Apapa gridlock: Still messy situation months after Fashola’s visits   

There is no end in sight for the messy traffic situation in and out Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city.  All efforts towards finding a solution appear be failing, and it would seem the authorities – federal and Lagos State governments have given up.

The promise by both governments to whip the petroleum tanker drivers into line is far from materialising. With the task force earlier constituted- comprising the police, navy, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the National Union of Transport Union (NURTW), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Association of Maritime Trucks Owners (AMETO) overwhelmed, the tankers have regained full control of the road – possessing it as if meant entirely for them.

During one of his numerous visits to Apapa a few months ago, Governor Babatunde Fashola had extracted the commitment of the leadership of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) to free the road for other users. The governor assured that the state government would ensure that other road users were not subjected to hardship by others in the course of doing their businesses.

“They (PTD officials) have assured me that things will change for the better. And we are accepting that from them. It is easier for the state to accept their commitment but if we do not see the change we expect, we know what to do on behalf of the residents. One business cannot disturb the other. I also hope that the owners of the oil companies will also leave their desk and visit this place as a group to see how they make profit and the cost of that on the citizens,” Fashola had said.

The decision reached at the peak of the traffic crises earlier this year by all stakeholders to the effect that the tankers would maintain a single lane to allow other road users access, had since been breached. All lanes have been taken over and made a no-go for other vehicles. As things stand, it is difficult to really tell who has responsibility to enforce sanity and traffic rules on the Coconut-Tican- Apapa road. The police, LASTMA, navy and AMETO patrol teams are absence.

With the road blocked by hundreds of petroleum tankers and other articulated vehicles, especially inbound Apapa from Mile Two; hapless commuters are turning to commercial motorcycles as alternative to enter Apapa- risking their lives in the process. Yet the Lagos Road Traffic Law 2012 bars Okada operations on major roads and highways in the state.

Amid this chaos, the commercial buses popularly known as “Danfo” have resorted to driving against the flow of traffic (one-way). This is carried on with so much impunity as if traffic rules no longer apply in the “Centre of Excellence”. On a daily basis, from Cele Bus Stop towards Apapa, the buses are seen in top speed zooming past Okada operators who have now taken over the expressway at Mile Two.

“Everything happening here seems to suggest that law and order have broken down in Lagos. The tanker drivers have continued to carry on as if they are law unto themselves. Nobody seems to be questioning the illegality being perpetrated by these people on the roads.  If you go to Mile Two, you will discover that Okada riders have converted the expressway into their garage without anybody raising the eyebrow despite the danger they expose themselves and other road users to,” lamented Joseph Emmanuel, a motorist at Coconut bus stop on Thursday.

However, defending their role, a LASTMA officer at Second Rainbow said, “We know what to do. The only thing is that we don’t want to chase them (Okada riders) on the expressway because if anything happens, the society will blame us. People will say we have killed Okada rider. Nobody would show the understanding that we were trying to do our job.”

But Stephen Owoeye, an Okada passenger at Trinity bus stop, justified his patronage of the commercial motorcycle to Liverpool despite the risk involved. According to Owoeye, “I have two options: Going on Okada and reaching Apapa on good or boarding a commercial bus and ending up in traffic. Tankers have taken over the road.

Months after the repeated visits of Fashola to Apapa, and the assurance he gave to the people, pundits are of the view that the governor should return to the area to ascertain whether the petroleum tanker and other truck drivers are keeping to the promise they made to him to free parts of the road for other users.

JOSHUA BASSEY