Wharf Road: Pains, gains of rehabilitation – New Telegraph

The recent decision by private investors led by Dangote Group and Flour Mills of Nigeria Limited to fix the dilapidated Apapa Wharf Road is coming to Nigerians, especially users of the road, as a great relief.
To describe the situation of the road as an embarrassment and an aberration to the country’s leadership is being economical with the truth as the state of affairs, over time, amplified the resonate failure of governance, especially at the federal level.
Nothing could be farther from the truth as a comedy of error with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo initiating a 24-hour port operation to promote government’s Ease of Doing Business initiative with such gully of a highway staring us in the face.
The trouble with roads in Apapa, stretching from Ijora axis to Creek Road up to Mile 2, has been made worse by indiscriminate parking of articulated vehicles on the road side by drivers waiting to load fuel from the numerous tank farms, as well as those taking loaded and empty containers in and out of the ports, which, by estimation, account for about 70 per cent of the total revenue generation from import duties in the country.
Since the collapse of the rail system and the construction of farm tanks in and around the port vicinity, the pressure on the road has far outweighed the original engineering computation.
Although it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to put the stretch of road leading in and out of the nation’s economic gateway in order, the endless wait and resource loss in terms of man hour and investment has compelled individuals to resort to what can aptly be described as self-help.
This is despite the fact that the Federal Government actually signed the N4.34 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) project with Dangote and FMNL, pumping in over N2.5 billion for the total four- kilometre road.
The rehabilitation of the road should, however, not been seen as an all happy hour affair for now, especially for business owners as more losses in investment should be expected.
While signing the MoU to rebuild the road a few weeks ago, the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, put the weekly loss in investment to the bad road at N140 billion. This certainly is besides some collapsed small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) that were not captured in his estimation.
It is most unfortunate that while roads in Apapa serve as arteries to the economic development of the country, lawmakers at the National Assembly have, over the years, felt more comfortable with alteration of budget proposals to service boreholes in their constituencies rather than give thought and lead major campaign to fix this important national asset.
Now that the rehabilitation has taken off in earnest with an attendant closure for one year, the truth about the pains to be experienced over the next 12 months can only be imagined, especially in a country like ours where such projects are usually not handled with the urgency they demand.
Although there is an alternative arrangement being made to allow free flow of traffic during the course of repairs, the expected gridlock will force many businesses, especially SMEs, to shut down.
To drive home the seriousness of the situation, members of the organised private sector (OPS), whose outcry over the poor state of the road has been the loudest in the past, have also had cause to condemn government in the wake of the rehabilitation as they believe it would adversely affect the economy.
From the position of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the pace of cargo evacuation is being affected by the state of the roads. This, in turn, results in high demurrage charges, high rental costs by terminal operators and high cost of freight.
The situation is also expected to put more pressure on feeder roads in and around the Wharf area as motorists, especially commercial bus drivers, look for alternative routes to ply their trade.
As a way of ensuring order throughout the duration of the project, we believe that government should engage stakeholders, especially those whose businesses would be disrupted, in order to allow for peaceful operation.
It is not enough to scare major transporters out of that corridor without making adequate alternative arrangement for them to park their trucks and also find their way to the port and tank farms whenever the need arises.
We are also of the opinion that closing such an all-important road to traffic for a period of 12-months would be devastating to the nation’s economy. It is on this note that we are suggesting that only a section of the road be closed and fixed then opened thereafter while concentrating on the other part.
The issue of security should also be taken seriously as hoodlums around volatile Ajegunle and its environ would want to capitalise on the traffic situation to cause crisis and subsequently rob motorists.
Ultimately, we call on those in the country’s helm of affairs, especially lawmakers, to eschew frivolities and selfishness and take seriously issues of national importance like infrastructure development and rehabilitation as part of building the bridge for economic development.