Apapa traffic: Need for stakeholders' commitment

• Published date: 07 August 2009
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Can Apapa and its two arterial roads be rid of traffic congestion? Experts say while clearing Apapa, Lagos of traffic is near impossible, managing it is a possibility only if stakeholders want it stamped out, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

FOR many Nigerians, Apapa, Lagos has continued to be an embarrassment in terms of its dilapidated infrastructure and traffic nightmares which, they argued, have defied logic.

But stakeholders of that axis are quick to say that Apapa is becoming saner, and things could really get better, if they are prepared to sustain the gains of the past 16 months.

One of those who believed that a silent revolution had swept through Apapa in the past year is Brig.-Gen. Ayo Vaughan (rtd), chairman of the Apapa GRA Residents Association, who has watched the scenic beauty of Apapa distorted as the port city quaked under the yoke of international commerce.

Brig.-Gen. Vaughan said the Presidential Task Team (PTT), led by Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo, assisted by the Executive Vice Chairman, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, had cleared the traffic and restored order despite the challenges of infrastructural renewal being embarked upon to complement the mop up going on in the area.

Vaughan is a member of the PTT and he believes the 'taskforce' has done creditably well.

A park operator, Alhaji Umar Danlami, said other truck operators and he would be grateful to the Osinbajo-led team for the 'wonders' it had performed in Apapa.

Danlami, who owns the Danlami Park, one of the biggest nominated parks in Apapa, said it was a great relief that many operators spend seven days to enter the wharf or the Tin Can Ports, as against the months that each spent before the PTT intervention.

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, blamed the situation at the Tin Can Island Container Terminal to activities of 'ports rats'. He said human traffic would be stamped out once terminal operators embraced automation.

But Opeifa, who had been lamenting the gradual reversal of the gains of the PTT, said despite these, the Task Force would continue to remain focused, to accomplish the presidential mandate of making Apapa a functional port city with the least impact on those living there or along the corridor.

Taking some reporters round the port, Opeifa carpeted what he called 'corruption fight back', who are bent on changing the narratives and craving a reversal to the era of confusion which had hitherto provided huge illicit cash.

Opeifa, who said traffic...