As motorists, businessmen, workers and residents of Apapa groan over the traffic snarl within the port city, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola and the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) seem to be trading blames over whose responsibility it is to deal with the perennial challenge.
Fashola had, in his recent visits to Apapa, fingered large-scale corruption among government agencies at the port and poor maintenance of road infrastructure by the Federal Government as the main reasons for the incredible congestion that has made Apapa an unpleasant place to visit, despite being the gateway to the nation’s economy.
He wondered what the NPA, as the landlord was doing to tackle the situation.
However, the NPA via its spokesman, Musa Illiyah, expressed shock over Fashola’s comments, stressing that it had engaged stakeholders in several meetings where several far-reaching strategies were adopted.
He said the Lagos State, as the biggest beneficiary of the port concessions in terms of the revenue it collects from importers as wharf landing fees and other businesses generated by the port activities, should rather work more closely with the Federal Government to address the situation.
“Without any doubt, the NPA is among the major stakeholders whose operations have direct bearings on the activities in Apapa. We are, therefore, genuinely concerned on the impacts, which this prolonged gridlock will have on our operational efficiency and effectiveness. It is important to appreciate also that in view of capacity deficiency of the roads within Apapa, which were built in the 1970’s, the Federal Government awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to two reputable companies and work is ongoing.
“Credit should be given to the Federal Government for this. The NPA also in response to the massive increase in the volume of cargo, which has far outweighed the capacity of the road at inception by over 200 per cent, had encouraged and supported the development of two major truck holding bays situated at the Trade Fair Complex on Lagos Badagry Road and the Tin Can Island Ports, to properly control and manage the movement of trucks around the ports and the incident of indiscriminate parking,” Illiyah stated. The NPA spokesman further stated that construction of the rail tracks at the Lagos Ports Complex has been completed and linked to the national grid and movement of containers by rail has also commenced. This has reduced the pressure of delivery of cargo by road.
“Our amiable governor should see the NPA as a Federal Government agency, which is doing all it could to ameliorate the suffering of stakeholders arising from the unfortunate gridlock on Apapa access road rather than adding to the problem,” he noted.

NPA, Fashola trade blames over Apapa traffic gridlock