Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has been urged to lead other members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to visit the Lagos seaports to see how bad the roads are.
Some Apapa residents, motorists and statekeholders in the maritime industry said the visit would enable the Federal Government to assess the state of the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports.
They accused the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, of not attending to the roads, despite being the immediate past governor of the state.
Among the stakeholders are members of the Bible Society of Nigeria who asked the government to fix the roads and reduce users’ suffering.
The group said it was no longer news that the Apapa/Oshodi Expressway and the Ijora/Apapa road were deplorable and begging for attention.
The group’s Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer, Dare Ajiboye, said the roads posed danger to life and also have negative effects on trade and commerce.
“The appalling state of these roads does not project a good image for our country. Foreigners who come into the country through the ports will not see these roads and give us the respect we deserve as a nation. The stress of going in and out of Apapa and its attendant health challenges have adverse effects on the productivity of the nation,” he said.
Other stakeholders spoke in similar vein, when they paid a condolence visit to the Secretariat of the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) at Atlantic House, Apapa, over the death of a member, Segun Agbolade, at TrinityBus Stop, Lagos.
Agbolade, an alumnus of the Lagos State Polytechnic, worked with Sky Times before his death.
The stakeholders wondered why it was difficult for successive Ministers of Works to fix the roads despite that the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) earned about $10 billion from the Lagos ports between 2006 and last year.
The President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, said the revenue excluded the over N150 billion collected from the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) and Tin-Can Island Port.
“Few days ago, a journalist covering the maritime beat was gruesomely murdered on the road leading to Apapa port by an hopeless truck driver. The sudden death and other vices along the road would have been averted if the Federal Ministry of Works headed by the former governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, has been alive to its responsibility of fixing the most dangerous roads leading to any of the seaports across the world. “
Shittu urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate the roads and resolve other challenges to make the ports more attractive and competitive.
NPA, Shittu said, generated over $147 million in 2006 and collected over $105 million. From 2007 to 2009, he said, NPA generated $979,010,266 and collected $689,683,545.
According to findings, NPA made $852,623,584 from 2010 to 2012 and collected $816,184,072 from the Lagos ports.
At the LPC and Tin-Can Island Port, NPA generated $311,838,719 and collected $351,153,963 in 2013; $852,269,943 in 2014, while $754,362,679 was remitted to its domiciliary account.
During the visit, the group reiterated its call to Fashola to summon a stakeholders’ meeting where he would unfold his plan to address the gridlock on the roads.
Fashola as a former governor of Lagos State, Shittu said, needs to tell Lagosians what the Federal Government intends to do over the pathetic condition of the roads.
Investigation by The Nation revealed that apart from the huge amount of money generated by NPA, Apapa and Tin-Can Customs commands generate, respectively, over N1 billion daily from the ports. The amount excludes what NAFDAC, Port Health, NIMASA, SON, Shippers Council and other agencies make.
Shittu said vehicular congestion, which causes gridlock, has added to the cost of clearing goods, besides driving away businesses from the area.
He alleged that importers were diverting cargoes to neighbouring countries because of the gridlock; new investors were being discouraged from the area and residents had started looking for homes outside Apapa.
“The roads leading to the Apapa ports have collapsed and Lagosians and other port users expect Fashola as a former governor of the state to bring the issue to the front burner at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. But there is no evidence that he has done that because the roads have become worse than before his appointment. And this was the man that was telling the former President Jonathan to solve the problem when he was the governor. But now that he is the minister in charge of the road, why is he not addressing the issue?
“In Apapa alone, there are about 60 petroleum tank farms for storage of petroleum products, which account for 90 per cent of the total imported products into the country. All these, as well as other maritime-related businesses like freight, clearing and forwarding easily make Apapa a hub of maritime activities.”
Apapa, Shittu said, is not only reputed for maritime activities. Manufacturers take advantage of the ports to site companies in the suburb.
Apart from manufacturing companies, such as Dangote Sugar Refinery, BUA Group, and Honeywell, he lamented that other businesses have shut down because of the gridlock.
“The real problem is that government is making a huge amount of money from the ports without the necessary infrastructural development. It is sad that many businesses have closed down because the owners cannot get to their offices and Fashola is happy to be there as minister without addressing the problem.
“No wonder, tanker drivers are now moving their trucks into residential buildings. The result is the chaotic situation we are facing in the area which we want Fashola as the minister saddled with that responsibility to address’’.
The Publicity Secretary of motor vehicle importers in the area, Mr Felix Ayinla, also urged Fashola to rehabilitate the roads and address the perennial gridlock.
He noted that the problem has impacted on cargo turn-around time and the cost of doing business.
“Nobody needs to tell Fashola that Lagos port is the gateway to the nation’s economy and that he must see it as such. What we expect from him and the Federal Government is to open up the roads leading to the Lagos ports to make them attractive for business. Why must we face difficulties in moving goods in and out of the ports? he asked.
