessDay that the roads  inside Apapa and leading to the area need to be repaired, that the bridges need to be reinforced and that street lights need to be installed.

Vaughn  further said that the Federal and Lagos state governments, as well as the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the tank farm owners need to organise and supervise orderlines in the movement of tankers and other trucks in and around Apapa.

BusinessDay in its editorial comment on Thursday had pointed out that the governor would need to liaise with Abuja to address the menace in Apapa in addition to taking immediate decisive action against recalcitrant tanker drivers who continue to display high level of indiscipline on the roads.

Vaughn listed the travails of Apapa residents as including frequent road accidents caused by falling containers and trucks without head or tail lights, as well as robberies and maiming.

An official of the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja told BusinessDay earlier in the year that the trailer park would be ready within the first quarter of 2015, but that was not. In the last eight years or more, the Apapa environment had degenerated, and further worsened by the occupation of the roads by petroleum tankers and container trucks resulting in traumatising gridlock which often leaves commuters and motorists in traffic for several hours.

The immediate past administration in Lagos had blamed the Apapa menace on the Federal Government which the state accused abandoned its responsibility despite making billions of Naira in revenue from the two ports in Apapa.

For sixteen years- 1999 to May 29, 2015, the Federal Government had been under the control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Lagos played the opposition. Analysts believed that within this period, economic interest was sacrificed on the altar of politics with no serious attention paid to Lagos as the economic nerve centre of the country, and with the state and federal now in political alliance, Apapa should receive attention.