- It’s high time this perennial gridlock in Lagos came to an end
Lagos has been choked by over 12,000 trucks and trailers on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and connected roads. Many reasons have been given for the traffic paralysis resulting from too many articulated vehicles at both Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island, including adjoining bridges turned into parking lots by vehicles. Citizens are consequently at risk, as hoodlums attack motorists and commuters on the Oshodi-Apapa road and parts of the Badagry Expressway. Many of the truck drivers are also said to have turned shoulders of the roads into open toilet, thus endangering the health of commuters.
It is regrettable that blocking and stalling of traffic by trucks and tankers seem to have become a recurring menace to motorists and commuters in Lagos. Trucks and trailers that do not have any immediate business at the ports should not be allowed to make a habit of clogging traffic, to such an extent that motorists and commuters jump out of commuter buses that are grounded by trailers to walk to work or home. Whatever might have been the reason for suspension of four major shipping companies for 10 days, the hardship from having too many trailers around the port is damaging business and bringing hardship to innocent citizens.
Since the roads to and around the ports are federal roads, it is important for the Federal Government to intervene, to mitigate the pressure. Immediate solutions should include reading the riot act to owners of trailers and trucks that make a habit of converting our expressways into parking lots under the excuse of waiting to haul consignments from the ports; ending the face-off between shipping companies and the port’s management; and encouraging Lagos State’s environmental agencies to save the roads from becoming environmental hazards.
On the medium and long-term basis, the Federal Government needs to respond to causes of clogging of roads by trucks and trailers. One way to do this is to start reducing the amount of imported petrol that brings too many trailers to Lagos to carry refined petroleum. It has become imperative for the government to pay more than lip service to improving transportation around the two ports in Lagos. Port trains that can move haulage out of crowded Lagos is long overdue. Most countries with big population ensure that haulage from ports is facilitated by cargo trains connected to sea ports.
Further, the Federal Government ought not to ignore several calls for commitment to decongest maritime activities in Lagos by developing the ports in Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, to enable some of the cargoes that choke Lagos ports to be shipped directly to ports in other parts of the country. There are too many citizens in Lagos for any government to take a risk of having intermittent clogging of the few highways. Worse is the number of trailers and trucks that park on bridges.
The roads to, fro, and around the ports are no longer adequate for the population of citizens and amount of consignments that enter the country daily. More and better roads are long overdue. Government should heed the advice of the spokesman of Association of Maritime Transport Owners: “The roads cannot accommodate the traffic of vehicles that call at the ports daily. We need to go digital. We need to move out of the current analogue stage we currently operate. We need to put in place a modern technology that will monitor and regulate the movement of trucks that enter and exit the ports.”
Any activity that aggravates the normal chaotic traffic flow in Lagos is bound to worsen free movement of persons, goods, and services in a city with high density of human and vehicular population. Such situation is neither good for the nation’s economy nor for the health and well-being of citizens. Allowing over 12,000 drivers of tankers and container-laden trucks to park illegally in various parts of Lagos can become a threat to national security. A stitch in time saves nine.
