“The traffic congestion on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, especially around the Seaport is not only unacceptable, but also injurious to the nation’s economy,” says the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen. As anyone who has travelled through the Tin-Can Island end of the expressway would attest, the notorious traffic gridlock is a source of untold commuter anguish and misery. While many have blamed the endemic traffic situation on the deteriorating condition of the road, a closer look at activities of the Police, Navy, and Ports Security responsible for traffic control at Tin-Can’s two gates would reveal something much more worrisome.
The stretch of road from the Mile 2 interchange to the Liverpool Road Bridge and down to Apapa Ports is the locus. Besides the clusters of tank farms, trailer garages, factories, large car lots, and other businesses that generate traffic, this stretch of road provides the link to Nigeria’s second largest seaport – the Tin-Can Island port, and to Nigeria’s premier port at Apapa. Considering the fact that the maritime industry is the gateway to the nation’s economy and second to the oil & gas industry in revenue generation, it is appropriate that adequate security be provided to protect the installations. Unfortunately, the presence of these security personnel at the Tin-Can First and Second gates is contributing majorly to the traffic chaos at the ports areas and invariably along the entire length of the expressway.
It is true that due to aging, and the damaging effects of the heavy axle load vehicles hauling freight to and fro the ports, the expressway has virtually collapsed alongside its drainage system. Yet the 4-lane road space of the dual carriageway has not disappeared. As such, besides the on-going expansion and rehabilitation work at the expressway, a strategic approach to traffic control and management is what is needed to make the road accessible at all times. This can be achieved through modern transport planning techniques and contemporary traffic control models.
At the two gates, trucks are expected to queue along the service lane and to leave the speed lane open for other motorists. But because of the corrupting influences of the law enforcement agents that control access to the ports, this simple rule is always violated by truck drivers who eventually form two queues thereby making the road impassable on a daily basis. Because the queue on the service lane is the approved one, the law enforcement agents at the gates choose to create the second queue to grant express access to truck drivers who are willing to offer Five thousand naira, N5000 bribe. Incidentally, drivers at the far end of the queue and others from various points easily subscribe to this express arrangement since it enables them jump the queue, join the illegal one and maneuver to the front leaving road blockage and traffic gridlock at their wake. It is pertinent to note here that while the illegal express queue is granted easy access to the ports, the normal queue is kept at a snail speed simply because they choose to follow set traffic rules and not offering bribe. This and other underlying factors account for the endless queue of trucks that has become a landmark on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.
The government needs a new approach to traffic control and management. The goal should be straightforward enough: to ensure proper utilization of available road space, improve road safety, and reduce travel time alongside vehicle operating cost. The Federal Government has already spent N21.2 billion on the Phase I of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway rehabilitation project and the Phase II has recently been awarded at N15 billion and the contractor has been mandated with a completion period of 15 months. Signaling a political will to tackle road dilapidation and traffic congestion, a 450-capacity trailer pack that would stretch from Coconut Bridge to Liverpool Road Bridge is also been developed. According to the Minister, this is being done to reduce road user cost, boost trade and economic activities along the routes, contribute to poverty reduction and employment generation, and ultimately to bring about transformative social change into the area.
It all sounds sensible, but there is a complication. No arrangement is being made to create an effective road traffic management system that is less corrupt, less nasty and sustainable. No part of this three-way puzzle can be solved in isolation. Just consider what the books say about the economic implication of personnel and equipment being trapped in a traffic logjam for any length of time in a year.
A 2012 survey in the UK by the centre for Economics and Business Research and traffic information company, INRIX reveals that traffic congestion in London is costing the UK economy more than 4.3bn Pounds a year. The cost of the jams is equivalent to 491 Pounds per car-commuting household. In detail, the survey result shows that more than 426m Pounds is wasted on fuel alone and the cost in terms of lost time is 2.7bn Pounds while holdups to business or freight vehicles amount to 1.1bn Pounds annually.
A similar survey conducted in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area of Canada in 2006 assessed the impact traffic congestion has on the economic prosperity of the region. It takes a look at the time and money wasted because of travel delays. The study concluded that the annual cost of congestion to commuters in the area was already $3.3bn. The cost comes from travel delays, increased impact to the environment, increased vehicle costs from travel delays, and increased chance of vehicle collision.
The Economist of June 8th, 2013 says, “As Nigeria’s economy grows, the volume of traffic is expected to rise from 8m vehicles today to 40m by 2020.” Are there any lessons for us, especially our government, landowners and planners? Certainly there must be as the trend demonstrates that our economy is growing and requires an expansion in infrastructure to meet the demands of an emerging economy like ours.
Traffic jams are common spectacle on our roads on weekdays and at weekend, when people have time to attend to social events such as weddings, funerals and other parties. When we are stuck in traffic and transit longer than we should, there is less time for us to do something productive, resulting in a cost to the economy. The increasing traffic jams are a wakeup call on the government to plan ahead to meet the demands of the expansion in the economy.
The Federal Government has demonstrated a determination to ease the undesirable traffic logjam at Tin-Can Island and along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. Yet there is a cross-party consensus that road rehabilitation alone would not solve the perennial traffic problem at Tin-Can Island. Alas, if the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Port Terminal operators and the Unions think the Police, the Navy and the NPA Security operatives at the gates are offering their statutory services while defrauding truckers and creating nightmarish traffic situation, they may not be right. Most truckers comply with the corrupt rules of these law enforcement agents because they have no option. But regarding the rogues at the gate it is vital to have a stick in the cupboard.
Government has created a non-statutory regulator, the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN. The council should be the mediator offering succor to truckers being intimidated and defrauded by the law enforcement agents at the gates. If mediation failed, its teeth would come from an array of clever sanctions, designed to hurt, and from the knowledge that the courts were the next stop. Access to mediation would give truckers the impetus to defy Police and Navy together with their iron spikes and maintain a normal queue without having to offer any bribe and without much delay.
In return, the law enforcement agents should be offered a much stronger national interest security, boosting genuinely investigative and intelligent law enforcement. Some law enforcement agencies, especially, the Police will cavil, arguing that without intrusion and extortion they cannot survive. It may appear tough but the alternatives are worse.
Chigozie Chikere
Member, The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, CILT Nigeria
22 Ijero Road, Ebute-Metta West, Lagos
Phone: 08039504536
E-mail: grandefather@yahoo.com
