It Is four years and five months that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu got sworn in as the governor of Lagos State. But a day after he was sworn-in, May 30, 2019 precisely, he promised to end the menace of articulated vehicles parking on Lagos roads, especially port access roads. He pledged this while on a field tour to Apapa and its access roads.

Sanwo-Olu, while speaking with journalists during the tour, said: “We have discovered that the problem of Apapa is multi-faceted; one agency cannot resolve the issue. We have met with security officers and operators on ground. We have seen that the problem is more than what one company can solve.”

He concluded by saying: “The final solution is around the corner; we are hoping in due course, we will get all these issues behind us.”

Surprisingly, 53 months after, he has not delivered on his promise of permanently ensuring that articulated vehicles do not turn Lagos roads to parking lots.

This is because more than four years after he became governor, accessing Lagos ports

Apapa or Tincan – through Apapa-Oshodi, for instance, comes with the pain of competing with articulated vehicles heading to the port, but have turned the Mile 2 corridor from Sanya to Berger Suya Bus Stop, about eight bus stops in-between, to parking lots.

The Apapa-Oshodi Expressway inward Apapa has five columns of three on the fast lane and two on the service lane. From Berger Suya to Fagbems Bus Stop, articulated vehicles, especially tankers are usually parked on the three columns of the fast lane. From Fagbems Bus Stop to Second Rainbow, two columns on the fast lane and a column on the service lane are parking lots for tankers, while from Second Rainbow to Sanya Bus Stop; tankers occupy two columns on the fast lane.

Sometimes from Fagbems to Second Rainbow, the entire fast lane of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway is locked down by articulated vehicles with just a column on the service lane available to other road users including articulated vehicles not heading to the ports.

A resident of Kirikiri, Solomon Adejumo, said that it is a mystery to him why the state government is having challenges putting an end to articulated vehicles parking on the roads despite untold pains inflicted on residents and motorists.

“The drivers of these trucks and tankers can be very unruly especially when they are obstructing road and you ask that they move away for other road users to pass.

“The irony is that Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officers would be around the area but usually do nothing, just watching the drivers act the way they like. So, we are pleading with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to please help us permanently take away these trucks and tankers from parking on our roads.”

A motorist, Dupe Adebiyi, said that many who need to make use of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, especially the Mile 2 corridor always have negative experience of wasting long hours in traffic.

“With trucks and tankers blocking access roads, taskforce and LASTMA officers would be arresting those who are driving against traffic because articulated vehicles have blocked the road. Yet those who made them to drive against traffic are above the law and cannot be arrested or removed from the road. Is that not double standard?”

Curiously, three weeks ago, the newly appointed Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Oluwaseun Osiyemi, appealed to stakeholders to embrace the E-Call Up System, insisting that the initiative remains the best solution to eliminate gridlock along the Apapa-Tincan corridor.

Osiyemi also directed the immediate removal of all stationary trucks from the Apapa-Tincan axis, saying the state government is providing alternative parking space for these trucks.

Since Osiyemi made that statement on September 28, 2023, articulated vehicles have continually remained on the road, if they left, may be for one or two days.

Although before now, Sanwo-Olu and his team had made some efforts to end the era of articulated vehicles parking on the road, desired result has remained elusive.

And of note is that governors before Sanwo-Olu even made attempts. As governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, on September 17, 2012, forwarded a detailed presentation of what should be done to fix the roads and ease the traffic congestion to the then Vice President, Namadi Sambo.

Namadi wrote back to the governor, advising that the matter be brought to the attention of the then President, Goodluck Jonathan. And Fashola did.

But when Fashola left office as governor and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode came on board, the crisis persisted and Ambode too made efforts to resolve the crisis. Ambode set up a joint task force of security agencies and stakeholders to remove all articulated vehicles along ports access roads. There was temporary respite before another effort was birthed under the “Operation Restore Sanity On Lagos Roads,” when Ambode reconstituted the task force to comprise 2, 271 personnel drawn from the Nigeria Police Force, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), the Nigeria Army, Airforce, and the Navy.

But Ambode did not succeed in putting a lasting solution to the Apapa access roads gridlock, despite the Federal Government also having in place, a special task force to tackle the menace headed by the immediate past Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

Evidence that all the efforts made had no impact explained why Sanwo-Olu, on the second day of his resumption of office (during his first term), May 30, 2019, toured the ports’ complex access roads to assess the lingering traffic gridlock in the area. He, thereafter, pledged to find a lasting solution to the menace.

Also, in May 2019, Buhari empanelled another presidential task force headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, with Kayode Opeifa as vice-chairman. The task force was later disbanded and its authority was handed over to the Lagos State government. This was principally because it made no headway, with the slogan, “Apapa pass Yahoo,” coming into the lexicon of those who operate around that flank. It was alleged that many who were deployed to end the chaos and their boys including unions were enjoying huge returns that they felt they were making more money than internet fraudsters popularly called Yahoo boys. It was also alleged that those who were sent to proffer solutions to the crisis, especially security operatives were in bed with unscrupulous stakeholders whose major pastime was to clog the roads and extort truckers.

So, rather than the chaotic traffic ending with articulated vehicles vacating the roads, the crisis became worse, especially along the Apapa-Oshodi corridor, and some persons illegally enrich themselves as truckers paid huge amounts to access the ports and business premises within the neighbourhood.

When the state government fully took over the management of port access roads under the former Special Adviser on Transport to Governor Sanwo-Olu, Toyin Fayinka, the successes recorded were aided by the introduction of the electronic call-up system (Eto App), launched on February 27, 2021. While trucks were enlisted under the electronic call up system, tankers for moving petroleum products were not.

But after Fayinka left office to contest in the ruling party’s primaries, things degenerated, and articulated vehicles, especially tankers returned to the roads, and accessing the ports once again became a Herculean task, especially the Mile 2 area.

Some stakeholders had consistently argued that previous attempts at ending the Apapa access roads crisis hit a brick wall because some persons were benefitting from the chaos including those in government.

Also commenting, the President, Association of Truck Owners, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, maintained that it is an aberration for articulated vehicles to be parked on the highway, because aside impeding traffic, other road users become endangered.

According to him, he has been engaging his colleagues on the need to self-regulate themselves and not allow government to forcefully evict them from the roads.

“There is a need for us to self-regulate ourselves by ensuring self-compliance by our drivers and not wait for government to come do enforcement exercise. It is a fact that parking of articulated vehicles on the roads is not appropriate.

“However, the government cannot be exonerated from the crisis because in the past, there used to be places within the port designated for articulated vehicles to park, but the government drove us away from the place.

“We are already discussing among ourselves on the need not to be parking on the road but having a parking place where vehicles would only be on the road when such driver has been called to come to the port or the tank farm.

“However, for government to say that truck drivers should not park on the road, it must provide alternative for the drivers. Trucks come from every part of the country, where did government provide for them to park? This is what is responsible for the crisis and the port and tank farms cannot operate without the trucks and tankers.”

Attempts to get the Acting Chairman of Petroleum Tanker Drivers, Mr. Olujide Kilanko, to speak on why his members have continually turned the highway into parking lot did not yield result. He did not pick his calls neither did he respond to the text message sent to his phone.

The Guardian reached out to the Director, Public Affairs of the state Ministry of Transport on why the state government has not devised permanent solution to this menace, she promised to get the Special Adviser on Transport to Sanwo-Olu to respond to the enquiry but she was yet to respond as at press time. (The Guardian)

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