Apapa: Left alone in wrecks

Every time the story of Apapa is told, it evokes a picture of a community that belongs to everyone but to nobody yet neglected by all. It is a narrative of a cow left in the middle of a village square, milked by every member of the community but with nobody accepting responsibility as care giver.

Apapa presents a puzzle that is somewhat difficult to demystify, a case of living in the river yet having no water to wet the tongue. It is reminiscent of Delta Niger region where treasures worth trillions of dollars had been extracted over the years yet cannot boost of quality infrastructure that supports the economic emancipation of the locals.

Aside from oil which constitutes the bulk of the nation’s incomes, the ports represent a major revenue earner for the federal government of Nigeria. In 2016, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) was said to have generated N898 billion as revenue.
Joseph Attah, spokesperson of the Customs was quoted to have said that the figure was however less than the N904 billion collected in 2015, attributing the decline to the difficulty in accessing foreign exchange and removal of the 41 items which forced down the level of activities within the Nigerian ports.
In actual fact, the Customs was given a target of N937 billion as revenue in 2016. Available statistics show that the bulk of the revenues generated by the Customs every year come from the ports in Lagos – Tin Can and Apapa, all of which are domiciled in Apapa.

It is not only the federal government that rakes billion of naira from Apapa. Lagos State, ‘centre of excellence’, within which domain Apapa falls, is not left out. The state through the instrumentality of its controversial ‘Wharf Landing Fee’ law signed by the last administration of Babatunde Fashola in 2009, also makes millions of naira in revenue from Apapa.

By the provisions of the law, a 40-footer container exiting the ports pays N1, 000; 20-footer, N500 while other small containers pay N300 into the coffers of the state government. The fees, in line with the law were imposed to enable the government maintain the roads which bear the pressure from container bearing trucks moving out of the ports.

However, a look into Apapa reveals everything but excellence, leaving residents and businesses wondering why the revenue generating environment is so brazenly left alone in wrecks.

Roads leading in and out of Apapa rank among some of the worst in the country; a case of sheer insensitivity and plenty years of criminal neglect by those upon whose shoulders governance has placed the responsibility of fixing them.

There are two major entry routes to Apapa: Mile 2-Tin Can and Ijora-Apapa. While the Mile 2-Tincan leading to Creek Road is a total mess, dotted with gullies everywhere and petroleum tankers and dry cargo trucks parked on the road perpetually, the Ijora axis presents a nightmare to motorists and commuters who are forced sometimes to spend two hours for a distance that should not take five minutes.

The so-called Apapa GRA including streets like Point Road and Liverpool are no better than a disorganised enclave in dire need of rescue, even as several landlords who, in the past, took pride in the area, have abandoned their property to seek refuge elsewhere. For many of the distressed residents still managing to stay, the allure had since been lost.

Indeed, roads in the commercial area have been turned to trailer parks. Trailers and tankers are indiscriminately parked in street corners without anybody raising an eyebrow. Streets like Kofo Abayomi, Randle, Wharf Road, Warehouse and Burma Roads bear no signs of any relief coming soon.

Curiously, two years into ‘change’, nothing has changed in Apapa.  As in the days when a leaky umbrella could not provide cover to the citizens and businesses in Apapa, the broom has been struggling in vain to sweep the thorns that litter the paths to the ports community.

The most vocal critics of the ills of the umbrella, now in power at federal and state levels have failed to provide the much needed succour. This is against all expectation that the sweeping into power at the federal level, of same party having control in Lagos would facilitate a political understanding that will rub positively on Apapa.

It would have been expected that given the prime role that Apapa plays in the economy as the host community of Nigeria’s two busiest ports, government would accord it some level of priority. And if the government thinks it has no business spending to provide an enabling environment for the private enterprises that operate from Apapa, is the trillions of naira revenues accruing to it annually from import duties, terminal royalties and other charges enough justification to fix the decayed infrastructure?
If in the past this was sacrificed on the altar of politics and differences in ideology, as they claimed then, where now are the benefits of the political affiliation between Lagos and Abuja?  Seaports all over the world facilitate trade and commerce as most cargos are delivered to their destinations by big vessels which berth at seaports.
As Jonathan Nicole, president, Shippers’ Association of Lagos State, once said, “Countries around the world invest heavily in infrastructure around their seaports.  “In countries like Sri Lanka, Togo and Cotonu, we do not see portholes on roads leading to the ports but we see gullies in Nigeria.”

Joshua Bassey